Hiking Alpen Mountain near Squamish
Contents
Alpen Mountain Hike Information
Difficulty: Difficult
Distance: 17.95Km
Elevation Gain: 1,251m
Highest Elevation: 1,711m
Average Gradient: 13.94%
Effort/Reward Ratio: High / High
Time Needed:
– Slow: 8 – 9 Hours
– Moderate: 7 – 8 Hours
– Fast: 6 – 7 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: Year-Round (Winter Preferred)
4×4 / High Clearance Required? No – But it would make it easier
Scrambling / Exposure: Simple scramble at the end, no exposure.
Alpen Mountain Trail
Trailhead Coordinates: 49°43’01.7″N 123°02’21.9″W
These trailhead coordinates lead to where you can park with a low clearance vehicle. The spur road leading off of the Mamquam FSR is the road you drive as high as you can in a high clearance vehicle to reduce the hike distance.
Disclaimer: Winter hiking (snowshoeing) involves significantly more risk than summer hiking. Hikers should be prepared with appropriate education, training and equipment for all possibilities, including but not limited to avalanches. A mistake such as going off trail, getting lost or injured can be far more dangerous in winter than summer. You are responsible for your own safety, and while I am happy to give my opinion on this website as to the avalanche risk of a specific hike, do not take this as fact and please do your own research. Everybody has different risk tolerances and mine might be different to yours.
Alpen Mountain Overview
Alpen Mountain is a relatively unknown summit off of the Mamquam FSR in Squamish. There are several peaks here that are seemingly off the radar of the majority of the hiking community, such as Mount Mulligan, Anif Peak, Martin Peak & Gibson Peak to name a few, making Alpen Mountain an excellent choice if you want a hike that is quiet and isolated.
Alpen Mountain is typically a winter objective and in fact I have seen zero trip reports from people summiting this in the summer, though I’m sure they do exist. This is how we tackled Alpen and I’d suggest the same as the majority of the hike is on a forest service road which would be utterly boring in the summer, but made for a pleasant winter stroll in the snow.
The stats for this hike assume you do not have a high clearance vehicle and begin the hike at the bottom of the spur road leading up to Alpen Mountain. If you have a high clearance AWD/4×4 you can drive a significant portion of this spur road, as we did, avoiding a large chunk of elevation gain and distance. As a result, we only hiked around 12km and 965m elevation to give you an idea. If you do not have a high clearance vehicle I suggest avoiding attempting this road as there are many cross ditches that could damage your vehicle, but you should comfortably make it on the Mamquam FSR as this is fairly simple.
The views from the summit of Alpen Mountain are 360 degrees of Anif Peak, Mount Mulligan, Mount Habrich, Sky Pilot, the Tantalus range, Atwell Peak, Martin Peak, Gibson Peak and much, much more.
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Is Alpen Mountain worthwhile?
As a winter objective Alpen Mountain was a wonderful trail with beautiful panoramic views from the summit. While much of the trail is on a FSR you do get some views throughout the trail which is nice, and in the snow the general surroundings are quite nice. In the summer I’d imagine the FSR portion of this hike is a dull grind and I suspect that’s a large part of the reason most people do this in the winter. Overall this was a great hike!
How difficult is the hike to Alpen Mountain?
To be honest I feel like the stats make this hike seem more difficult than it really was. It’s a very consistent climb for nearly the entire hike, never too steep but rarely, if ever, flat. I found you could maintain a constant, decent pace throughout until you reached the final summit when the terrain becomes much steeper once you leave the FSR and have to route find your way up to the summit.
Technically speaking the hike is mostly simple as it’s all FSR until the summit push. After you leave the FSR you’ll have to route find through some steep brush to the sub summit before descending into a bowl and re-climbing to the summit. The final climb up is very steep and proved tricky in snowshoes. I suspect this part would be easier in the summer. Still, there was little to no exposure at any point on this hike so it should be manageable for anybody.
You do have to route find at the end of this hike though and the very end covers some avalanche terrain, so be careful and make sure you’re prepared.
