Sky Pilot Trail Running
Aug 2022
Prior to the Sea to Sky Gondola, objectives in the Shannon Creek Basin were long slogs. With the gondola comes easier approaches with better maintained trails. Here lies Sky Pilot, a trip where gear choice can be highly dependent on conditions and experience. For us, the weather and snowpack was ideal for trail running it. Prior to the Sea to Sky Gondola, it probably would not be possible to even consider this.
First, to get to the trailhead, we drove up the Shannon Creek FSR. It was in good enough condition to drive up with a Honda CRV. Might need to kick some of the boulders out of the way on the way up if you're going in a low clearance vehicle.
There’s space for a handful of cars. Best to get in early to beat the crowd that comes up when the gondola opens. We had left early enough to be the first group that summitted that did not camp overnight.
If you have a car that is capable of getting up the trailhead, it'll save you ~$60/person on a gondola ride in exhange for ~ 1.4Km of additional hiking.
Trail-wise, the route is well travelled now and easily identifiable. First section is a gravel road, leading to a well marked trail. In the alpine, follow the moraine field up towards stadium glacier (up through the right to reach the saddle).
When we reached the glacier, it was still quite packed full of snow, allowing us to easily go across and up it to reach the pink slab.
Depending on who is taking the picture and the perspective, the pink slab could either look menacing or trivial. If you have rock climbing experience and are confident in your foot placement and conditions don’t make the attempt spicy, then I would say it’s doable without gear*. There are tons of positive holds for both your hands and feet. The middle section was a good section to go up. Would recommend staying away from looker’s left as it becomes more exposed. The rock is solid.
*this is not professional advice and does not come with any guarantees of safety, etc.
Crossing a very full Stadium glacier. Go straight up and then cut left.
The pink slab looks a lot harder from the bottom than it does from the top. Camera angle perspective can be tricky! Lots of good hold going straight up.
The chimney is a really fun scramble. Lots of great holds.
After getting past the pink slab, the trail continues up the mountain. Views are great. The chimney feels nice and sheltered.
After the chimney you pass the gendarme by dropping past the tree gulley. This is the last technical section. Again, pictures make it look much more difficult than it actually is. Once you’re up this section, a few more steps lead to the summit.
The ridge leading to the gendarme has some nice views
The last technical section of sky pilot again looks more challenging in pictures than in person. The exposure isn't as bad as pictures lead you to believe
Summit photos. We got chastised for not wearing a helmet by a group of foreign alpinists. There are sections where rockfall could be an issue, my recommendation is to just go before all the other groups so you can make it up and down before people start kicking stuff down..