New look for Stawamus Chief trail - BC Parks project

[squamish climber]

In case you missed this, BC Parks announced they will be doing some major repairs to the Chief backside trail this winter and spring. The project will include installing signage for climber's access trails. It's cool to see BC Parks thanked the Climbers Access Society of BC for helping out with recent trail maintenance.

Source: The SquamishChief newspaper

October 29, 2010

Nicole Trigg
Special to The Chief

Heavy use, steep terrain and rain have taken a toll on the backside trail in Stawanus Chief Park and local park rangers expect major repairs to the trail – beginning Nov. 1 – to be completed in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of BC Parks in March 2011.

“There will be days here and there when it will be closed but not for weeks at a time,” said senior park ranger for the Squamish area, Katy Chambers.

“We will have certain sections that will be re-routed and people can just follow the signage and check for updates on our website and at the trailhead.”

Issues include exposed routes, loose rocks, rotten staircase stringers (the dimensional lumber underneath the stairs treads), broken steps, broken handrails and trail braiding.

Braiding occurs when people shortcut sections or lose the main trail because it’s unclear which way to go since much of the trail is eroding.

“So if you hike up or down the trail you’ll see 4 or 5 different ways to go instead of just one trail,” said Chambers. “We’re trying to reduce that to reduce the impact in the area and to keep people on the right track so they don’t get lost or injured.

“In the busy summer months, we’ll have over a thousand people hike the trail in a day.”

Most of the work will be done in two phases between the trail head and the first peak turnoff in the lower part of the trail.

“We’re going to have the staircase at the bottom as our first project and that will start next week,” Chambers said, “and then we have the upper section above where the stairs end and that will be our phase two of the project.”

Some sections of the trail will be rebuilt and a big focus will be on delineating the trail which will be done in phase two. Plans also include creating a wider path and improving the signage for the whole park, for the backside trail and the rock climbing access trails as well.

While Chambers will be coordinating volunteer maintenance days with various groups throughout the winter, the heavy work and construction will be done by private contractors.

The last time trail work was done in this magnitude was the late 1990s.

“Parks is celebrating their 100th birthday on March 1, 2011 to celebrate the creation of B.C.’s first park, Strathcona [on Vancouver Island] and we’d like the completion of this [Stawamus Chief] park to be part of that celebration,” said Kendra Wood, Senior Park Ranger for the Garibaldi-Whistler area and BC Parks 100 committee member.

“Our park system began with Strathcona and now we have one of the largest park systems in the world.”

During the BC Parks 100 celebrations next year, Garibaldi Park will turn 83 and the Stawmus Chief – created in 1997 – will be 14. In the last 100 years, the number of BC parks has grown from one to just under a thousand, which includes parks, conservancies, wildlife management areas and ecological reserves.

Volunteers play an important role in maintaining the trails within the park and BC Parks would like to thank the Climbers Access Society of BC and the students of the wilderness leadership program at Capilano University for helping out with trail maintenance over the last month.