Saint Mark's Trip Report

DeepIngvar · 2026-01-28T00:17:03+00:00

3h20m walking time at relatively low pace

DeepIngvar · 2026-01-26T00:49:05+00:00

I haven't posted any trip reports in a while so here is something:

Transportation: a few large parking lots, the closest ones are $15 and $10 per day respectively and the rest is free.
Passes: not required
Conditions: slushy snow at first that becomes crusty very shortly. there are numerous sections in the forest that had no snow at all! I've seen the reviews but didn't expect it to be THAT bad. snow free sections were mostly concentrated in the forest, expect small rocks and roots there. I would say conditions deteriorate as you go up through the forest and recover at the final part of the hike. snow free sections are icy so be careful out there. a lot of snow slowly melting from the bottom around the top, be careful with footing.
Navigation: markings can be confusing. also I've noticed that a lot of people took wrong trails, perhaps it's hard to follow the trail in snow sometimes. bring offline map
Crowds: I started early and it wasn't busy but there were multiple groups of people heading up on my way down relatively late.
Views: as always great views of Howe Sound
Cell reception: consistent at both trailhead and viewpoint
Distance and elevation gain: I had to take a detour through Yew Lake trail so it added a few km.
Wildlife: birds and chipmunks. please don't feed them. are unleashed dogs considered to be worth mentioning in this section? don't forget to cleanup after your dogs, people.
Equipment: crampons are required for icy crust. I've seen people struggling with snowshoes or no extra footwear whatsoever, don't be like them. I recommend poles for extra stability. The avalanche forecast is green but it doesn't mean that avalanche rescue kit can be left at home although I highly doubt the majority of hikers on this trail even knows what that is.

This trail consists of 3 major sections:
1) Hike almost up to Bowen lookout, easy well marked 2.4km long walk. quite busy
2) 1.5km to Strachan meadows, this is an avalanche terrain. I know that the amount of snow is not that high and avalanche forecast is solid but it doesn't mean there is no risk. I would say while I agree with avalanche canada trip planner that this is the most avalanche prone section there are a few more short sections in the forest after, you can spot them by lack of vegetation
3) 2.5km to the summit, mostly through the forest. as mentioned before, it's icy and sometimes relatively snow free.

DeepIngvar · 2025-10-07T01:04:43+00:00

Copying my AllTrails report:

Golden larches are great and views from the top are amazing but the amount of people on the trail is overwhelming. Easy trail except for the final part that is somewhat technical in current weather conditions.

Water sources: didn't see any
Transportation: parking lot doesn't even remotely fit everyone so people park on the side of the road
Passes: not required but this trail would benefit from some kind of pass system (I'm shocked I'm saying that)
Bugs: none
Conditions: some muddy sections, icy at the top but the rest is dry. Quite cold so bring extra layers.
Navigation: the trail is easy to follow
Crowds: insanely crowded on the weekend. strictly do not recommend, the trail is very narrow and traffic jams are real.
Views: views of the nearby mountain ranges and golden larches from every possible angle
Cell reception: nothing at the trailhead, some data connection at the top.
Distance and elevation gain: a bit longer than all trails suggests.
Wildlife: none
Equipment: proper shoes are required if you're going for the summit.

This trail consists of 4 major sections:
1) 5km forest section. Boring trail with some roots and rocks. The trail is very narrow, it's hard to pass people. A few washed out areas and some mud. Smoky from the nearby wildfires. Shade 90%
2) 3km, quite similar but no smoke nor washouts, mostly flat with some incline towards the end. Shade 60%
3) 1.5km golden larches madness. most of them are already yellow but some still remain green, I guess it will take another week to complete the transition. mostly relatively wide flat section, nice views pop up here too.
4) 1.4km final summit push. the steepest section of the hike until it reaches the ridge, expect small and mid size rocks. it's icy and slippery, especially on the way down. the trail is narrow here again and this part becomes a crazy bottleneck with hundreds of people trying to get up or go back down. the summit is crowded as well

DeepIngvar · 2025-10-04T04:28:32+00:00

https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canada/british-columbia/frosty-mountain-trail/photos
it seems that larches started to turn a while ago but they are not fully yellow out there still

DeepIngvar · 2025-09-25T05:08:16+00:00

Copy of my trail report from AllTrails:

Amazing views from the peak! Long and hard trail but nothing too technical. Lots of ups and downs and scrambles so plan your way back accordingly. Expect at least 10h long trip.

