photo: Michael Bednar
Rockin’ in Squamish
Midway along the Sea-to-Sky Highway between Vancouver and Whistler, this fast-growing community is welcoming under-40 outdoor enthusiasts keen to climb, paddle, hike, bike, and kiteboard in the natural surroundings.
After a relentless hour of scrambling toward the 610-metre first peak of the Stawamus Chief, my partner and I are starting to feel as if we’re on some mythical never-ending journey. We’ve been lured along this 1.5-kilometre trail up the back side of the granite monolith by the promise of spectacular views of Howe Sound, the Squamish River valley, and the surrounding Coast Mountains.
When I was a suburbanite kid in the mid-1980s, Squamish to me was just a pit stop on the drive to Whistler, the Chief a giant grey “halfway there” signpost. Hikers, though, have long been attracted to the area for great backcountry treks within yodelling range of Vancouver. In recent years, that proximity has prompted Squamish to grow up and outward. With the impending Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, a renovated Sea-to-Sky Highway, and a flagging forestry industry, the former poor cousin to Whistler has been branded the “Outdoor Recreation Capital of Canada.”
Read more in the current issue of British Columbia Magazine
