Hiking Chipmunk Mountain near Pemberton
Contents
Chipmunk Mountain Hike Information
Difficulty: Difficult
Distance: 15.00Km
Elevation Gain: 1,040m
Highest Elevation: 2,390m
Average Gradient: 13.87%
Effort/Reward Ratio: High / Very High
Time Needed:
– Slow: 8 – 10 Hours
– Moderate: 7 – 8 Hours
– Fast: 6 – 7 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: ~June to October
4×4 / High Clearance Required? No
Scrambling / Exposure: Minimal
Chipmunk Mountain Trail
Trailhead Coordinates: 50°35’38.0″N 122°58’51.1″W
Chipmunk Mountain Overview
Chipmunk Mountain is a scenic hike in the Pemberton Valley, situated slightly north of Tenquille Mountain and east of Semaphore Lakes. It’s prominently featured in Scrambles in SWBC with a 3* rating thanks to the stunning, meadow filled valley it resides within. Despite this, Chipmunk does not see many ascents as there is no maintained trail to get there and little information about it online.
The standard access to Chipmunk is from the end of Hope Creek FSR off of the Hurley River FSR. The Hurley is usually in reasonably good condition, and at the time of writing Hope Creek FSR is as well. The road might be a little bushy towards the end due to a lack of traffic.
The hike begins with a short bushwhack before following a faint trail through the forest to a creek-filled valley beneath the north face of Goat and Tenquille Mountain. From here you ascend up to the small Opal Lake (good campsite if you want to make this a two day trip). After a brief, steep climb above the lake, the remainder of the route passes through glorious, flower filled meadows. The hike culminates with a short, steep scree ascent to the top, with some minor use of hands and mild exposure.
Chipmunk Mountain is predominantly a summer hike given the Hurley only opens once the snow has receded. As such, July to October is the standard time to go, though June may also work if you don’t mind snow along the way.
Dogs are welcome in the area, though of course this is grizzly territory, so do prepare accordingly.
Maintaining this website requires a significant investment of both time and money, if you find this website a useful resource, please consider making a donation using this button.
Is Chipmunk Mountain worthwhile?
The Pemberton Valley is always very scenic and Chipmunk Mountain is no different. The meadow filled valleys here are to die for, especially if they are filled with flowers as they typically will be. The only real difficulty is the long drive (~4 hours from Vancouver) and the somewhat tedious approach. For that reason it’s likely best to do this as an overnight hike, perhaps combining it with another nearby option like the Train Glacier Traverse. We combined it with Dickson Peak over two days.
How difficult is the hike to Chipmunk Mountain?
Stats wise this is a fairly straightforward hike, especially in the summer. That being said it will likely take a bit longer than other hikes of similar stats, mostly due to the slow going terrain. Most parties will take between 6 – 8 hours.
Technically speaking it’s largely straightforward. The most challenging part is likely the steep ascent from Opal Lake to the meadows, which for us involved some steep, slippery heather scrambling. The summit itself is mostly just a scree hike, with some use of hands here and there for balance. There is little exposure as any cliffs are a short distance away from where you’re hiking.
Chipmunk Mountain Route Information
The “trailhead” for Chipmunk Mountain is from the drivable end of Hope Creek FSR, which is a spur road off of the Hurley River FSR. At the time of writing both of these FSR’s were in good condition, and if you’re able to drive to Semaphore Lakes then you should have no problem driving to the end of Hope Creek FSR. The Hurley will generally always be in good condition, however the long-term status of Hope Creek FSR is less certain.
From the driveable end of the road you can actually continue hiking it for quite some distance. The only reason you can’t continue driving is an enormous cross ditch that no vehicle could get past. The hike therefore begins by continuing along the FSR for around 3.5km of easy travel. From roads end you will be met with a dense bushwhack that is hopefully dry. For us it was unfortunately wet, and we were utterly drenched despite the fact it’s only quite brief. There are likely markers and a faint trail through this dense bush, however it is so overgrown they are easy to lose. Thankfully it’s fairly short lived, and within 10 – 15 minutes of pushing through you’ll reach the end where you’ll now enter the more open forest.
Once you reach the forest you should be able to pick up a faint trail that will likely have some flagging as well. This is now easy to follow again as you wind your way towards the valley. It won’t take long before you reach the shores of Hope Creek, which flows from the glacier between Goat / Tenquille. Soon enough you’ll break out of the forest and find yourself at the bottom of a large boulder field beneath these peaks.
You’ll now want to continue hiking along the edge of the creek as you ascend up the valley towards Goat / Tenquille. We made the mistake of assuming the route heads towards the glacier and ended up climbing too high, resulting in us having to sidehill across to rejoin the correct route (you’ll see this on the attached GPX). Instead, you should veer climbers left, cross over the creek and begin climbing talus/scree slopes towards a band of trees at the base of the north ridge of Tenquille. After a brief, steep climb, you should be able to navigate to the shores of Opal Lake, a nice place for a break and a clear visual of Chipmunk Mountain.
From the lake you should see a bump that you’ll need to navigate around, either left or right of it. On the ascent we kept right of this bump and ended up on some very steep heather, which gave way to looser sandy terrain higher up. It wasn’t the most pleasant and we opted to descend via the other side, however that was similarly steep. Either way it’s a steeper heather ascent, and if it’s wet you would likely want microspikes as it would be very slick.
At the top of this steep climb you’ll find yourself in the beautiful meadows with a clear view of the remainder of the route. The views will now have fully opened up of the stunning Tenquille range behind you as well. You’ll now work your way through the meadows, aiming for the scree slope on the south ridge of Chipmunk. Gaining the ridge is a loose but nontechnical affair, then it’s merely a case of following it up towards an obvious cliffband that leads to the summit. The whole route is a bit loose, so take care with your footing, especially with scree on top of solid rock. There’s thankfully good hand holds for most of it, and the exposure is never too bad. Even if you slipped you should be well away from any serious fall.
In short order you’ll crest the summit where the views will now be panoramic. To the south will lie the Tenquille range and Sun God / Seven o Clock, to the west will be the Train Glacier group of peaks and to east will be Sockeye Horn and the Tolkien range. We actually saw a couple of mountain goats scrambling around the nearby cliffs as well.
After resting up at the top you simply descend the same way. Take care on the scree, otherwise it’s largely straightforward. Once back at Opal Lake the hike out is straightforward.
When should I hike Chipmunk Mountain?
Most people will hike this during the summer, so July to October or so. The mosquitos here will be brutal in July, so if you want to avoid that then I would suggest mid-August to October as the peak season for best conditions. I’ve not heard of spring ascents for Chipmunk, but the terrain is straightforward enough that it should be fine to do on snow once the roads are accessible.
Top Tip
If you want to make a weekend of it you can actually combine Chipmunk Mountain with Tenquille Mountain via the Tenquille North Ridge route as described in Scrambles in SWBC, using Opal Lake as your base camp. You could then also include Goat Peak and Finch Ridge to knock off several of the Gunn scrambles.
If you anticipate a wet bushwhack to begin the day, you may want to pack a spare pair of shoes / socks. We ended up having soaking wet feet the entire day as we hadn’t expected it.
If you go in July and likely early August, bring A LOT of bug spray and bug nets.
