Crown Mountain (via Grouse Mtn)

July 29, 2021

Distance: 15.5km round-trip

Elevation gain: 1874m

Time required: 8-9 hours total

There are two ways to get to Crown Mountain: via Grouse Mountain or via the Hanes Valley in Lynn Headwaters Regional Park. The Grouse route is shorter but harder as you gain and lose a lot of elevation on your way. Contrast this to the Hanes Valley route which is significantly longer but with less elevation gain.

I chose the Grouse Mountain route today. It was a beautiful warm day - low 30s in the cities and mid 20's in the mountains. It was also an opportunity to bag 3 peaks - Damn Mtn, Goat Mtn, and Crown Mtn.

I took the BCMC to the Grouse resort. I opted for this over the Grouse Grind as its less busy and less manicured. It took me 1 hour and 10 minutes at a fairly leisurely pace. I went by the grizzly enclosure and stopped to see the resident grizzly bear.

Said hello to Mr. Grizzly

I then started towards my first objective: Dam Mountain. This is basically on the way, so long as you take the Ridge Trail. It took me 45 minutes to reach it from the resort.

Capilano Lake from Dam Mtn

Crown Mountain and The Camel from Dam Mtn. Goat Mtn is on the right.

Shortly past Dam Mtn, you go around a small bump called Little Goat Mountain. Past there, there is a junction for the trail to Goat Mountain. It's 1km off the main trail. You can continue even further on the ridgeline to 'Goat Ridge Peak' at the very end. I didn't do that today but I may come back to do it another day.

Looking east on Goat Ridge from Goat Mtn

Crown Mountain (left-most rocky peak) and Beauty Peak (left)

Looking into Hanes Valley. Cathedral Mtn can be seen in the background

Crown ridgeline. Crown N1 is the further rocky peak past Crown. Zinc in LHRP is the big forested peak past Crown N1

Looking back on Little Goat Mtn (right) and Dam Mtn (left)

After Goat Mtn, I returned to the main trail and descended the steep descent into Crown Pass. This is where you pass by the junction for the Hanes Valley boulder field. I then began the long steep 2km ascent to Crown Mountain. There is some scrambling involved but nothing more than class 3. It had been 5 hours since I started at the parking lot.

Crown ridgeline to the north. Crown N1 is the furthest bump

Looking down into Hanes Valley

Looking back the way I came (Goat Mtn is the flat hump on the left). Beauty Peak sits to the right.

Beauty Peak and the Capilano Valley to the west

Close up of Vancouver behind Beauty Peak

I spent a good while at the summit. As I started on my way down from Crown, I grabbed onto a hot rock in a way that somehow bent and warped the gold metal band. It became stuck on my finger and I later had to painfully force it off. It was an unfortunate loss.

Once reaching the Grouse resort, I was tired and decided to just pay the $20 to take the gondola down instead of hiking back down the BCMC.