Tag Archives: Mount Elsay

Mt Elsay, 16 Jul 2017

Day hike, , ,

Pooya attempting Mt Elsay:
“We started the early hike from Mount Seymour’s parking lot with some light rain and fog. After ascending for half an hour, we found the trail fully covered by snow, and poor visibility made it harder to follow trail markers. While we weren’t prepared for the mid-July snow cover of up to 1 metre at points, our trekking poles helped us avoid serious injury besides a couple of slide-and-scratches.

Even though the plan was to summit Mount Elsay, we decided to turn around at Mount Seymour and not risk injury or getting lost. Let this cautionary tale remind everyone that we’ve had a tough winter and the trail conditions are still spring-like at high altitudes.”

Mt Elsay, 14 Sep 2014

Day hike, , , ,

Chris M. on Mt Elsay:
“Rob, Colleen, Pierre-Andre and I made it to the summit of Mount Elsay. We did a clockwise loop that took us through various types of North Shore terrain.

We left the main trail at the low point between Jones Peak and the true summit of Seymour. The footbed was clear as we made our way downhill. After going down some boulders we reached the snowfield below Runner Peak and took our first break. Then it was up to a rolling ridge and over towards the junctions – one goes down to the right and leads to the Elsay Lake trail, the second branches left towards Mount Bishop. We ignored them both and went straight. Straight up that is! The final section isn’t that long but the trail builder doesn’t like switchbacks. The summit provides views in all directions with plenty of spots to relax on. Which we did.

On the return trip we went down over the large boulder field towards the Elsay Lake trail. Wonderful large boulders. The others didn’t enjoy this section as much as I did, sadly. At the bottom was the only running water we saw all day and it was just a trickle. Here we stopped to admire salamanders in a mud pond. Once on the Elsay Lake trail we turned south back towards the parking lot. A Korean Group has put in a lot of effort and really brushed large sections of this trail. Once up past Wes’s Staircase we joined into the regular Seymour weekend parade below Pump Peak. It took us about 9 hours and I highly recommend this hike.”