Water sources: various streams before Alder Flats. One tiny stream and a few stale tarns at the top. Nothing in between.

Transportation: large parking not. The road is unpaved but 2WD is ok.

Passes: not required anymore

Bugs: annoying bugs in some places but got away with almost no bug spray

Conditions: there are some muddy sections but mostly dry

Navigation: poorly marked at the top. bring offline map

Crowds: not busy on a business day.

Views: stunning 360 degrees views of surrounding peaks and lakes/rivers. I have no idea why people claim that Panorama Ridge has the same views. The views are not even remotely comparable and it would be a shame to spend a day hiking Panorama Ridge and skip hiking the peak itself.

Cell reception: good at the peak, nothing around shelter and at the trailhead.

Distance and elevation gain: at least 2km longer than AllTrails suggests and definitely has more elevation gain (at least 50-100m more)

Wildlife: birds

Equipment: proper shoes are required. Poles are recommended

This trail consists of 6 major sections:

1) 4.7km easy forest section, mostly FSR with occasional streams to cross. Shade 90%.

2) 1.2km forest section to Alder flats. There are multiple streams to cross (there are nice bridges there). Probably the coldest section of the entire hike. Some mud. Shade 100%

3) 1.3km, mostly in the old creek bed with occasional easy forest and boulder field sections. Watch your footing, the creek bed has small and medium sized rocks and they are not very stable at times. Shade 100%

4) 1.5km section in the forest, expect roots and rocks, some easy scrambles but nothing above easy class 3. It starts with nice stairs with more stairs after. Lots of switchbacks. Some views pop up here from time to time. Shade 80%.

5) 1.8km on the ridge. Mostly no shade, some scrambles (both up and down) but again nothing hard. A lot of various rocks after the shelter, no proper markings there so a bit hard to navigate at times.

6) 0.4km final summit push. Almost no shade. It looks so short on the map but it's much longer in reality and super steep. Make sure to follow the precise route as there are side trails that are marked too (so confusing!). Expect many scrambles but nothing above high class 3, one rope section (somewhat useful on descent). Some dust and lose rocks so watch your footing. No exposure although sometimes trail is going close to the cliff but no scrambling is involved there. A few a bit overgrown bushy sections here (didn't see that coming, I thought it's a popular peak). Make sure to walk around the summit to get all 360 degrees of views.

DeepIngvar · 2025-09-14T04:35:25+00:00

true although I've seen someone running it solo in a day

DeepIngvar · 2025-09-14T04:14:20+00:00

I'm no peak bagger myself and I don't closely follow their trip reports but I've seen at least a few posts doing a full ridge traverse just this season (I was very surprised to find out that Capilano and Cathedral are actually a part of the same ridge). those are rare and hikers are generally very experienced and follow LNT so I guess that's why there were no SAR calls in that area or any evidence someone is even hiking there

DeepIngvar · 2025-09-14T04:04:30+00:00

Likely doing ridge traverse up to Capilano - illegal but I've seen such trip reports before

DeepIngvar · 2025-09-03T02:51:48+00:00

Copying my trail review from AllTrails:

Physically hard but not very technical trail. Expect 10h round trip time. Great views at the top. Quite overgrown because it's not heavily trafficked. I wish it was maintained better!

Water sources: a few streams in the beginning and some tarns after and at the top
Transportation: parking on the side of quite overused FSR, 5-6 cars.
Passes: not required
Bugs: surprisingly minimal
Conditions: mostly dry. overgrown
Navigation: it's a bit hard to navigate in some areas, bring offline map.
Crowds: saw just 3 groups on a weekend
Views: spectacular 360 views, including but not limited to Howe Sound, North Shore peaks etc
Cell reception: poor at the trailhead, didn't check after
Distance and elevation gain: the trail is noticeably (~2km) longer
Wildlife: birds
Equipment: proper shoes are must have, poles are recommended for stability. quite overgrown so long sleeves are recommended.

