Cathedral Mountain
It was a few days before the last day of my summer job, and I was eager to finish the summer off strong before heading back to school. The forecast for Monday, August 27 was clear and cool. This was a rare day in a summer that saw prolonged heat waves, and long stretches of wildfire smoke polluting the air and blocking views. More smoke was forecasted to blow in the next day, and the heat would be returning, so the window was short. This was potentially a perfect day to tackle one of the most strenuous hikes on the North Shore.
I crawled up one final slab, and finally I was on top of the Cathedral Mountain. The views were unrestricted and breathtaking. I pulled out my tuna sandwich, and began snapping photos of the views and exploring the summit area as I ate lunch. The peak of Cathedral Mountain is unique in that it has 3 missile-shaped towers, which are radio transmitters used by North Shore Search and Rescue for communication. There is also a helicopter pad at the top for maintenance access, which was a pretty cool spot to sit and relax.
Cathedral Mountain sits deep in the North Shore Mountains. Its impressive south face is carved with numerous drainage channels in a symmetrical pattern that resembles the architecture of a cathedral. Standing at 1737m, it is the third tallest peak on the North Shore, and likely the most difficult to access.
The south face of Cathedral Mountain.
Geographically the ideal access is from service roads to the north, but these roads are in the Capilano Watershed with no public access. Therefore, the traditional route to the summit involves climbing 1300m up Mt Burwell from the south from either Lynn Valley or Seymour Valley before dropping 400m along the connecting ridge between Mt Burwell and Cathedral Mountain, and ascending 550m to the Cathedral Mountain summit. On top of the cumulative 3000m of elevation gain on this route, there is no trail between Mt Burwell and Cathedral Mountain summit, meaning that routefinding and bushwacking is required for a large portion of the trip. I decided the approach from the Seymour Valley was the most efficient since the trailhead can be accessed by bike which would reduce hiking distance and save time. I had climbed Mt Burwell a couple of years prior using this access, so I knew what to expect.
My riding and hiking route between the Seymour Valley and Cathedral Mountain.
I waited until the last minute to decide whether to go or not since the smoke forecast was unstable, so I wasn't going to find anyone to climb with - but I was well prepared. When I woke up early on August 27, I was happy to see clear skies above, and decided to go for it. I drove over to the North Shore with my old Miyata road bike and a pack full of gear and food. I thought it would be nice add some elevation gain and distance to the trip, and to not risk having the car locked in the gated lot people typically park at further up the road - so I parked at Capilano University. I began pedalling from the car at 6:15am - the air was a bit chilly and the sky was crystal clear. I pedalled up the Demonstration Forest road, and as the sun was rising I stopped to pull out my sunglasses and realized I had forgotten them. For a brief moment I contemplated turning back, but this was the perfect day for this climb and this wasn't going to stop me. Most of the trip would be in shaded forest, and I could squint if it was too bright on the summit.
I enjoyed the familiar rolling hills along the Demonstration Forest road, and turned left up a steep gravel off-shoot near the north end of the road. After a few minutes of climbing I reached the end of the gravel road, where the Mt Burwell trail begins. I stashed the bike and began the climb up the steep trail that goes straight up the east side of the ridge. I was eager and in the zone, so it didn't take long before I was at the treeline and starting to get some nice views. As I crested to the summit of Mt Coliseum, I snapped some photos, but I didn't get too carried away as I had been here before and had a bigger objective in mind. I didn't bring much water on the climb up the ridge, since there is a large tarn conveniently located at the summit of Mt Coliseum. I spent some time filling up my bottles, and hydrating myself before I began climb to the top of Mt Burwell that involves some fun up and downs on a bushy ridge.
Looking northeast from the top of Mt Coliseum.
View north from Mt Coliseum at Mt Burwell (right) and Cathedral Mountain (distant left).
Looking east from Mt Coliseum summit cairn towards Mt Seymour.
The tarn beside the summit of Mt Coliseum.
Looking west towards Crown Mountain.
Looking down at Seymour Lake.
Looking at north Coronet Lake (foreground) and the Mamquam Massif (distant left-centre).
I arrived at the summit of Mt Burwell at 9:30am and looked over at Cathedral Mountain, which still appeared very distant. There was a lot of bushwacking between me and the summit, but I had lots of time to get there.
Cathedral Mountain from Mt Burwell; on the lower left is Palisade Lake.
I dropped off of Mt Burwell summit to the north, and tried to follow the top of the north ridgeline. There were a few spots I ran into cliffs and had to backtrack. I made few tricky moves, but nothing super risky. As I approached the bottom of the Burwell-Cathedral col, things began to get bushy and I started to keep my eye out for flagging. The route quickly transitioned from open granite slabs to thick old growth forest.
