Hiking Lady Peak in the Fraser Valley
Contents
Lady Peak Hike Information
Difficulty: Difficult
Distance: 6.9Km
Elevation Gain: 752m
Highest Elevation: 2,189m
Average Gradient: 21.80%
Effort/Reward Ratio: High / Very High
Time Needed:
– Slow: 5 – 6 Hours
– Moderate: 4 – 5 Hours
– Fast: 3 – 4 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: ~July – Mid-October
4×4 / High Clearance Required? Yes
Scrambling / Exposure: Significant amount of scree scrambling followed by an exposed ridgeline traverse to the summit
Lady Peak Trail
Trailhead Coordinates: 49°10’06.4″N 121°41’34.0″W
Lady Peak Overview
Lady Peak is a prominent and stunning summit in the Cheam Range near Chilliwack in the Fraser Valley. While many people appreciate the beauty of Lady Peak on the way to Cheam Peak, far fewer people attempt to summit it due to the incredibly steep and often exposed approach to the summit.
Just like Cheam Peak, the most challenging part of a hike to Lady Peak is accessing the trailhead. Getting there requires a high clearance vehicle, preferably a 4×4, as the Mount Cheam Forest Service Road is very long, very steep and with many deep cross ditches. A lot of people wrongly think they can make it up this road in their SUV or AWD, only to quickly realize after bottoming out a few times that this road is no joke. Despite this difficult road the trailhead is usually very busy and fills up with 4×4’s on a sunny weekend, but mostly from those summiting Cheam Peak.
If you want a much quieter, much more challenging hike than Cheam Peak, Lady Peak should be high on your to-do list. That being said, this hike is no joke and should only be attempted by very confident and experienced hikers as this is more of a scramble than a hike, requiring the use of hands for much of the ascent.
If you are feeling very bold (and you want to avoid driving back up that FSR again), you can combine Cheam Peak and Lady Peak into one day trip, which is what we did. While this made for a tiring and difficult day it’s perfectly manageable to combine them.
Due to the high elevation summit and FSR drive, Lady Peak is typically a summer only hike.
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Is Lady Peak worthwhile?
Similar to a hike up Cheam Peak, the views from this hike are exceptional. Lady Peak is higher than Cheam Peak and offers better views to the east especially. This whole area is simply stunning and it’s very evident why so many people want to reach it every summer.
The only drawback, if it isn’t obvious already, is the ridiculous drive to the trailhead. The FSR takes an hour to drive on its own, making this a 3 hour trip from Vancouver each way and a very long day of driving.
How difficult is the hike to Lady Peak ?
Hiking Lady Peak makes Cheam Peak look like a walk in the park. If the average gradient of 21.80% isn’t enough to convince you, the final ascent is around 1km and 450m elevation, or a gradient of 45%. You will be using your hands for balance pretty much the entire time for the final kilometer after the trail splits from the Cheam Peak trail, making this more of a scramble than a hike.
Technically speaking this hike is very difficult as well, requiring you to scramble on loose scree for large portions, as well as being exposed once you reach the ridgeline beneath the summit. If you have a fear of heights I’d suggest bowing out of this one as you really need nerves of steel.
Finally, after the trail splits from the Cheam Peak trail navigation is difficult, especially if you have snowy patches on the mountain like we did. At times you may simply have to find your own route up as the route was not obvious at all, even with a downloaded map.
Lady Peak Route Information
After making it up the forest service road you’ll probably be pretty eager to stretch those legs and get moving. The FSR is a pretty tense experience at times.
Fortunately the trail to Lady Peak eases you in and follows the same trail as Cheam Peak. The trail remains pretty flat for the first 1.5km as you meander around a hillside with exceptional views right from the offing. After around 1.5km you’ll reach Spoon Lake, which is a pretty small lake but it’s obvious nonetheless. The trail here can be particularly muddy so be careful with your footing.
For the next 800m or so the trail starts to climb at a moderate incline, warming you up nicely for what’s about to come. The views this whole time are never ending to the south and only get better as you climb higher.
After crossing a few streams and around the 2.3km mark the trail to Lady Peak splits from the trail to Cheam Peak. When we went the trail was not obvious at all as it was largely covered in snow. We checked our map and for sure it was there. You might think “that’s too steep to be the trail” but I assure you, that’s it.
Immediately you will be climbing with your hands up a steep grassy slope next to a stream. Keep left of the stream as best possible but for now it’s kind of an “every man for himself” situation where you basically decide which way looks most feasible. Since we went with snow on the mountain most of the time we ended up skirting around the snow as it was impossibly steep to climb on it without appropriate gear. This meant rarely using the official trail as the snow was on it.
Shortly after you begin climbing you’ll notice the stream is coming from a rocky cliff that likely appears unclimbable. Unfortunately for us we had no choice as the snow was covering the trail. If you have no snow on the real trail you can go around this cliff, otherwise you can go over it like we did. We had to rock climb briefly on slippery rock, pulling ourselves up with trees and bushes but thankfully that was short lived.
Still, the other side of this cliff isn’t any more pleasant. The surface will soon become loose rocks, which at this gradient is very difficult to ascend. You’ll have to traverse to the left, moving away from the summit but gaining unbelievable views of Cheam Peak as you climb higher. We traversed so far to the left that we reached a steep cliff overlooking Cheam Peak and breathtaking views to the north of the Fraser River and Jones Lake.
The destination now will be obvious, but the route less so. Again, it’s basically a “make your own way” approach so we just traversed back to the right now towards the ridgeline below the peak, again on extremely loose scree while using our hands to balance ourselves. This ascent wouldn’t be so bad if the rock was stable but it was far from it.
Finally you will reach the ridgeline of Lady Peak, which will now be to the south of you and just a hundred meters or so higher. The views from this ridgeline alone are astonishing as you can now see all of the easterly views, as well as the north and west. Once you’re on the ridgeline you essentially just have to work your way along the ridge with a knife edge drop to the east and the steep scree you just climbed on the other side. There’s an amazing photo opportunity on a horned spire on this ridgeline.
Honestly though, around 50m below the true summit of Lady Peak while working across the ridgeline I had to call it quits. The knife edge exposure just became too much for me. The whole ascent is a test of your nerves and after what felt like an eternity of scrambling mine were shot and I was not looking forward to how we would get down this mountain. One of my hiking partners had quit towards the beginning of the steep ascent knowing how rough it would get, but the other one was determined to push on. While I waited on the ridgeline below he worked his way around the ridge and gained the summit, where I snapped a cool photo of him celebrating.
After he rejoined me at the ridge below Lady Peak we began our descent, which to my surprise was a lot easier than I expected. The loose scree is actually quite helpful on the descent, allowing you to quickly “scree ski” down the slope. What must have taken 1.5 hours to climb from the split from the Cheam Peak trail probably only took half an hour to descend as it was so fast. That was a relief.
After rejoining the Cheam Peak trail it’s smooth sailing back to the car where you can absorb what you have just achieved.
When should I hike Lady Peak ?
We ascended Lady Peak in mid-July, at which point I’d say there was a little bit too much snow but it was doable. I’d sooner wait until all the snow is gone though, so ideally August-early October would be the best timeframe. Once the snow has reached these heights in mid-late October it’s likely too late again.
Top Tip
First of all I’d advise knocking off Cheam and Lady Peak in one epic day hike to avoid driving up the FSR to the trailhead again.
Secondly I would say you might want to bring a helmet on this hike due to the loose rocks throughout a lot of the ascent. You’ll want excellent grip on your boots as well. An offline map will be very useful as the route up is not obvious and a map will at least guide you on what general route to go, even if you can’t find the actual trail like us.
