Annette J.
Yelp
Sulphur Mountain is a grueling hike in the winter. Probably pretty tough for non-athletic types in the summer months, too, but in winter? MAN OH MAN. Get your crampons and get ready to take slow steps because it's about to get icy.
1/2 inch thick ice basically coated the trail all the way up. For roughly 3.5 miles you're going uphill, at an elevation gain of over 2,000 feet. I'm not the fittest or athletic person in the world but I've been running 5Ks the last year and most of my vacations the last two years have been centered around hiking and exploring the wilderness so I felt like I could handle this one. It was close, but I pulled it off. Thank God for those crampons and my hiking poles, though. I could not have done it without them. It was just too icy.
It's a steep grade all the way up and I had the great Richard Thompson's song "Wall of Death" playing through my head throughout the whole hike. Now, that song is about a rollercoaster but the line, "the switchbacks will make you crazy" felt very applicable to us here. It was switchback after switchback, with seemingly no end in sight and as we seemingly got closer to the top it was maddening not knowing just how far away we were from the end.
But the view on the way up is incredible. It makes every step so worth it, especially as you get higher and higher and can see more of the surrounding mountain ranges and wilderness below.
The crampons were messing with my alignment and halfway up the hike, my right hip started to wail. I had to stop every 15 feet because every step forward on the incline was torture. There's no bailout once you get going and it's easier to go up than down (especially on the ice) so I just had to push through. About 2/3rds of the way up, the weather turned and it started to snow, the sky clouded up, and the winds began to blow. The view, that was once so incredible, was starting to cloud over. But it was beautiful in its own way and the silence was incredible. My hip might have been nearly bringing me to tears and I might have been cursing myself for beginning the journey, but I also never felt such peace and quiet. The falling snow on the trees was breathtaking. It was simultaneously the most physically challenging, difficult thing I'd ever done and one of the most stunning and rewarding experiences I've ever had.
After nearly 3.5 hours I finally made it to the top. Sure, most of the view that we were heading to the top for was obscured because of the snow but I was so damn proud of myself for finishing it that I almost cried. I was greeted at the top by a huge ram snacking away and the beautiful creature combined with my sense of accomplishment and the majesty of the mountains did me in. I took my crampons off and, with my alignment back to normal, my hip felt totally ok again. And that's when it happened--between the dissipating pain and that damn hiker's euphoria kicking in, every curse word I said on the way up, every time I swore I would never do this hike again, suddenly was forgotten. It didn't really feel THAT bad in retrospect (although it was), and I could totally do that again (I could but I shouldn't). I was on top of the world, literally and figuratively!
I found my other hikers and we high fived like crazy. We were in a tribe together. We climbed an effing mountain! I was a bad ass human! 5 stars for Sulphur Mountain! 5 stars for us!
Additional info:
At the top, you're greeted by a visitor's center with a shop, informational area, a small takeout market, and a restaurant complete with booze and warm beverages. And don't worry, you don't have to hike back down. The gondola will take you down. It's a much easier trip back to the base than up (unless you take the gondola up too, which is an option).
