June 9th to June 16th 2024
Getting to the Start:
Drive 1.5 km down the Mamquam River FSR from the Hwy 99 junction. The Trail begins directly off the side of the service road.
Challenge Description:
Start your watch as soon as your feet leave the FSR. There's a clear start/entrance to this trail.
Start up the Slhanay trail. You will quickly encounter a first junction - the disaster response route - where you will want to stick left onto the Slhanay Trail. The trail is loosely marked with orange markers on trees, but until you reach the base of the climbing crag about 1/3 of the way up there are no junctions. At the climbing crag, the trail heads up and right. Follow that traverse but take a left junction at a steep switchback. For those who are familiar with the area, turn left away from the Chief 3-2-1 trail.
The trail then follows a forested bench above a couple gullies. Turn left at two obvious junctions to head North towards the Hanging Gardens trail. From there, pink flagging was added to make route finding easier. There are many ways up Slhanay, the fastest way is the GPX track down below and the blue track on the map.
As long as you start your watch on the Mamquam FSR and you stop your watch at the summit of Slhanay, we will consider your time as valid no matter which way you go up the Hanging Gardens.
Stop your watch when you touch the tree at the top of Slhanay.
- Distance: 2.2 km
- Difficulty: Hard
- Elevation Gain: 650 meters
- Where to Park: 1.5km up Mamquam River FSR
- Surface: Expect dirt, roots, rocks, fixed ropes.
- Park Here
- GPX Track
- Strava Segment Link