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[Beginner Friendly] Overnight Backpacking to Manning's Snass Mountain · Sat. Jun. 21st, 2025 - Sun. Jun. 22nd, 2025
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Start: Saturday, Jun. 21st, 11:00 am
End: Sunday, Jun. 22nd, 8:00 pm
Pre-trip meeting: Tuesday, Jun. 17th, 8:00 pm
Pre-trip meeting location: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/88538543134?pwd=6ddbTBMa9luabaehUtmtFuH1nWt1tK.1
Description:
I’m posting this trip in advance to gauge the interest in short backpacking trips!
Snass Mountain (2,309m) is a fairly big mountain located close to the western entrance of Manning Park. Like many other mountains in the area, getting to the summit usually involves a simple hike with a few easy and unexposed scramble moves (there may be a short class 3 move with low exposure but nothing crazy). The snow should have mostly melted off by mid-June in that area. The entire trip exceeds 20km with about 1,500m of vertical gain and considering the 2.5h drive to get there and that there’s a campground that looks pretty at the base of the mountain, I want to do this as an overnight trip! This means each day shouldn’t be too hard and therefore less experiences folks can join!
Game Plan:
Saturday we leave Vancouver late morning (exact time TBD) to start the hike around 2pm. The campground (Snass View Campground) is about 11km away from the trailhead which isn’t far, but some reports indicate sections with thorny bushes across the trail so this could slow us down. It should not take us more than 4 hours to get to camp though. We chill at camp in the evening (it includes a fire pit, so bring marshmallows).
Sunday we pack our gear and head towards the actual peak. We will hide our camping gear just before ascending but we’ll have to keep anything scented with us (food, toothpaste etc…) so as not to tempt the bears. There is a good chance that we’ll be hiking in wet snow on the way up (the rock will be dry), once in the alpine we’ll be walking on loose rock a good amount of time. We’ll soak in the summit views while having lunch and then descend and hike back to the car.
We should be back in the city at a reasonable time (no later than 7pm I hope), but if you plan on coming you should probably not have strong commitment Sunday evening!
Logistics:
I do not have a car so I’m hoping someone will have one, otherwise I should be able to get one for a reasonable cost.
Snass View Campground is an undeveloped/unserviced campground that requires a backcountry permit ($10). This means there’s no facility nor tent pads (picnic table and fire pit is all there is), so it is a bit more rustic than what you would see on Frosty are in Garibaldi.
Notes:
- By beginner friendly, I mean that there is nothing technical from a mountain climbing perspective. This is by no means a walk in the park and we will hiking through some overgrown sections of a trail and then off trail on snowy and loose rock terrain. The elevation gain is also above average. If you have the fitness level to hike something like Garibaldi Lake, Elfin Lakes or Frosty Mountain, you should be fine here and we will make sure to support each other throughout the trip
- If you don’t have all the gear for backcountry camping, we’ll figure something out but try to ask friends to borrow theirs if possible (I have a few spares myself)
- For those with limited backcountry travel experience, please familiarize yourself with the Leave No Trace principles. Being a “good backpacker” is not about hiking fast or far, it’s about minimizing the impact on the ecosystem we’re intruding and understanding it: https://lnt.org/why/7-principles/
Posted: 2025-04-09 10:56:55
Last modified: 2025-04-15 07:45:52