Mount Elphinstone

Mount Elphinstone - 1266M

571M Prominence

49.46338, -123.53010

May 18, 2026

1040M Ascent and descent

3H 20M

13.35KM

After a great day and afterparty for the 25th Danger Bay longboarding event I needed to get my legs moving again. I had originally thought of going up Mount Varley, but I was definitely not feeling up to it in the morning, and from the beta I have read it is better in the winter. After lunch I set my sights on a quick tick in the form of Mount Elphinstone. Not a particularly striking peak nor an interesting one, but absolutely loaded with trails, mainly for biking. I decided to park at the end of Gilmour road instead of the more popular start from the Langdale ferry side. I think they are probably pretty comparable and meet up soon enough anyway. I wasn't sure if I was able to start there due to all the no trespassing sings, but the trail does in fact start there. The trail started off quite steep for the first few hundred meters of ascent, then evened out a bit. I tried to take the most direct route possible which followed the yellow tree markers, but I did loose the trail a few times and ended up hiking up more singletrack style bike trails. The trails were all enjoyable hiking though, and the forest was nice an varied. Nothing technical and nothing of note up to the summit, with only a few marginal patches of snow above 1200M. The summit did have some worthy views despite being a bit treed in, so I took a 15 minute break. The air was a bit cool though so I soon headed back down. I half ass jogged parts of the descent to get a bit more of a workout in, and just went right back down the same way I came up minus the singletrack detour.

Interesting to see the massive old growth stumps compared to the new growth

Average trails

Short boardwalk through a mire

Not sure what exactly this building on the summit is for

Summit shot

North shore peaks of Mount Harvey and the Lions, not sure what is what here

Looking up the sound toward Squamish

Straight ahead is Panther Peak in Tetrahedron park, the uninteresting Lothian peak is in the 
foreground behind the tree, and Mount Varley has snow on it to the right side of the valley

Zoomed in on Mount Varley

Gibsons down below and Vancouver in the far distance

Warning...

Mount Elphinstone route