Mt Cheam Bike-2-Ski Adventure
- Greg Luesink
- Apr 28
- 13 min read
Updated: Jun 29
Jas and I set out on an audacious expedition to bicycle, hike, and ski up Mt Cheam. It turned into a superbly memorable adventure! Enjoy the read below, and also be sure to check out the Short Film that we made from the GoPro footage.
Table of Contents:
The Plan is Born
After a successful Spearhead Traverse with my friend Ben, the good weather continued, so the ol' noggin gears started turning for the next fun adventure. Jas and I brainstormed some potential objectives, including Mt Baker or Mt Cheam. Jas and I had skied Baker in 2024 via the Easton Glacier route, and we were curious what the North side of the volcano was like. A wild idea was to bike to the Heliotrope Trailhead, camp, then ski to the summit via the Coleman Demming route. This seemed like a pretty out-there idea, so we figured a smaller trip would be prudent to to nail down the logistics of such a grandiose multi-sport adventure. Mt Cheam was the most obvious choice, but being so close, we also considered just going for a fun single day outing. When Ben confirmed that he (and his epic 4x4 vehicle) were unable to join, Jas and I dove all-in on planning a two-day trip up Cheam with our bikes and skis.
It seemed a little crazy, but crazy always makes for a good story!
Before the trip, I loaded up our bikes for a test ride and quickly found some issues with speed wobble. Having the boots and skis hanging off the caboose really wasn't working out too well. In the photos above, you'll notice ropes and glacier gear, as I was curious how it all would fit for a potential trip to Mt Baker. Even with all the technical gear excluded, we needed more space to carry all of the equipment for something simpler like Cheam. This is where friends come in to save the day! Special thanks goes to our friends Andrew and Sandy, who lent us a bike front rack and panniers, as well as my brother Eric, who let us borrow his kid's bike-chariot. These made the trip a whole lot easier.
Friday, April 25th - Packing Day
I won't dive into the whole packing list, as you can read some other blog posts for what we typically bring on ski-touring adventures. Suffice to say, we had a lot of gear to bike, camp overnight, and then ski the next day. With the extra space from the borrowed accessories, we were able to put less on the bikes and load the bike-trailer with our backpacks and ski boots as well as an... unusual item.
Jas was experimenting with unconventional fuelling for adventure. She was determined to do the trip on little-to-no sugar or carbs. The only exception was chunks of 90% dark chocolate in her trail mix, and blue-berries in the chia we made for breakfast. Otherwise she ate vegetables, fats, and protein the entire time!
As you can imagine, this aspect presented some complications - should we bring raw food and a cook-stove? Nope, too much extra gear. Instead, we settled on pre-cooking the food to put in a small cooler, which fit perfectly in the bike trailer.
This was filled with pre-cooked burger-patties, chicken thighs (with coconut yogurt tzatziki sauce, yum!), hard boiled eggs, turkey-cheese wraps, veggies, and protein-chia for the morning. Suffice to say, Jas was quite pleased with the culinary integrations for this trip. We also packed a bunch of trail-mix and for myself, I didn't shy away from carbs, opting to eat Hornby bars, fruit bars, and a sandwich that Jas made for me.
While Jas was busy in the kitchen prepping meals, I was out in the yard loading up the bikes. After cinching down all of our gear, we were finally ready. Time to put them away for the night before setting out for a casual Saturday start.
Trip Itinerary
Unlike most spring-ski adventures, where an early start is essential for timing the corn-snow-cycle perfectly, but since we weren't even skiing on Day 1, we were in no rush to get on the road. I figured we could make it to the trailhead of Cheam in about 8 hours from our house to set up camp. The next day, the ski could take upwards of 6 hours, and the descent was a bit question mark, due to the bike trailer on the rough FSR.
The estimated breakdown for the trip was as follows:
Day 1 - "Bike" to Cheam Trailhead:
Leg 1: bike from home to bottom of Chipmunk FSR: 25km, ~400m gain.
Leg 2: hike-a-bike from FSR base to snowline: 10 km, 800m gain.
