Tag Archives: cheam peak

Cheam Peak 23/09/12

Day hike, Scramble, ,

Boris on Cheam and Lady Peaks:
“Ida, Kevin, and I hiked the incredible Cheam (2112 m) and Lady (2178 m) Peaks in the Cheam range between Chilliwack and Hope. The weather was sunny and quite warm for late September, especially at this alpine altitude. The Cheam trail was moderately busy, with about a dozen others along the trail to Cheam, although Kevin and I were the only ones going up Lady and only Kevin made it the last ten minutes to the very top of Lady.

After climbing up a logging road in awful condition, the Jeep scraping bottom a few times (cars don’t have sufficient ground clearance to go up here), the actual trail to Cheam was in great condition. On the other hand, the trail up Lady was pretty much non-existent, with a few cairns giving guidance in some portions. Due to the need to scramble up rubble that constantly slides under one’s feet and causes frequent rockfalls, the best path is not consistent over time so additional markings would likely not be suitable in any case. We got a recommendation to go up along the ridge, though that resulted in bushwhacking which we could have avoided. The best route seems to be somewhat further from the ridge and closer to the snow banks. Scrambling and grabbing at heather is unavoidable. Reaching the part of the ridge that is on the order of a 100 m from the peak itself, the route becomes quite exposed as it’s nearly a vertical drop on the other side for most of the 2 km down to the valley floor.

The views from both peaks are absolutely stunning. Here’s a link to a public album on Facebook of the photos I took (excuse the poor cellphone camera quality).

Cheam Peak 25/07/09

Day hike,

Su-Laine on Cheam Peak:
“With alpine flowers in full bloom and a winding trail through the meadows that gives ever-changing views of nearby mountains and valleys, Cheam was one of the most rewarding day hikes I’ve done yet.

The consensus was that it wasn’t all without adversity though: the infamous 4×4 road access, swarms of flies of various shapes and sizes that morphed into citronella-immune mosquitoes at higher elevations, and an approaching thunderstorm all made the day more exciting.

For Cheam, people don’t ask about trail conditions as much as road conditions. We were in an SUV and had no particular difficulty, but it was a challenging drive with some ‘don’t look down’ sections, and the last 11 km of logging road took us nearly an hour each way. Total driving time from Brentwood Mall in Burnaby was 3 hours each way. The parking lot was full of SUVs and 4×4 trucks; we’d heard that it’s possible to drive up in a 2WD car if you’re willing to wreck it, and to our amazement we did see one midsized car there. I still can’t understand how it got up there. The Chilliwack forecast was for a possible thundershower in the late afternoon, but we started to hear thunder at around 1:30 pm and the electricity in the air was making people’s hair stand up. I literally ran the last few minutes to the summit, snapped a few pictures, and got off it as quickly as possible. The descent was very pleasant though, with alternating sunshine and cooling clouds and drizzle. We were happy to be on Highway 1 on the way home when the full storm hit.”