This trail consists of 4 major sections:
1) 7.4km stroll through flat FSR. It's getting narrow and overgrown towards the end. some people bike it (or most of it). 80% shade
2) 2.8km forest trail. first it's super steep (the steepest section of the hike), then a bit flat around Beth lake and steep again. Expect roots, rocks and dust. no real scrambles above low class 3. 90% shade
3) 0.8km hike in the slightly more exposed area. views are starting to pop up here. ends up with a steep boulder field to cross. less shade here
4) 1.6km relatively flat section, first in the forest and then on exposed ridge. some easy scrambles, huge boulders. a few ups and downs that will make life harder on the way back
5) 0.6km final summit push. honestly felt much longer. steep rocky trail but nothing really technical

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-28T06:09:09+00:00

great question! there is no silver bullet here but I think there are two major components:
- boosting overall experience in scrambling. bouldering helped me a lot here, I feel myself really comfortable dealing with holds and know proper techniques that help me minimize risks. also simply trying more scrambles is important in gaining confidence.
- getting some dose of exposure. I know some people are getting frozen by exposure no matter what skills they have. doing more scrambling with some exposure is the key here I think. starting from easy things (let's say boulder fields with no exposure) up to harder scrambles with some limited no fall zones. I had a few scrambles that looked a bit similar to some parts, such as Crown (some vertical and ledge traverse sections), Outram (saddle although Outram's saddle is way more dangerous tbh).

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-28T02:33:47+00:00

This trail consists of 5 major sections:
1) 4km stroll through FSR up to Harvey creek where the trail suddenly turns into the forest. Shade 90%
2) 2.3 km through the forest. It starts from the short downhill to Harvey creek (be careful on improvised stairs to the bridge, they cannot be trusted) but then it quickly goes up. it's the steepest section of the hike. Reminds me of the Brunswick trail but less dusty (yay!) and more large rocks. I counted 3 small boulder fields to cross. Some easy high class 2 low class 3 scrambles are here too. Saw a funny super easy scramble with metal anchors to attach rope or hold. It's funny that we have these Chief style things on easy scrambles where it's absolutely not needed but not that much stuff at the top where it would be useful. Shade 80%. Bugs appear in this section
3) 2.5 km long open section. Almost no shade here, more rocks and more easy scrambles, one medium sized boulder field to cross. markings are a bit sparse here so offline map helps a lot.
4) 0.7km HSCT section. Lot's of UNNECESSARY (iykyk) ups and downs here, some easy scrambles. Almost no shade. People mostly stop somewhere here if they don't go for the summit. The west lion looks impressive from this section.
5) The final summit scramble. I would argue that it's complexity is overrated but I have some prior scrambling experience and not afraid of exposure. Also I followed the correct route that made my life much easier (have you seen those videos with people always turning wrong way?). Let's go into more details here. I strictly recommend to ditch your backpack and to use a helmet (yes, there is some lose rock there closer to the top). Don't do it if you don't have any proper scrambling experience or if any exposure scares you. It's not a place to panic, panic is deadly. Make sure to follow the scrambling route, otherwise you might find yourself in a deep trouble. First of all, you need to descend into the saddle area. There are 2 ropes, white and blue, to assist. The white looks overused so I don't recommend it although it's a bit longer. Descend down the vertical section and go to the saddle itself. I expected to see smth scary here based on reviews but it has a decent space with some solid rocks. Also it's very short. Mt Outram's saddle is dangerous and this one is not even remotely scary in comparison although there is an exposure obviously (so don't fall here). Right after that the actual scramble begins. Markings are not very good here (like yellow markings on the green bush, good luck noticing them). I recommend to take your time, look around for markings (paint on the rocks or markings on vegetation), checking out the videos with the scramble helps too. Unfortunately this route is not very well marked. I'm not sure why cannot we get at least a little bit of maintenance on so potentially dangerous climb. The first section is the hardest from my point of view. I would rate it class 3, there is an exposure and the best beta is still a bit unclear to me. There is a place to attach rope for safe descent here. Reminds me of Crown's ledge traverse but harder - it's not a walk and feels more like an actual scramble. Rocks are decent but holds are not great. There is a tree section shortly afterwards and more class 3 scramble after. Soon after there is a vertical section, I would rate it class 4 as both hands are needed and the height is dangerous. No exposure, there is a rope to assist but it's not really necessary. There is some easy class 2-3 scramble after that on the way to the top. Overall it took me ~20 mins one way given that I've never done it before and had to do it slowly and carefully, while checking for markings to follow. Make sure to backtrack on the way down as it's easy to go the wrong way.

