Regions
British Columbia is too big to browse as one list, so the guides are grouped by the drive you would actually make - the North Shore after work, Sea to Sky on a Saturday, the Fraser Valley when the alpine is still under snow. Pick a region to see everything written up in it.
The valley east of Vancouver, from the Stave and Hayward reservoirs above Mission out to Chilliwack Lake and the Cheam Range - lower, drier and warmer than the North Shore, with the steepest honest fitness climbs anywhere near the city.
7 trail guides · 2 h from Vancouver
195,000 hectares between Squamish and Whistler containing the most recognisable alpine terrain in southwest BC - Garibaldi Lake, Panorama Ridge, Black Tusk, Elfin Lakes and the Diamond Head massif. Reservation-managed in summer, serious backcountry in winter.
2 trail guides · 1 h 45 min from Vancouver
The mountains you can see from downtown Vancouver - Cypress, Grouse, Mount Seymour and the ridges between them. Thirty to fifty minutes from the city, snow-covered five months of the year, and the region where most Vancouver hikers learn what winter actually asks of them.
8 trail guides · 40 min from Vancouver
The Highway 99 corridor from Horseshoe Bay to Squamish and beyond - Howe Sound on one side, granite walls on the other, and the transition from North Shore day hikes to genuine Coast Mountain terrain.
6 trail guides · 1 h from Vancouver
Mainland BC that you can only reach by ferry - a strip of coast from Langdale to Lund carrying the Sunshine Coast Trail, Canada's longest hut-to-hut route, where every hut is free and nobody takes a reservation.
1 trail guide · 4 h 45 min from Vancouver
The outer coast, reached by ferry and then by a great deal more driving - Pacific Rim on the west side and Cape Scott at the northern tip, where the walking is short and easy and the getting there is the entire difficulty.
2 trail guides · 7 h 30 min from Vancouver
The top of the Sea to Sky, where Highway 99 leaves the Coast Mountains for the Duffey Lake Road and the terrain turns serious - bigger glaciers, longer approaches, and a winter season that runs from November into late May.
1 trail guide · 3 h from Vancouver