Cathedral Mountain from the Mt Burwell south ridge.
I had been monitoring trip reports pages in weeks leading up to this and I knew one group had been through and flagged a route. The flagging was a bit tricky to follow in some of the very bushy areas, but overall it was very helpful and saved me a lot of time. I also had downloaded a GPS file from someone who had climbed Cathedral a few weeks prior, and this was very helpful whenever I couldn't find flagging. I eventually bottomed out on the col, and began the much anticipated climb towards the Cathedral Mountain summit, which still seemed far away. I had my prime leather bushwacking gloves on, so I frequently grabbed onto the bush for stability and to pull myself forwards. A boulder field provided a short break from the bushwacking, but did also required some thought and fancy maneuvers to get across. Eventually the forest began to thin, and the route began to steepen. The climb up the west side of the Cathedral summit block was along another boulder field, and had some semi-exposed moves that required my full focus.
From the west ridge of Cathedral Mtn looking at Mt Burwell (left) and Palisade Lake (lower right).
Once I was at the top of the west ridge, the route was flatter and the views were spectacular. I noticed some animal feces on the ridge, which I suspect was from mountain goats given that this is prime mountain goat territory, and that other types of animals are unlikely to climb up to this location. I followed flagging along the west ridge, which was a mix of flat and open granite slabs and steep bushwacking. Before the summit there was one final tricky move which involved grabbing onto bush and pulling myself through a small steep chute. However, the chute wasn't very exposed and had plenty of plants to grab onto so it was no problem.
Looking up at the summit block - the final hurtle ahead was a short bushy chute.
The final section before the summit.
Looking north towards Sky Pilot and Garibaldi.
The picturesque summit heli pad.
Looking to the east at the Cathedral sub-summit and distant peaks.
Looking northeast along the slabby granite north ridge of Cathedral towards Meslillooet.
Another look at the rugged granite ridge and distant peaks to the north.
Mt Bishop and Mt Seymour ridge to the southeast.
Many layers of ridges to the east.
Looking towards Crown, Strachan and the Lions to the west.
Looking northwest towards Capilano Mtn.
A good shot of the HSCT group to the northwest.
A view of the valley to the northwest and the HSCT peaks.
A zoomed shot of the Black Tusk (distant middle) and Mt Garibaldi (right).
A zoom in of Meslillooet Mtn (left) and Mt Bonnycastle (right) to the northeast.
Jagged Crown Mtn Ridge to the south.
The summit radio transmitters that can be seen from a distance.
Relaxing on the heli pad with Burwell Lake below my feet and Mt Burwell above.
I spent nearly an hour on the summit taking in the views and taking photos. Finally, I packed my stuff up and started down. I used my GPS and flagging to retrace my route down. Some of the moves that were tricky coming up were even more tricky coming down, but I was careful and got myself down without any issue. Descending is slow when you're bushwacking, and it took some time for me to get back down the ridge. It felt nice returning to the granite slabs at the north base of Mt Burwell, although these marked the beginning of the most gruelling part of the trip which was the ascent of the north face of Mt Burwell with the afternoon sun blazing down at my face from above. I was a bit low on water so I had to ration it. I have learned from bike racing how to manage my food an energy, so I was calm and just tried to be as smooth as possible for the final grind.
On the way back up it was much easier to see the best route up to Mt Burwell summit, which was a smooth granite bench that takes you up the north west face of Mt Burwell. This is definitely the most efficient route going up or down the north face of Mt Burwell. The slabby granite benches had some neat views to the northwest which provided some distraction from my fatigue.
Looking northeast from the granite bench on Burwell.
Looking at up at a typical section of the bench, with Mt Burwell towering above.
A nice view down at Palisade Lake.
I kept plugging away up the granite slopes until I finally reached Mt Burwell summit for the second time of the day. I quickly made my way over to Mt Coliseum summit where I enjoyed a fresh cold drink from the summit tarn, which was photogenic as always.
Looking at peaks to the west from the tarn on Coliseum Mtn Summit.
Looking back Cathedral Mtn Summit with Mt Burwell to the left.
I didn't spend too much time on Coliseum since the sun was on the west side of the sky and I didn't want my descent to be too dark. I began descending down Mt Coliseum into the Seymour valley, and made got to the bottom in good time. It felt amazing getting back down to my bike, and pedalling along smooth pavement back to the car. Most of the return ride was descending into a cool breeze, which felt incredibly refreshing after such a tough day. I got back to the car 12.5 hours after leaving in the morning, and drove home to enjoy dinner and a satisfying night's rest.
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