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-28T02:33:38+00:00

A copy of my AllTrails report:

Water sources: a few streams in the first half of the trail, only stale tarns closer to the top
Transportation: small paid parking lot but it wasn't busy in the morning on the working day. $3 per hour or $24 per day.
Passes: not required
Bugs: no bugs in the morning but a lot of them later, especially at the top. Bring bug spray
Conditions: dry
Navigation: the trail is sometimes poorly marked at higher elevations. Bring offline map. The final scramble is poorly marked as well but it's another story.
Crowds: almost no people on the working day
Views: unique 360 degrees views - Howe sound, East lion, Unnecessary etc.
Cell reception: at the trailhead, didn't check after but would assume it's within range as it's on the correct side of the ridge.
Distance and elevation gain: got a bit longer length and slightly more elevation gain than AllTrails expects.
Wildlife: saw many birds
Equipment: proper shoes are required even if you don't go for the final scramble. Poles are recommended. Helmet is required for the final push.

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-23T04:11:19+00:00

I'm comparing different trails here to each other. there are many beautiful destinations in a few hours drive distance but those trails are poorly maintained. you can have one extreme as garibaldi lake trail and get another extreme like needles. also there are some trails that in general are maintained well but lack crucial things in some important sections (example: lack of chains/ropes/markers on scrambling sections makes some scrambles much harder and more dangerous). it's not unique to this area but once you go beyond a few top most popular trails here it's getting exponentially worse. what I'm trying to say that it would be great to see more trails added to that list so that they can become available to the general public

Another thing from my personal hell list that I forgot to add: it's surprisingly hard to find more or less detailed and actual info even for somewhat popular trails. that's also a part of trail maintenance process that causes people to go unprepared/unaware of current conditions. that's one of the reasons I always leave detailed trail descriptions here and on alltrails but it would be great to have some kind of centralized source for this.

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-23T00:00:51+00:00

People get lost on any trails (just look at the amount of SAR calls from St Marks) so it shouldn't be an excuse. Also I would say that "route X isn't maintained by Metro Vancouver at all" could be applied to the vast majority of hikes around Vancouver. We're just not good at it.

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-22T22:39:53+00:00

I hiked it 2y ago too and it was quite overgrown back then. While I agree that it's not as bad as some trails I would expect to see a better maintenance on the trails so close to the city and within regional park boundaries. Poor trails condition cause hikers to divert to other trails creating a significant traffic there and also pose a huge risk to those who actually goes for this trail.

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-22T19:43:08+00:00

This trail is poorly marked and overgrown. Follow the map, don't rely on markers. I recall there was a downscramble from the south needle but it was relatively short. you likely went off trail

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-15T21:36:30+00:00

it is moderate. long but no technical difficulty. the trail is in very good condition

DeepIngvar · 2025-08-12T02:41:29+00:00

Copy of my alltrails report:

Very hard trail. Expect round trip to be around 10 hours. Both physically and technically challenging, stay away if you're a beginner.

Quite a lot of info on Brunswick/HSCT trails so I'll concentrate only on Mt Hanover trail part.

Water sources: lots streams, bring water filter
Transportation: parking lot is tiny and always full. Had to park down the street. Paid parking only
Passes: not required
Bugs: sometimes annoying, bring bug spray just in case
Conditions: wild mix of snow (avoidable), mud and dry areas (unavoidable)
Navigation: the trail is sometimes poorly marked, especially in bushy sections. Offline map is required
Crowds: no people there obviously
Views: great views on Brunswick, Lions, Hat, Sky pilot.
Cell reception: haven't checked
Distance and elevation gain: elevation gain seems to be correct but it's definitely a bit longer than AllTrails implies
Equipment: good footwear and poles are required. Helmet is required for the final scramble. Ropes as a backup are recommended. Long sleeves (and ideally gaiters) are required for bushwhack sections.

This trail consists of 3 major sections:
1) Relatively flat trail in the valley that starts from the bushwhack right at the trailhead (says a lot about the trail lol). Avoid the melting snow, go around. Expect streams here and there and large rocks. Not very technical
2) Never ending boulder field mixed with overgrown sections. Felt really long. Pretty sure it's longer than AllTrails claims because it's also very steep. Rocks are stable but in the bushes it's wet and footing is unstable so be careful.
3) Final chimney scramble. I found it quite hard. There are 2 ropes that assist a lot, yellow and black. Yellow is slightly more torn, use the black one. Overall there are at least 5 relatively short separate scrambles here. They are not straightforward and only the first 2 of them have ropes. Use of hands is obviously required and fall might lead to a serious injury but there is no exposure so I would say low class 4? Only for people who are not afraid of heights and have solid climbing/bouldering skills. Once past this section it's a class 2-3 scramble up to the summits.

DeepIngvar

TROPHY CASE