Failed Hikes & Lessons Learned
You wake up at 4am, stagger out of bed wondering why on earth you do this to yourself, then get ready to depart by 4:45am. You drive for two hours through the night, half asleep, before turning down some bumpy forest service road in the middle of nowhere to arrive at some trailhead without a soul around. As the sun rises, you strap on your pack, throw on your hiking boots and set off on a full day adventure.
The start of the hike goes as expected, maybe smooth sailing up a FSR, or bushwhacking your way through a steep, dense forest. Progress is steady and your spirits improve as the sun rises higher and the views open up. You finally start to appreciate all the effort you’ve put in to get here.
But soon enough, for one reason or another, things start to go wrong. Perhaps the weather turns, perhaps the route you had planned is more dangerous than you thought it was, perhaps you forgot to bring a key piece of equipment, or even worse enough food/drink. Either way, you’ve got a tough decision to make.
You’re fully committed now, you’ve spent time searching for a hike, planning a route, preparing your gear, dragging yourself out of bed at an unholy hour, driving for hours through the night, hauling yourself half way, perhaps more, up a mountain, only to be faced with the possibility of calling it quits. Your heart says continue but your head says turn back. What do you do?
The Big Decision
I’ve been faced with this decision more times than I’d like to admit, sometimes it’s my own fault and other times it’s simply unforeseeable. It’s not an easy choice to turn back on a hike, you put a lot of time and effort into preparing for one, but knowing when to call it quits is one of the most important skills an adventurer can have.
You rarely hear about these situations because most adventurers don’t come home and declare their failure to the world. A gambler doesn’t come home and announce they’ve lost a fortune, but you can sure as hell bet you’ll hear all about it when they win.
Most frequent hikers have failures though, some have longer lists than others, and I personally think they’re nothing to be ashamed of. You learn a lot from a failed hike, especially if you had to turn back due to an error that you yourself made, and you’ll only become a better, safer and more prepared hiker in the future because of it.
With that in mind, I’m using this page to highlight the hikes in British Columbia that I have had to turn back on, and the reasons for doing so. As my main man Warren Buffet once said, “it’s good to learn from your mistakes, it’s better to learn from other peoples”.
Panorama Ridge Fail
Time of Year: End of September
What happened? With a small group of people we agreed to hike Panorama Ridge, a long yet perfectly manageable hike in Garibaldi Provincial Park. We were going at the very end of September, which is usually the latter part of the popular summer hiking season there. It was a beautiful blue sky day so the trail was popular, however there were reports of snowfall the night before we went. Keeping in mind this is still really the summer hiking season in BC, I brought some extra layers, a waterproof jacket, thin gloves, a hat etc. but didn’t go crazy on the winter attire as it was due to be sunny.
As we worked up the switchbacks it became evident there was a lot more snow than we had imagined. As we continued the snow just kept getting deeper. One of the girls that was with us didn’t even have gloves or waterproof boots and by the time we reached Taylor Meadows she was freezing and had soaking wet feet already. Since didn’t drive herself and didn’t want to make everyone cancel their hike, she offered to wait in the shelter there while we continued. By now the snow was deeper than expected but it was still fine in just boots, no spikes or snowshoes. It was a bit chillier than expected though, and as we approached the ridgeline up to Panorama Ridge, the wind became fierce. We were probably 13km into the hike by now so we kept moving, hoping it would get better. The few layers I had brought, and in particular the thin gloves, were proving to be ineffective at this stage. Once we reached the gale force ridgeline it became obvious a summit attempt would have been unsafe, we were all already frozen and it was only going to get worse. I could hardly feel my hands at this stage. We all agreed a summit push was too risky and we had to make the tough decision to walk back to the car. All in all, probably a 25km day without reaching the summit. Thankfully the winter scenery in Garibaldi is incredible anyway, so it was a good day nonetheless.
Lesson Learned: Never assume the weather when hiking. I wrongly thought it wouldn’t be that cold in September and ultimately paid for it. Honestly I don’t think many people made the summit that day mostly due to the insanely cold wind, which was unforeseeable, but if we had been fully prepared for the cold and snow we would have had a much better chance.
