Snowshoeing to Metal Dome

Trip date: November 3rd, 2024

This is a report for a snowshoeing and backcountry ski/snowbaord trip to Metal Dome on November 3rd. Overall it was a success, with moments of clear sky for views. Early snow season was good althought a bit rocky, good amount of powder but no base snow to protect from rocks.

Trip members: Philip Zilke, Kathleen Griffin, Cecily Downs, Paxton Lin, Rachel Kalkman, Paul Ramu. Simon Tsianikas, Marta Oliver, Julia Jancelewicz, Markus Masaites, Nerea Eva Lopez Casado, Tejas Prakash, Zenon Hrabowsky, Shaojie Huang

We left Vancouver around 6:15am, the time varying depending on our car group, and all met up at the Tim Hortons at Squamish, arriving 7:30am. We then drove to the trail head and all arrived about 9:00am. The lower clearance cars had to park at the lower parking we had to hike up 45 minutes until we reached the car group at the upper parking. The lower parking lot people got started on the hike about 9:20am, and we joined up and got moving with the upper parking group at 10:30am.

Photos by Simon Tsianikas, 1- lower parking 2- upper parking

From the upper parking, it was hiking in our boots without gear for about 20 minutes until we decided it was time to strap in. By 10:50am, we all had our snowshoes or backcountry ski/snowboard/split board on.

Photos by: Paxton Lin (first two) and Kathleen Griffin (last one)

It was not until about 12:40pm when most of the group began to summit. There were moments of clear sky but it was generally overcast and only had occasional peeks of the view. It was not too cold until the summit, where the winds really picked up and the freezing temperatures could be felt. There was definitely some slipping as the powder did not provide the best hold especially near the top.

Photos by: Kathleen Griffin (first one) and Paxton Lin (second one)

As for the snow conditions, the powder layer was a good 30 cm but that was all we had. There was no good base layer and someone on their snowboard managed to get a good sized nick from a rock. Some people on skis also noted that they had to regularly stop to check out good lines because of some rocky sections. The people who took the ski and snowboard route down enjoyed the snow though and it was agreed that the early season conditions were phenomenal.

Photos from: Cecily Downs (first one) and Kathleen Griffins (second one)

Finally, after the showshoers waited for the ski/snowboard crew, then we hiked all the way back to our cars. The upper parking people got loaded and lifted out back to Vancouver much faster. The lower parking lot people, me included, loaded all gear and left the parking lot at 4:20pm. It was a long day with over 1200m of elevation gain and 15km of hiking for those who started at the lower parking lot.