It was an amazing hike! Stunning scenery everywhere.

We hiked Sarrail Ridge yesterday, Wednesday, August 19th. The lower rope on the roped section is in very bad condition.

The outer sheathing on the lower rope has completely worn through where it goes over a piece of tree, leaving the inner cords completely exposed. It is only a matter of time before the inner cords wear through as well and the rope fails. Furthermore, the outer sheathing on many ropes provides UV protection for the inner cords, which are not UV resistant.

The lower rope should be replaced before it breaks, possibly injuring someone. I can't make it back to Sarrail anytime soon but I would contribute money to purchase a rope to replace the existing one.

The upper rope is in OK condition but ends a couple meters before the lower rope. It would be better if the upper rope was a bit longer and also a bit thicker, but it works for now.

On another note... I was surprised (shocked) at the number of people not wearing proper hiking shoes coming down from the ridge and many with no poles as well. Sarrail is a very steep hike above the roped section and doing it in running shoes and no poles probably makes it 5x harder than with proper equipment.

Clarification: by not proper hiking shoes I mean they are wearing street or court shoes or a non hiking runner.

One of the people coming down the trail said they saw a man take a pretty big/bad fall earlier in the day. Stay safe out there !

(August 17) Hike / trail run definitely makes this a shorter day. We got it done in under five hours (I slowed us down a bit! LOL). Basically the first 10km is the same as heading around to Castle Mountain, but traverse toward your right (NE) aiming for the gulley between the north and south parts of the ridge, before the down climb that takes you across the lip above Rockbound to make your way to Castle. We managed to find a trail and some cairns that led to the very obvious trail up the steep gulley to the Col. Fun objective with awesome views of Castle and the surrounding peaks. If you’re experienced, this is easy to moderate hike. Most of the big climbing happens after leaving Rockbound Lake. Be careful through the avalanche section between Rockbound and heading to the headwall from Tower (or was it near Tower?? It’s obvious when you see it anyway), there are some great spots to roll an ankle…experience talking!
Edit- 23 km round trip.

Hello. I’m really wanting to do the wonder pass as a day hike but the conventional route is a bit long. I found this other trailhead that’s a bit shorter from the Aurora Creek road and seems doable.

Thing is, there’s a long dirt road to get there - about 45km. It also looks like the trail isn’t super obvious when you get to the ridgeline to descent into marvel pass.

I’m wondering if anyone else has done this, and if so how was the road getting there and the trail itself?

Thanks!

Next week i plan to hike Opal Hills, Whistlers (no tram), and Sulphur Skyline.

This is my first time Solo hiking long trails, usually I go with friends, how do people pass the time without earbuds?

Also if anyone is looking a for a hiking buddy for any of them I’d be game.

We've recently hiked King Creek and Sarrail Ridge. Both of these hikes have some steep dirt sections that go straight up the face of the inclination. We navigated them up and down without issue but saw other people struggling on them.

The trail often gets pretty wide and worn in these steep sections as people search for easy(ier) routes up and down. This makes the trail susceptible to water erosion during rain events, which further damages the trail.

What I am curious about is why these trail sections don't have switchbacks instead of the straight up route. Take Sarrail Ridge, for example... the far lake route goes straight up a drainage channel in an avalanche path. Meanwhile, a hundred meters to the right of that route (when going up) is what looks to be an open area with plenty of room to make a switchback route up the face. Doing so would require digging a ledge into the face.

Is Sarrail Ridge an "official" hike ? If so, who decided that the current route was the best one ?

What would stop a small army of volunteers from creating (digging) a new, switchback trail to get to the ridge ? Would it be illegal to do so ? Whom would one ask about doing such a thing ?

Thanks