Hanes Valley Fail
Time of Year: Late-July
What happened? I had wanted to hike both Hanes Valley and Crown Mountain for a while, and it’s possible (but very difficult) to do both at the same time. I arranged a small group of people (3) to go, and mapped the route myself in AllTrails. The hike began smoothly and we passed Norvan Falls before heading off into the valley. I knew this valley was famous for people getting injured, so we took our time and we were extra careful. I was following the route on my GPS at this stage as the boulder field isn’t the most obvious for navigation. There seemed to be two ways up the valley, one going left and another going right. My map said to go right and since it seemed okay either way, we went that way.
As we climbed higher and higher up the annoyingly steep boulders, the route we were on started to look more and more difficult. We were pretty committed by now and going the other way would mean descending several hundred meters. We kept soldiering on as the boulder field got steeper and steeper, soon entering a gully. It really did not look like a good route, unsafe if anything, but we assumed it would be okay. We soon started literally rock climbing up a gully and eventually reached a point where it simply became impassable for a hiker. We hit a wall a few hundred meters below Crown Mountain summit and our only option was to head back the way we came. By now it was way too late to go all the way down the boulder field then back up the correct route, so our only choice was to go back to the car. A full 30km later we were back at the car having failed to summit Crown Mountain.
Lesson Learned: Couple of lessons, first of all if planning your own hiking route pay special attention to where you are going, how steep it’s going to get and whether it’s even possible. It turned out the route we were on was a climbing only route, but it still showed as a trail on AllTrails for some reason. If we had just gone the normal hiking route through Hanes Valley it would have been totally fine.
Second of all, if something looks wrong or dangerous in the field, be prepared to make a decision to change your mind. Don’t commit to a route on a map regardless of how it looks in person. If it looks really sketchy it just might be, and you might need to change your plan on the fly. Flexibility and not becoming over committed is important.
Mount Brew Fail
Time of Year: Mid-November
What happened? The first “real” snowfall had just taken place recently and my friend and I wanted a hike that would get us into the snow without being overly challenging. We planned to approach from Roe Creek FSR, where the hike wouldn’t be too difficult even in fresh snow. Things went poorly from before we even arrived. The FSR was completely buried in snow and we couldn’t even get close to the trailhead even with a 4×4. We likely should have just cancelled the hike altogether but instead we reverted to the other trailhead from Porter Way, which started much lower down and meant a much longer hike. We still had plenty of daylight so that wasn’t an issue.
Unfortunately, what was an issue was the amount of snow. We hadn’t expected such a huge amount of snow, it was thigh deep, and we didn’t bring snowshoes (just microspikes). We wrongly had thought this was just a few inches of snow as just days earlier there wasn’t any snow at all, but it turned out to be a couple of feet. We post holed for several hours but progress was so slow we barely covered any ground. After around 7km we weren’t even close to the summit and daylight hours were getting short. We made the decision to head back, knowing a summit push would only leave us in the dark. Overall a 14km fail, albeit post holing the entire time.
Lesson Learned: Poor preparation. We knew there had been snow and we were prepared in terms of clothing and whatnot, but we didn’t find out just how much snow there had been. We may have had more luck if we had brought snowshoes but honestly, I still think we would have failed as the snow was that deep. Ultimately we shouldn’t have even tried this hike under the conditions we were faced with.
Mount Laughington Fail
Time of Year: Late-November
What happened? I had seen Mount Laughington mentioned a few times as a nice winter objective, so after some research and deciding it’s a good choice, I drove up there on my own on a nice clear day with low avalanche ratings. After some tricky driving conditions in my old Juke and I parked up and plodded along the FSR for a few kilometers before hitting the snow line and strapping on my snowshoes.
After a few more kilometers I followed the avalanche safe trail which soon became quite overgrown. I assumed it was just a rough patch of the trail and would clear up shortly, but it got worse and worse. The entire trail was completely covered in fallen alder to the point of making progress nigh on impossible. After 1km of thrashing through this alder and getting nowhere fast, I made the decision I was never going to make it to the summit in time and, tail between my legs, turned back to the car. Thankfully this one only cost me about 10km. I later decided to find something easy to do in the area since I’d driven so far and ended up at Teapot Hill.
