Hiking Cloudburst Mountain near Squamish
Contents
Cloudburst Mountain Hike Information
Difficulty: Difficult
Distance: 15.30Km
Elevation Gain: 1,300m
Highest Elevation: 1,871m
Average Gradient: 17.00%
Effort/Reward Ratio: High / High
Time Needed:
– Slow: 7 – 8 Hours
– Moderate: 6 – 7 Hours
– Fast: 5 – 6 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: Year-Round (Winter Preferred)
4×4 / High Clearance Required? No – But it would make it easier
Scrambling / Exposure: No scrambling in the winter/spring with a healthy snowpack. Likely some simple, unexposed scrambling in the summer.
Cloudburst Mountain Trail (From Chance Creek FSR)
Note: The above trail is only the ascent as my tracking stopped at the summit. Descent is exactly the same route!
Trailhead Coordinates: 49°58’00.7″N 123°12’32.9″W
Cloudburst Mountain Trail (From Squamish Valley)
Trailhead Coordinates: 49°57’18.7″N 123°15’01.3″W
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.
Cloudburst Mountain Overview
Cloudburst Mountain is a fairly low summit in the Sea to Sky region, but don’t let that fool you into thinking this is an easy hike by any means. This is a fairly infrequently traveled summit due to the fact the entire hike is unmarked and self navigated through the backcountry, requiring some route finding skills through technical, overgrown micro terrain.
Despite its relatively low summit, Cloudburst is a prominent peak in the region, offering expansive views of a number of peaks in every direction. There are a few different ways to approach Cloudburst Mountain as it is basically surrounded by a system of logging roads. The summer scramble starting in the Squamish Valley is the preferred choice of many thanks to its feature in Scrambles in SWBC and the ability to drive to over 1,000m if there isn’t any snow around. This is the easier approach in the summer.
Cloudburst is also a popular objective in the winter and spring though, mainly with ski tourers, when there is a healthy snowpack preventing you from driving high up the mountain, and smooth snowy travel leading to the summit. This was the route I took and is the one I will describe here, however I will also provide a link to the Squamish Valley approach.
Whichever direction you approach from, a high clearance vehicle is strongly recommended as both approaches require driving on forest service roads. You may be able to get away with a 2WD on the Chance Creek FSR approach, however you will almost certainly have to park a lot earlier than I did, potentially increasing your hike distance significantly (6 – 8km).
Thanks to its prominence the views from the summit of Cloudburst Mountain are exceptional in every direction, particularly of the Tantalus range and the Garibaldi Massif. The biggest drawback of this hike, however, is the technical and bluffy approach. There is a significant amount of steep, bluffy and disorienting micro terrain to navigate in the first couple of kilometers that is honestly infuriating. Once you’re out of this and into the alpine the remainder of the hike is a pleasure in comparison (though still physically challenging!).
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Is Cloudburst Mountain worthwhile?
While Cloudburst Mountain is certainly no walk in the park, either physically or technically, once you manage to break out of the treeline the views throughout the hike are pretty great. You get some fantastic views of many Sea to Sky classics like the Tantalus range, Sigurd Peak, Tricouni Peak, the Garibaldi Massif, Rainbow Mountain, The Black Tusk, Sky Pilot, Chimai Mountain and Mount Jimmy Jimmy to name some.
How difficult is the hike to Cloudburst Mountain?
Physically speaking Cloudburst is a pretty steep grind for the majority of the hike. A 17% average gradient is fairly steep, especially in the awkward treeline terrain. The last stretch involves two or three sections that are very steep, though never so steep I had to take the snowshoes off. In the summer there would no doubt be some unexposed scrambling sections nearer the summit.
Technically the most challenging part of the hike is once you leave the FSR and have to navigate through some challenging micro terrain. This area is bluffy, steep and overgrown, including some creeks and blowdown. I encountered all sorts of tracks going all over the place from people who clearly didn’t know where they were going, and ended up heading the wrong way by following them. Don’t underestimate how complicated this micro terrain is, it was annoying! Once you’re into the alpine though, this is a straightforward but steep climb. It’s not very technical nor exposed, just a steep grind. In the summer you may end up doing some simple scrambling but again, it shouldn’t be exposed.
Cloudburst Mountain Route Information
I have linked two different approaches to Cloudburst Mountain, one from the Squamish Valley and one from Chance Creek FSR, which is the route I took and will be describing here.
Chance Creek FSR is a fairly straightforward FSR drive. The whole FSR is just very rocky, it’s not that steep and it doesn’t have many potholes or cross ditches. A moderate clearance would be okay up to a significant cross ditch as noted below, a 2WD might struggle but could perhaps get to the start of the FSR and just stop wherever is easiest. It depends how protective you are of your vehicle as to how you want to push it. Obviously the earlier you stop, the longer your hike, the stats on this assume parking at 750m elevation, which would include crossing one very deep cross ditch at around the 700m mark.