Leg 3: tow the bike-trailer on skis to Cheam TH: 200m? + any remaining distance on snow
Day 1 Projected Total: ~37 km, ~1400+m gain, estimated 8 hours?
Day 2 - Summit Day:
Leg 4: Ski tour up Cheam: 8+km (depending on camp location) with 700+m gain
Leg 5: Pack up camp, ski with chariot down to stashed bikes (~2km down FSR?)
Leg 6: Bike home: ~15km down FSR and 20 km on paved roads back home
Day 2 Projected Total: ~45+km, ~900+m of gain, and 2200+m of descent, Time??
April 26 - Day 1
Leg 1 - Bike to Bottom of Chipmunk FSR
All in, Day 1 was going to be a grind, so Jas and I made sure to get as good a night sleep as possible before setting out at a casual start time of 11 am. We loaded up all of our food, double checked that all the gear was securely attached to the bikes, and set off on the wild journey ahead!
The first 25 km of the day took about as long as expected. I figured we could hold a conservative average speed of 10km/hr up the inclining pavement, and we managed to do so in our "granny gears." Enjoying the sunny skies, the tall trees provided cool shade. Along the way, I only had to get off my bike once to push up a particularly long and steep hill past Slesse Creek. After about 2.5 hours, we were making good time, and ate lunch by a stream just before the start of Chipmunk FSR. As we ate, we saw our friend Jesse's car rumble past, assumably on the way back from a ski mission up Cheam. We saw Levi poke his head out the window eyeing up our bikes, but they didn't see us in the bushes and drove right past. Turns out Jesse, Sam, Levi, Lukas, and Wyatt were all squeezed in his Rav4!
Leg 2 - The Hike-a-Bike
At the base of the FSR, we knew we had a long climb ahead. One step at a time, we inched up the road. The first kilometre wasn't too steep, and we made reasonable progress pushing our bikes. Shortly after, we met a big hill, and as my shoes slid backwards on the steep gravel, my heart started to drop.
I've done a lot of physically demanding adventures, but nothing I'd faced felt as impossible as pushing the bike and trailer up this hill.
It took all my might to stop the whole contraption from rolling back down the hill, and me with it. But just when I felt like giving up, I looked up to see a beaming angel running back down the hill.
With a grin and a giggle, Jas braced herself behind the trailer and together we pushed the chariot-laden bike up to the next plateau.
I didn't want to let on how disheartened I felt about the 1000+ metres of climbing we had left, but this small moment filled me up with courage to press on.
I couldn't do it alone, but we could do it together. It's like some sappy metaphor for marriage right there: just when times are tough, I can lean on my wife for support, and she can lean on me, and together we can get through every steep hill that life throws at us!
After some more solo-pushing, the grade steepened once more, and we resorted to Jas pushing the trailer from behind, while I pushed both bikes up front. It was a fairly unstable system, and quite taxing for the leader, so we swapped pushing the trailer and pulling the bikes. We were getting exhausted from this HIIT style pushing, so we stopped to take a break.
In a stroked of genius, Jas asked if I brought a lanyard. I fished one out of the packs, girth hitched it to the chariot, and she clipped the other end to her bike's rear-rack. Eureka! A tandem-tow system!
This set-up worked quite well, as we didn't have to leave a bike behind to leap-frog, and we were much more evenly yolked in the pushing. Push, pause, push, break, repeat. Our bikes were like the pack-mules, but roles reversed, because we were the ones dripping in sweat!
Much to our relief, we reached a long flattish section of the forest service road, and were able to mount our bikes again. We pedalled in our low gears, crossing a large stream, and over Chipmunk Creek bridge. It was a much needed change to saddle up and we covered a lot of distance in a short time. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and we soon found ourselves at the base of the next steep hill. Before pushing ahead, we took a snack break in the form of turkey-wrapped cheese and spinach to fuel up for the grind ahead.
