Hiking the kids to our Happy Place.

Mount Seymour is a pretty special place for Simon and me. This is where we had our first date 17 years ago. Back when the Mystery chair was still a rickety wooden 2-seater chair. Our dates consisted of playing 20 questions getting to know each other on the ride up and then racing down the mountain to see who was faster (I let him win of course).

Seymour 2008

For over a decade we had season passes to this mountain and we spent literally every Saturday hiking into the back country. We would build a jump and try 101 times trying to land whatever trick we were working on. We spent most of our 20's making memories here with a bunch of snow obsessed friends - we were the Saturday Seymour Crew. 

Then we had kids and we had to grow up...a little bit. We couldn't go snowboarding every weekend anymore. When we had just our little girl, we hiked with her several times up Mount Seymour in a baby carrier or hiking pack. We dreamed of when our kids might be old enough to hike with us.

Mount Seymour 2012 and 2013 with our sweet girl

Today was the day.  Our kids are pretty hardcore hikers now having conquered the Grouse Grind, BCMC trail, Sea to Sky trial and Mt. Garabaldi but they've never hiked in the winter with just their snow boots.  We couldn't find crampons small enough to fit their size 1 feet. Nevertheless, fuelled by enthusiasm and sporadic gummy breaks, they needed few breaks and we made it up to first peak just in time for lunch. No whining. No complaining. We were so impressed.

Just about to start hiking

At the trail head ready to go

Lunch at the top

However, the first rule of hiking in the winter is that don't stop moving or you get cold.  We probably took a bit longer than we should have eating lunch at the top because as soon as Little Brother finished his last bite of food he hit the proverbial wall and turned into weepy sobbing icicle. We hadn't taken any pictures yet so we quickly got the necessary Insta-worthy shots just as Little Brother starting bawling at the very peak of the mountain that he was so tired and cold and he just wanted to go to bed right now. Right when he was 1407m away from sea level and the furthest possible distance from the parking lot. 

Good thing Super Dad hiked the whole way up with his snowboard. He scooped up cold crying child and tandem snowboarded with him from the peak of the mountain back down with lots of people doing double-takes to see a little boy whisked down the mountain in Daddy's arms.

Good thing Big Sis wasn't cold or tired, she had enough energy to race down the mountain the rest of her body trying to keep up with how fast her legs were running. She also perfected the art of bum sliding down the steep sections making sure to avoid the vicious tree wells.

In our younger days, whisky jack birds would often come and eat the crumbs from our lunch and just like in the good 'ol days, the birds came by landing on the kids outstretched hand or the top of their toque to get the bread crumbs. That was a great distraction for Little Brother who who took a break from being cold or tired and enjoyed playing with the birds.

The entire hike according to my Garmin watch was 10.75 km round trip and it took us 5 hours (moving time) which is pretty impressive. So glad they were able to come share our happy place even if by the time we made it all the way back down these troopers were practically crawling. I think they'll sleep well tonight. And when they get a bit older, we'll have them hike up with their skis or snowboard just like we did...

Back to the car...finally!