No matter where you park the hike begins with a straightforward FSR plod, either a long or a short one. For me this meant about 1km of walking along the Chance Creek FSR before reaching the Cloudburst Branch spur, which you need to follow for an additional 700m or so. This is the point that tracks led away from the FSR and towards the treeline. If you are traveling in snow you should see tracks going this way, if not obviously keep an eye on your map.
Shortly after leaving the FSR you will note my route going the wrong direction and backtracking on itself, this is where I followed a set of tracks going the wrong way, so do take note not to just follow tracks blindly and obviously don’t follow this part of the route.
I soon picked up the correct route but the terrain was incredibly awkward, steep and bluffy. There isn’t a lot of room for error here as going the wrong way could easily lead to hitting an impassable bluff. There is a narrow gully going through the bluffy terrain but it still involved some awkward maneuvers around tree wells and across creeks, but I saw no other possible route you could go. Thankfully the snow bridges were in good shape, in the summer you will have to find a way across these creeks, which may or may not be easy.
The trail continues up through the complex micro terrain and I was practically glued to my map to make sure I was going the right way as the tracks were either nonexistent or going in various directions. Once you reach approximately 1,000m elevation the terrain becomes a bit simpler to navigate and it’s more of a straight shot up through the forest, albeit steep.
At around the 1,200m elevation mark you will finally break out of the hellish treeline and you’ll have your first visual of a false summit beneath Cloudburst Mountain. I made the mistake of thinking this was the summit, it is not. But thankfully the rest of the hike is far easier to navigate and the technical garbage is behind you. That being said the steepest sections are still ahead.
You’ll now have a small breather as you make your way into the opening beneath the false summit, but it won’t be for long. The trail will now lead towards the west of this false summit and will soon be very steep, touching on a 40% gradient at times. You may need to do some switchbacks to ease the gradient, and if you’re lucky you might have some tracks to follow up.
Once you’re at the top of this false summit the views should now already be excellent out towards Pelion Mountain in the Tantalus range, and you will be able to see the summit of Cloudburst Mountain about 500m above you. It looks pretty ominous but it’s technically straightforward to get there.
The trail continues in a steep manner, and in fact gets even steeper the higher you get, touching on 50% at times. Again, you will need to do some switchbacks to reduce the steepness. Thankfully this is a north face approach and the snow was bulletproof ice, so it wasn’t an issue for me as I went early in the morning. In the summer without snow expect to be scrambling at this stage.
As you continue to climb the views keep getting better and better, with Tricouni Peak standing tall behind you, as well as Rainbow Mountain off in the distance. Unfortunately for me many of the peaks were clouded over at the summit so it was difficult to identify many of the mountains. The trail will now simply keep grinding up and up, eventually taking a turn to the left to approach the summit from the eastern ridge.
Just as I was approaching the summit a gigantic, dense cloud decided to roll in and provided a total whiteout for the remainder of the hike. Thankfully I had good tracks to follow as visibility was about 5m, I had no idea what the exposure was on either side of me so I just trusted the tracks.
Once you’re on the ridge the remainder of the hike is a simple, unexposed plod along it for around 500m. Take care to not go near the edge of the ridge as it was heavily corniced when I was there, though easily avoidable on a wide ridge. Soon enough you’ll be on the summit and you’ll know when you see the two radio towers at the top.
The views now will be staggering in every direction, with southerly views now available as well. Unfortunately the dense cloud ruined this for me, but I hung around for 45 minutes and the clouds ebbed and flowed, providing some nice views of the Tantalus range. I pretty much only had north and west views, with the entire south and east completely clouded over, so unfortunately I had zero views of any of the Garibaldi peaks.
After finishing up at the top you simply head down the same way you came. Unfortunately for some reason my AllTrails stopped recording once I summited so the trail is only on the ascent, but the descent is exactly the same so it’s easy enough to follow.
Take care on the descent, the steep sections will require some careful footing and once you’re back in the treeline it can still be a nightmare to navigate. I once again followed some incorrect tracks that lead the completely wrong way, but soon enough found my way back to the right route.
When should I hike Cloudburst Mountain?
Cloudburst Mountain is a year-round option and can be approached from either route. Most people usually take the Squamish Valley route in the summer/fall as described in the Scrambles in SWBC book, but there’s no reason to not take the Chance Creek FSR route either. Both will include some technical micro terrain and a moderate scramble.
Either approach works in the winter/spring as well, but the Chance Creek FSR approach seems to be the preferred option and you’re more likely to have tracks to follow from this route so that would be my suggestion.
Top Tip
This entire hike is self-navigated with no markers or trail of note to follow, no matter which approach you take. It’s therefore very important to have an offline map to use for navigation as it would be very easy to get lost without knowing which direction to take.
There is no way to avoid the annoying, overgrown and steep micro terrain whichever side you pick so be mentally prepared for a battle.
Spring is an ideal time to do this hike as you are able to drive far up the FSR and shorten the hike, yet still benefit from snow covered terrain. Typically this means going in May, which I did. If you go much earlier, or even in winter, you’re going to hit snow much lower down on the FSR and have a much longer approach.
