Unnecessary Mountain: 1,300 Metres of Climbing for a Peak Named After Being Pointless

The name is not a joke made by hikers. Unnecessary Mountain was named by climbers who resented having to go over it, because for a long time the only practical route to the Lions crossed this summit and it added a large amount of climbing to a day that already had plenty. The south summit is 1,548 metres, the north summit 1,543, and the parent peak is West Lion at 1,654 metres.

The modern Binkert trail from Lions Bay traverses below rather than over it, which means Unnecessary Mountain has quietly become optional. And that is exactly what makes it interesting. Almost everyone on that trail is going to the Lions. If you branch off and go over the top instead, you get one of the best views on the North Shore, and you get it without the summit-block scramble and without most of the people.

What you are signing up for

Roughly 13.5 kilometres return and about 1,300 metres of gain to a summit at 1,548 metres. Seven to nine hours for most people. This is a hard day and the difficulty is entirely in the sustained climbing - there is no technical section, no exposure that requires nerve, and no route-finding puzzle in good conditions. It is just a very long uphill.

For comparison, the full Binkert trail to the Lions is about 16 km with 1,280 metres of gain and takes most people around eight hours. Unnecessary is shorter and marginally steeper for a similar amount of vertical, which tells you something about the grade.

The climb starts almost immediately from the Lions Bay trailhead and does not really relent. The lower and middle sections are forest on old road and singletrack, steep and steady, with limited views to distract you. This is a grind and you should treat it as one: start early, set a pace you can hold for three hours, and eat before you feel like you need to.

Around 1,200 to 1,400 metres the forest opens into subalpine, and the day transforms. From there to the summit you are in scattered mountain hemlock and heather with Howe Sound opening up behind you, and it stops feeling like work.

The summit

The reason to come is the view of the Lions. From the summit you see the twin peaks across an intervening ridge at a distance that renders them properly as mountains, layered and three-dimensional, rather than the foreshortened view you get from directly beneath them on the Binkert trail. It is the best angle on the Lions available to anyone who is not climbing them.

Beyond that you get Howe Sound spread out below as a fjord with the islands chained down it, the Coast Mountains stacking north, and on a clear day the city and the Strait to the south. The summit is open enough to move around and find angles.

Snow, which is the thing that catches people out

The realistic season is July through October. Late September and early October are the best of it: clear air, no bugs, thinned-out crowds, and the sun low enough to give you decent light even in the middle of the day. By late October snow returns and this becomes a mountaineering objective rather than a hike.

Parking in Lions Bay

Same regime as every trail out of this village, and the length of this hike makes it more consequential rather than less, because you will be away for eight hours.

The Sunset trailhead lot holds roughly 18 pay stalls at $3 per hour up to $24 per day, paid through PayByPhone. There are very few spots near the yellow gate and on a summer weekend they are gone by first light. Most streets below Highway 99 are restricted to annual resident permits and enforcement runs seven days a week with high penalties. The legal overflow is the marked stalls near the elementary school on Bayview Road, which adds a steep kilometre each way - use the designated stalls, never the road edge, which is permit-only.

Vehicles parked illegally are towed to North Vancouver. On a day this long, pay the full $24 up front rather than guessing your return time and coming down to a bylaw notice or an empty parking space.

TransLink route 262 reaches Lions Bay with about a 1.6 km walk to the trailhead. For a hike of this length the limited timetable is a real constraint - you need to know the last departure and be confident you will make it, and being on a schedule is the wrong headspace for a 1,300 metre descent.

Dogs, and why the answer here is no

Dogs are not prohibited, but this is not a good trail for one and I have marked it accordingly. The distance and vertical are a serious day for any dog, the upper terrain is rocky and rough, and old snow on a steep slope is as bad for a dog as it is for you. The general guidance for the Lions and its approaches is that dogs are discouraged for exactly these reasons. If you want a Lions Bay day with your dog, Tunnel Bluffs is the better answer.

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Trail notes from the field

One email a month: what is melting out, what is snowed in, and where the light is good right now. Written after the hike, not before it.

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