Hiking Mount Klaudt in the Hemlock Valley near Harrison
Contents
Mount Klaudt Hike Information
Difficulty: Moderate
Distance: 8.8Km
Elevation Gain: 600m
Highest Elevation: 1,402m
Average Gradient: 13.63%
Effort/Reward Ratio: Moderate / Moderate
Time Needed:
– Slow: 4 – 5 Hours
– Moderate: 3 – 4 Hours
– Fast: 2 – 3 Hours
Dogs Permitted?: Yes
Season: Year-Round (Winter Preferred)
4×4 / High Clearance Required? No
Scrambling / Exposure: None
Mount Klaudt Trail
Note: The above trail includes both Mount Klaudt & Cartmell Peak. If you ae only hiking Mount Klaudt obviously ignore the sections going to Cartmell Peak
Trailhead Coordinates: 49°22’46.1″N 121°55’58.6″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.
Mount Klaudt Overview
Mount Klaudt is a summit located in the Hemlock Valley, accessible via the Sasquatch Mountain Resort. Thanks to the plowed Hemlock Valley Road you are able to drive a significant distance up this mountain, parking at around the 950m mark. This allows you to reach the summit at over 1,400m elevation with relative ease.
Mount Klaudt is primarily a winter objective. It is an unmarked trail and without a healthy snowpack this would be a serious bushwhack the entire way to the summit. Thankfully with snow much of the alder is buried, allowing for a reasonably straightforward ascent.
I am not sure how thrilled Sasquatch Mountain Resort is at snowshoers using their parking lot and groomed roads without paying a dime to the resort, so maintaining a low profile is important. One option is to do this hike just before the resort is open for the season, or just after it has closed, while there is still snow on the mountain. If you do go during their ski season like I did, make sure to arrive early (before opening preferably), park well away from any skiing activities and begin the hike as soon as possible after parking. Once you’re on the trail it should be smooth sailing as it does not conflict with any skiing activities and you are unlikely to see anybody.
That being said, this is not a significantly traveled trail and there’s a good chance you won’t have a set of tracks to follow. Without tracks you will be left to break trail along the entire ridge, so an offline map and an appetite for adventure is a necessity.
You get some nice easterly views from the summit of many iconic peaks, such as the Old Settler, Cheam Peak, Mount Baker, Mount Urquhart, the Border Peaks and Mount Outram to name a few. You also get some really nice views along the way, namely of Harrison Lake.
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 Mount Klaudt worthwhile?
You get some really nice views on this hike, but to be honest I preferred some of the viewpoints along the way than the summit itself. The summit is largely forested and you get mostly obstructed views of Harrison Lake. You do get to see some iconic peaks though. Overall it was certainly worth it, but would I drive all this way from Vancouver just for Mount Klaudt? Probably not, and that’s why I suggest combining Mount Klaudt with the far more worthwhile Cartmell Peak.
How difficult is the hike to Mount Klaudt?
At 8.80km and ~600m elevation this is a pretty moderate hike all round. It’s a fairly consistent climb throughout and there are certainly some steep sections, but it’s never overly difficult.
Technically speaking it’s mostly straightforward as well. On the ascent I did take a route up that was way steeper than it needed to be, resulting in some kick stepping up an extremely steep (unexposed) slope. I’ll explain how to avoid this in the route information though. Avalanche wise there is a very low chance as this is all simple terrain if you stick to the route as described.
Mount Klaudt Route Information
First of all note that the above AllTrails route combines both Mount Klaudt and Cartmell Peak into one hike, so if you are only doing Mount Klaudt you need to ignore the section that leads up to and away from Cartmell Peak after you finish up with Mount Klaudt.
The hike begins at the Sasquatch Mountain Resort parking lot at the end of Hemlock Valley Road. This is frankly an appalling gravel road with some of the most horrific potholes I’ve ever seen, why on earth isn’t it paved yet? How do you plow a gravel/dirt road without destroying it? I guess the answer is you can’t, hence it’s destroyed. Either way, plenty of 2WD’s make it to the resort with some careful driving so I’m sure you’ll be fine. I suggest parking at the very east of the main parking lot just where the Enzian Way entrance is. This is as far away from the resort as you can get, and the hike itself goes away from the resort area.
Cross over Enzian Way and on the other side you can hike down a hill. There is a groomed FSR here that you can follow, eventually it will connect to the Brett Creek FSR. Ideally, take an offline map and use the GPX provided above. There are no markers on this hike so you can’t rely on anything other than your own navigation.
The Brett Creek FSR is a groomed trail that sees no traffic from what I experienced. It was so well groomed I didn’t even need to put snowshoes or spikes on to travel up it. You can follow this FSR, which leads gradually uphill at a mellow gradient, for around 1km. At around 1,110m elevation another FSR splits off to the right. This had tracks when I went so it was easy to spot, but keep an eye on your map as if it doesn’t have tracks I’m sure it’s easy to miss. At this point I had to put the snowshoes on.
Unfortunately you will now leave the groomed FSR and could be breaking trail (or following tracks if you’re lucky) the rest of the way. You’ll want to refer to your map at this stage and you’ll note the ascending and descending trail up to/down from Mount Klaudt is different. Either way works, but on the ascent I took a route up that included an unnecessarily steep hill that required taking off my snowshoes and kick-stepping on a particularly unstable snowpack. It wasn’t exposed, but it was very steep, deep and wholly unnecessary. I suggest not following the route up that I took, and instead following the way I went down, which was still steep but not kick-step worthy steep.
Following this route you’ll begin ascending fairly steeply uphill in an open treed area. At times the trees will be dense and other times they will be pretty sparse, either way keep an eye on your map. This ridgeline is longer than it seems, it goes on and on, and unfortunately it rises and falls a lot along the way which is always annoying (especially on the return leg).
You’ll get a few really nice viewpoints along this ridge, with stunning views of Harrison Lake, the Old Settler and Mount Urquhart. I actually found these views better than the summit, so make sure to enjoy them and get some photos.
As you continue the terrain stays much the same, up and down, left and right, in and out of trees and open areas. The gradient is never exceedingly steep, but if you don’t have any tracks to follow there might be some awkward route finding along the way.
There’s not a whole lot more to say about the remainder of the ridgeline ascent. Eventually you’ll reach the summit, which is still a treed area but it does offer some nice views to the east. As mentioned you’ll get to see some iconic peaks from the summit, but you don’t get a great view of the lake unfortunately.
There are actually two summits here, if you go to the left for a hundred meters or so there is another viewpoint with better views than the first summit, and also some northern views.
Once I had finished up at the top, my next objective was to ascend Cartmell Peak. Assuming you are just hiking Mount Klaudt you can simply hike back down the way you came. Note that the AllTrails link and GPX include both Mount Klaudt and Cartmell Peak, so you can ignore the section to Cartmell if so.
When should I hike Mount Klaudt?
Mount Klaudt is primarily a winter objective as without a decent snowpack it will undoubtedly be a horrible bushwhack of a trail. With that said you’ll want to go when there is a decent amount of snow on the trail, likely between December and April but perhaps briefly before/after will also work.
Top Tip
Personally I would combine this hike with Cartmell Peak, which provides much better views and makes for a reasonably challenging day hike. For me, Mount Klaudt is too short to warrant the long drive, though that depends where you live of course. If you decide to combine them both it would be around 13.80km and 989m elevation gain.
It would be good to go with a few people in case you do need to break trail, otherwise it could be a much more difficult hike. Obviously you’ll need an offline map for this one as well.