Alpen Mountain Route Information
Depending on where exactly you manage to park you will either be starting this hike at the bottom of the FSR or part way up it. We managed to park at around 900m elevation before hitting snow and being forced to stop driving, but if you’ve started at the bottom you’ll be at around 450m elevation.
Assuming you’ve parked at the bottom you’ll have around 4km of pretty steep hiking to do to reach where we managed to park. You are essentially just hiking up a logging road and even in winter much of this should be snow free, so your progress will likely be pretty quick.
Once you reach the snowline this is going to change fairly dramatically, depending on conditions, and of course if you’re doing this in summer you’ll be a lot faster than we were. From the 900m elevation mark not a lot changes, you continue on the same FSR until around 1,180m or almost 6km distance from the bottom.
Here you will get some really nice views to the west of Mount Mulligan, Anif Peak and the Tantalus range. We reached this spot just as the sun was rising which made for some great lighting in the early morning sun. The next kilometer or so is a nice stroll along this ridgeline with little elevation gain and pleasant views throughout. We stopped a few times here for photos.
At around the 1,250m elevation mark you’ll reach a fork in the trail where you’ll want to take a left rather than continue straight. There are a few forks in the area so it’s best to have a GPS track to follow otherwise you’ll likely take the wrong one.
You’ll follow this FSR for approximately 1km more before finally leaving it and “going it alone”. I highly suggest you have a GPS map to follow now as it’ll be a good guide for at least the general direction on where you need to go. Don’t follow the GPS religiously though, this is where your own route finding skills need to come into play.
As we went after a lot of recent snowfall we had no tracks to follow at this stage. We followed the GPS tracks we had downloaded and they seemed to go in a logical direction.
Immediately after leaving the FSR we climbed steeply into a treeline and continued working upwards. At times we had to backtrack as the path we chose was too steep but eventually we found a good route. After around 600m of ascending through these trees we reached an open area with a view of the Alpen Mountain sub summit. We could either ascend this summit or go around it. The issue with going around it was this led into some not so safe avalanche terrain, so we decided to go up and over.
This meant we then had to figure out a way down from the sub summit into the col between this and Alpen Mountain. After some discussion with our group we opted for the fastest way down, butt sliding down the steep embankment. We moved quickly from here to a treeline on the ridge of Alpen Mountain as we were in prime avalanche terrain, though admittedly the avy conditions were low so we were pretty safe.
From the treeline it was just a matter of making our way up to Alpen Mountain in whatever way seemed safest. When you are there the route you need to take should be clear, especially with a downloaded map, but that’s not to say it is easy. There were some very steep sections that proved very difficult in snowshoes and little to grip onto, as well as some nice snow bombs from trees you’re using to pull yourself up. Still, while tiring and frustrating it was thankfully relatively short and soon enough we reached the summit of Alpen Mountain, which is marked by a large rock cairn.
You might note the true summit to the south is a little higher but not many people go there unless they’re a peakbagger who can’t live with themselves if they don’t go to the very highest point. This would involve some pretty sketchy scrambling so we all opted to stay where we were, happy with the incredible views we were now experiencing. We chilled out on the summit, basking in the warming sunshine for a good 30 minutes.
As is often the case, you simply go back the way you came in order to return to your vehicle. The descent from Alpen Mountain was much easier than the ascent, especially without snowshoes slowing you down, and we were quickly back to the FSR. From there it’s just a long plod back to the car.
When should I hike Alpen Mountain?
For one reason or another it seems nobody does this hike in the summer and it’s primarily a winter objective. I can’t exactly say why since I’ve not been in summer, but there are many trails out there that really suck in the summer, yet are great in the winter, because the terrain is an awkward rocky mess and the sights are dull without snow. I fully suspect this could be one of them so I’m going out on a limb to say save this one for winter. If you do hike it in summer I’d be curious to know how it is!
Top Tip
Alpen Mountain covers some avalanche terrain so it’s best to do this one in a group on a day with low avalanche ratings. Obviously bring snowshoes and microspikes in the winter, as well as all the other essentials.
If you can find someone with a high clearance vehicle I’d absolutely recommend tagging along with them as the more you can reduce the FSR grind the better this will be. If you are starting from the very bottom this will be a long FSR plod in each direction!
