Looking for a location for spring (April and May) muscular endurance training that meets the following requirements:

1. Snow
2. Steep, the steeper the better
3. As close as possible to the Lions Gate Bridge

I can bend on (3) but not on (1) and (2).

I was thinking either the Grouse Grind or the south-facing slopes of the Cypress ski area right under the Lions Express. I'm not sure how well either will fair once May comes around (or April for that matter).

I'm happy to take an axe and crampons and I don't mind doing circuits of something if it can give me at least 200m in one shot.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I'd just run up Harvey couple of times. To ridge, Lions viewpoint, avi safe. Compact snow April/May. Think russelcoffin did it recently ~4hrs return, if you can beat that you are ready to go

Thanks for the suggestion. I saw his post and he mentions no snow until 750m and light until 1200m. I'm really looking for somewhere I can go for a couple of hours after work and more or less step from the car onto snow!

North Shore, i.e Grind you mention, will not have different snow conditions from Harvey. So if you want to step from the car onto snow, it means you have to drive up. Only 2 areas that are reasonably close then come to mind: Cypress and Seymour. On Seymour only thing I can think of is Pump peak. Warm up by powering to Brockton, then take old Seymour trail. This is very steep (but also avalanche prone). On Cypress there is Christmas gully up Strachan which is also avalanche prone. Safer bet, and one I'd probably chose considering all of the above is Black Mtn. Trail on Cypress. It has ~300m vertical to Cabin Lake and is fairly steep. If not long enough, you can always run up&down couple of times since training is only thing that matters.

Thanks!

EDIT: Just had a look at Google Earth. It seems the top of the Eagle Express is only a little lower than Black Mountain but more direct up and should be much faster to get down again for laps. So I think I'll give that a shot when the ski area closes (mid-April maybe?).

"Trail on Cypress. It has ~300m vertical to Yew Lake and is fairly steep. "
Are you perhaps thinking of Cabin Lake - the Yew Lake trail is flat from the parking lot while the climb up to Cabin is a good stiff climb?

Upper Flint on Grouse has good steps now, it's steep. But the bottom is bare so it doesn't meet your snow requirement. Do you need steep snow right from the start?

Yes, mixed it up; fixed already. Thanks!

I second the cabin lake trail, this meets your needs perfectly. If the ski slopes are closed, just go straight up them to Mount Strachan on the other side, or even Christmas Gully in the later season when there are no avalanche concerns.

I'm probably going to start with the Grind for now so don't mind if it's not snow the whole way. How's it looking right now? Where does the snow start and will spikes suffice or have you been taking crampons? I'm a little bit hesitant to take the Flint & Feather by myself at this time of year since I've only been up once before in summer and I'd say it sees almost nobody this time of year.

Similar to the point above I'll probably stick to the more well trodden, well marked routes for this. But out of curiosity, where is Christmas Gully? Looking a t Gaia here I see two prominent gullies on the Strachan side, one climber's left of the chair and one further away to climber's right which joins up with the "Collins" run. Is it one of those?

No. It is gully on west side, between north and south peaks. You hike HSCT for about 1/2 hr to Strachan Meadows



That is Strachan North (higher) sunlit upper center left. Here you leave HSCT and go right and up.

It should say Christmas Gully in Gaia. It comes from the west off of the HSCT.

Definitely bring spikes at this time of year but this morning I did not use them on the Grind, there was a skiff of new snow that provided some traction. Flint is seeing more traffic this winter, on Saturday I ran into 2 other parties.

Currently using local alternative "Stairwell F"