Black Mountain Backcountry Skiing

For Saturday, March 19, I had planned to go backcountry skiing to Black Mountain with a friend. But unfortunately, she got injured earlier in the week and couldn’t join. So I checked with Kasturi and Kavya if they wanted to join.

We had been to Black Mountain last year, but this time I would be on skis while Kasturi and Kavya hiked up the trail. After checking the weather forecast, we decided to leave a bit later and arrived at Cypress around 8:15 am. We parked near Cypress Creek Lodge ($12) and collected our backcountry access tag from the Backcountry Self-Registration area in Black Mountain Lodge.

Check this post to read more about the parking situation and the Backcountry Access Corridor at Cypress.

Black Mountain Trail

We made our way to the trailhead via the Backcountry Access Corridor. Although I have talked a lot about backcountry skiing with Kavya and Kasturi, this was the first time they were out with me.

I was happy to see some fresh snow on the trail. Kasturi had her spikes on, and Kavya was just hiking up in her snow boots.

It took us about an hour and ten minutes to get to the Black Mountain Loop Trail sign.

North & South Summit

From the trail sign, we went right towards North and South Summit. As we arrived at the North and South Summit trail junction, we saw two hikers coming up from Cabin Lake. So we spent some time around Cabin Lake before heading to North Summit.

The trail to North Summit is not marked and no one had been there that day, but it is just 200 m from the trail junction and easy to follow using GAIA maps.

The visibility was really bad and I could hardly see anything from the North Summit. Kavya and Kasturi were post-holing on this section of the trail and turned around after some time. Snowshoes would have been better for this section.

We got back down to the junction and then made our way to South Summit. We took a short snack break hoping the visibility would improve, but it didn’t.

Black Mountain Backcountry Skiing - South Summit — Black Mountain South Summit

Descent

After a long break, we continued on the Black Mountain Loop. I had transitioned to ski mode and coming down the narrow trail on this loop was challenging for me. As the terrain flattened out, I went back to skin mode and accompanied Kasturi and Kavya till the junction of Black Mountain Loop and the Ski Area Connector Trail (connecting to Eagle Express).

Kavya and Kasturi would continue on the Black Mountain Loop trail and then head down the same way as we came up. Meanwhile, I would connect to the ski area and then ski down one of the runs.

It probably took me less than 10 minutes from this junction to get to the top of the Eagle Express chairlift. I transitioned back to ski mode and skied down one of the blue runs on the left. Since I had time, I started skinning up the Black Mountain Trail for another lap. About 20 minutes later, I crossed Kavya and Kasturi and continued for another 10 minutes.

Now, I was about a km from the trailhead and could connect to the ski run just below the Eagle Express chairlift. This time, I skied down different runs and went all the way to the parking lot in front of Cypress Creek Lodge. Overall, the weather was less than ideal, but it was a fun family outing and a good workout for me.

Black Mountain Backcountry Skiing - Cypress — Cypress

Territory Acknowledgement

I would like to acknowledge that this trip took place on the unceded territory of the Coast Salish peoples, including the territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. I commit to learning about Indigenous peoples and issues and making reconciliation an ongoing effort.

Source: Native-Land Pronunciation Guide: First Nations.info