Hiking Mount Strachan and Mount Hollyburn
Length: 11.7 km
Elevation Gain: 788 m
Difficulty Level:: Hard (not because of the distance or the elevation gain, but the difficult terrain, especially on the ascending to Strachan from Christmas Gully).
This is a loop trail and you could do it clockwise or counter clockwise. But it is highly recommended that you do it clockwise. The reason is below.
The trail starts from the Cypress lodge parking lot. You will follow the very popular Saint Mark Trail through halfway. When you hit a short wooden bridge, take a right turn to follow the general direction of the creek ascending to the peak. I said general direction. You really don’t want to walk next to the creek because it’s very dangerous. There should be a faint trail to the left of the creek (if you are ascending from the bridge). This part is called Christmas Gully. It’s steep and rocky. Adding the water splashed from the creek, it makes the trail very slippery at times. That’s why it’s not recommended to descend from the gully and that’s why it’s recommended to do this loop clockwise.
You will reach a small plateau after you gain over 300m of elevation in a very short distance. To the left is the Strachan North Peak, to the right is the Strachan South Peak. I highly recommend you go to the North Peak first because there is no obstruction on the North Peak. The ascending to either peaks is very short and not that steep. After you come down from the North Peak, just go straight to the South Peak. Again don’t try to descend from the Christmas Gully.
On the South Peak, you’ll see a chairlift station, so don’t be surprised if you run into tourists. It’s not uncommon to see people up there in jeans and sneakers.
After you have enough of the South Peak (to be honest there is not much to see on the South Peak compared to the North Peak.), you follow the Collins trail to get to Hollyburn. In the middle of the trail, you will encounter a plane crash site happened on 1963.
You will hit Collins ski run eventually. You will know it is a ski run because it’s wide and empty. Going down on Collins for a short distance, there should be a faint trail on the left that is marked with a ribbon which is hard to be noticed. That’s Hollyburn-Strachan trail. Follow that trail all the way to Hollyburn. Views on Hollyburn are partially blocked by trees. After you have enough of Hollyburn, there are two options to go back to the parking lot. One is coming down from Hollyburn trail from the south side of the peak to go back to the parking lot. Another is retrace your steps back to Collins, and going down Collins to the parking lot. I did the Hollyburn the last time. I will probably take Collins next time because that will save me some time.
The loop should take you about 4-5 hours in a moderate pace. I feel a fit person can even do Black Mountain with Strachan and Hollyburn in a day. You will bag all 3 peaks of Cypress bowl in one day.
