A beautiful day up Church Mtn with Ziff , Karin Vickers, and Cameron Grewal.
Great forest hike 750 meters elevation gain from parking lot through forest & switchbacks (7 km distance) , then another 3 km with 400 meters more elevation gain. high up on the ridge just below the top. could not make it owing shallow snow over rock and exposure, boots with microspikes were slipping on rock. a little scary.
Great day... 20 km return by odometers or 16 km per GPS. elevation gain 1100+ meters, parking lot starts at 700 meters. summit is a little less than 1900 meters. Snow got to 30 to 40 cm deep and also drifted. At times it was pleasant, exposed ridge windy was very icy cold.
Photos: Trail head, no snow.... first snow started around 1100 meters, not much to note until we reached the meadow and open area 7 km into the hike, and at 1440 meters elevation.
Trail head, and trail up through the forest
Opens up at the meadow, and we head up and slightly right of the distant stand of trees, keeping below the snow slope until the end of the bowl.
At this point, we finished following the trail covered by 30 cm of snow, had lunch, and then proceeded up the ridge.
There was a sketchy place we had to turn around, thin snow rocks, and exposure.
Headed back.. into the bowl....
Trail had a fine moderate grade, good for the knees to head down, unlike some steeper trails up in our area; Chilliwack River Valley mountains.
K