Lesson Learned: The only thing I learned from this is that sometimes you’ve just got to go and find out for yourself. There were no trail reports for this hike that I could have reviewed, I did everything I could really, nature just wasn’t on my side. I did learn that some trails need to be more buried in snow in order to be accessible, that way the alder would be covered over, but again there was no way to know on the day. Maybe I’ll go back one spring.
Panorama Ridge Fail - Part 2
Time of Year: Mid-October
What happened? Two friends I had an (admittedly) unusual plan to summit Panorama Ridge for sunrise over Garibaldi Lake in snow, which means driving from Vancouver at around 11pm, hiking at 1am and summiting around 5am. This was all in snow and the forecast called for -15c that night. We were prepared, knew the conditions, and brought every layer under the sun. I had 4 pairs of gloves and hand warmers. Shockingly, when we arrived at the trailhead there was another party doing the same thing!
The first part of the hike up the switchbacks went fine, cold but nothing crazy. We even delayered at one point as it was too warm. Once we got into Taylor Meadows it got noticeably colder though, to the point a quick break soon became a temperature issue. After stopping for a snack for 5 minutes I guess my body temperature plummeted. Despite wearing 6 layers and 4 pairs of gloves I was absolutely perishing. I needed to keep moving, so I continued forward to the junction where you turn right to go to Garibaldi Lake or go straight to Panorama Ridge. What made things worse was the wind became increasingly powerful and bitterly cold. I ducked into an outhouse to get out of the wind and try to warm up, but that just made things worse. As soon as I stopped moving there was no warming up at all, I was bitterly cold and had no desire to continue on in that wind. I told my party I was turning back and they’d be mad to try and summit given the temperatures and the wind. They were committed and decided to continue, I turned back and fortunately bumped into the other group who also made the decision to turn back. The return leg was fine and I soon warmed up after leaving Taylor Meadows, but I did have to wait in the car for a full 5 – 6 hours in -3c for the others to return. They never made it to Panorama Ridge either, but they instead went to Garibaldi Lake and took shelter in the hut there until sunrise. Sitting in the car, with zero sleep, shivering away for 6 hours while the rest of society turned up to Rubble Creek to enjoy the gorgeous blue sky day was one of the most miserable times in my hiking career. My GPS told me this was a 21km fail, not bad.
Lesson Learned: Don’t go into a hike with a God complex. We were arrogant to think we could manage a 30km hike, at -15c, in the middle of the night, with no sleep, and sit and wait for sunrise. I have a tendency to glamorize what a hike might be like, using the notion of “what a fun adventure!” to encourage myself into something that is really just stupid. Know your limits and stick to them.
Mount Saint Benedict Fail
Time of Year: Late February
What happened? A friend and I wanted to hike a summit not too far from Vancouver that wouldn’t take too long given recent heavy snowfall and the fact I needed to be home by 3pm. Mount Sant Benedict had been on our list for a while so this seemed to fit the bill given it’s a fairly short (though steep) hike we thought we could knock off in 4 – 5 hours in winter. Once we reached the forest before McKay Lake it became evident this was going to be a more difficult day than we had imagined. There were no tracks in the forest and navigation became incredibly difficult in some rough terrain. We made it to the lake in a much slower than anticipated time, but shortly after the lake we hit a creek crossing that proved incredibly difficult. Given we were well behind time and it was only going to get slower, we opted to turn back as making the summit wasn’t going to be feasible with the deadline I had.
Lesson Learned: Avoid hiking on a deadline, especially in the winter when it’s easy for a hike to take a lot longer than expected. Don’t underestimate forests in heavy snow. In the summer forests are typically quite easy to navigate, in winter they can be incredibly difficult especially if there are creeks.
No doubt there'll be more coming...
So far, they are all the failed hikes I’ve had in terms of not physically completing them. I’ve completed many other hikes in not ideal situations, as well as summiting several only to end up with zero view, but I don’t consider them failed hikes, but they do need redeeming.
I’ll keep updating this page anytime I have a failed hike, it’s fun to read back and see the mistakes I made!