We headed up the Squamish Main FSR, same access as the High Falls Creek trailhead. I’ve never been past the High Falls area, so I had very little expectation about what kind of shape the road would be in. Thankfully, it turned out to be… survivable, even in a low-clearance vehicle. No heroic driving needed, though the road felt biblically long , quite possibly the longest stretch of logging road I’ve ever traveled in BC (and that's saying something).
Eventually, snow blocked further progress, still holding strong even this late in the season—so we parked the car and added another 4km of hiking on the road to our day. From the end of drivable access, we bushwhacked into the forest, aiming for the South saddle below Little Ring. The travel was steep and a bit scrappy at times, but we gained the saddle and were rewarded with a stunning panoramic of the Little Ring massif and surrounding peaks. It’s a perspective I hadn’t seen before, raw, remote, and entirely worth the effort.
Our plan was to traverse along the south face and climb via the East rib, but our attempt was shut down by a massive overhanging cornice, sitting stubbornly about 100m below the summit. No safe way around, no safe way over. It wasn’t a hard decision to turn around, between the intimidating wind slab and the howling wind trying to convince us we’d made bad life choices, it became very clear that this wasn’t the summit day we hoped for.
At the saddle, we lingered briefly in the cold to soak in the views before descending. While we didn’t tag the summit, it was a solid day of Type 2 fun , exploratory, scenic, and humbling. The mountain will still be there next time (hopefully without the cornice).
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