Crown Mountain Trip Report, December 3rd 2011

This past Saturday, Joe Wong and myself got up nice and early to attempt the Crown Couloir, a beautiful WI2 climb running up the side of Crown Mountain. We checked the weather and avalanche reports and everything looked good. When we rolled into Lot D at 7am we decided we would just do the usual climbers route and use the trip as an excuse to recon the couloir for later in the season. Conditions couldn't have been better and it turned out to be a fantastic climb.

We headed up the Grind and were at the Grouse Mountain Chalet by about 8:15 to refill our waterbottles and grab a quick snack. From there we headed up the Snowshow Grind and down the other side of Grouse via Dam Mountain and down onto the Crown Dam Saddle. There was about a foot of undisturbed powder on the way to the saddle which we took full advantage of by boot-skiing most of the way down. The trail is well marked, but we definitely had to be alert to make sure we didn't stray off too far into the snow. When it was ready to start climbing Crown itself we slipped on our crampons, a must-have peice of gear for this trip. The ascent was quite steep but the snow was really hard and our crampons and axes had no problem finding purchase. After about an hour and a half of steep snow we popped out above the clouds into a beautifully sunny alpine playground.

As we neared the summit we ran into two climbers who had just come up the couloir, our intended route. They said it was just a steep snow gully at the moment, not a WI2 climb like many online sources described. Either way it looked like they had a great time and we followed them up to the final summit push.  The last 40 meters of the climb is an exposed scramble with major consequences for slip-ups. Joe and I sat down and thought it over before deciding to push on. After a slow, focused traverse across the exposed section we hit the summit of Crown Mountain at 1pm. It was an amazing climb, maybe one of my favorites on the North Shore!

I recomend this climb for anyone with experience on steep snow and mixed scrambles. Crampons and an ice axe are definitely required for this one. You could bring a snow picket if you wanted, but the most exposed section at the summit doesn't offer any solid spots for protection.  Make sure to check avalanche reports and weather before you set out, the climb crosses avalanche terrain and could be quite dangerous depending on the conditions.