
Skyline Ridge Trail, Squamish—C.Helbig
My friend Eva (the Swedish mountain goat) pushes me slightly beyond my hiking comfort. That’s a good thing, and inevitably it turns into an epic day. This time she introduced me to the Sky Pilot Valley—Skyline Ridge loop, a backcountry route accessed from the top of the Squamish Sea to Sky Gondola (about an hour from downtown Vancouver). During our roughly 8-hour, 23ish km hike we scrambled up rocky slopes and snow chutes, traversed exposed ridges, and clung to branches as we “tarzaned” our way down precipitous terrain (plus a bit of easy stuff too). It was exciting, challenging, fun, and the scenery was out of this world. Continue reading