At this point, we were at about 1000m of elevation, and some late-start ski parties were walking down the FSR. We stopped to chat with two groups, and they let us know that snow-line started at 1200m. These brief interactions bolstered our spirits, and we were relieved to hear we had "only" 200m of vert to tackle. We were both feeling the fatigue, so we took breaks at every "berm" along the road. These control-ruts are certainly inconvenient while driving a truck, but they offered us intermittent reprieve from the steep pushing. Soon, we spotted Lady Peak glimmering in the distance, which sparked some pep in our step. Push, pause, push, repeat. For the steepest sections, we resorted back to dropping Jas' bike and simul-pushing the chariot, with one of us running down to retrieve the dropped bike. Just as reported, we reached 1200m and hit snow!
Leg 3 - Ski Haul-a-Bike-Trailer
After about 6 hours of riding and pushing our bikes on repeat, we were enthralled to utilize a different medium of transportation. Ditching our bikes in the bushes, we transitioned into our ski boots. I donned a climbing harness in reverse to tow the bike trailer behind me. The snow was quite soft, so the wheels sank in, but it was still better than anticipated. Jas positioned herself behind the trailer and used her ski poles on her hips to help push up the steepest hills. The whole time we couldn't help but chuckle at how audacious it felt to be towing a bike trailer on snow; this was no ordinary adventure!
A small stream crossing required skis to be taken off, but also provided a great spot to refill water before making camp later on. Shortly after, we reached a flatter segment, which provided awesome views through the monocular of the next day's goal. Cheam's summit glistened in the sun, and Lady's rocky south face loomed overhead of some ski tracks. Off in the distance, the American and Canadian Border Peaks shone through the Zoom Tube.
As the sun sank lower in the sky and the shadows grew longer, we started to think about making camp. We had thoughts of getting to the Cheam Trailhead, but instead decided to stop at the top of the hill, rather than walking another mile of flat.
We enjoyed the moody lighting as we pitched our tent, inflated our sleeping pads, and fluffed up our sleeping bags. After camp was made, we turned our attention to eating some dinner. While I boiled some snow for a freeze-dried meal, Jas salted some hard-boiled eggs to round out her chicken with tzatziki sauce. By 9:30 pm, we were nestled up in our sleeping bags, ready to go to sleep. After Jas and I half-heartedly reassured each other that "bears have no business being in the snow this time of year," we drifted off to a fitful sleep.
April 27 - Day 2 - Summit Day
Leg 4 - Ski Tour to Cheam Summit
We awoke at 6 am to the buzz of my watch alarm, and I slowly crawled out of my sleeping bag. I dug out the buried cooler and food bag so we could get started on breakfast, and dug a little bench out in the snow for us to enjoy the sun-speckled clouds above Cheam and Lady.
It was quite cold in the shadow of the mountains, so I carried Jas in her sleeping bag like a sack of potatoes from the tent to the bench. The cotton-candy clouds drifted across the sky as we munched our chia and trail-mix until the sun started to peek over Lady's shoulder. By 8 am, we had hung the tent fly to dry, collected our supplies, changed clothes, and packed our bags for the summit push.
We were hoping to summit in around 4 hours (by noon) and time the corn snow cycle perfectly. We trudged along the flat FSR to the trailhead, thankful that we'd decided not to lug the trailer all that way the night before. Passing the half-buried outhouse warranted a quick "pit-stop" (pun intended) before continuing on to Spoon Lake Bowl.
We reached the bowl by 9 am and started scoping the route ahead. The summer hiking trail was the obvious choice, but a short gully was a potential short-cut. We opted to get a little closer before deciding, and I tossed our skis over the stream before we crossed the bridge. I dropped down into the stream to filter some water, but nearly lost the filter cap in the process! In the end, we decided to boot-pack the gully, which was firm in the shade but doable without crampons.
Above the gully, we mostly stuck to the typical summer trail, switchbacking up the snow. One step at a time, we really put our recovery to the test after the gruelling climb from Day 1. Speed was never the goal of this mission, so we took breaks as needed, eating snacks and soaking up the sun. The SE face of Cheam posed a steep skintrack, with several wet-loose slides triggered by the previous day's riders. Nothing to be concerned about early in the day, but we'd be mindful of the steeper terrain on the way down. More than anything, the avy debris turned out to be an annoying interruption to the skin-track. On the upper sections, the ripening snow felt less confidence inspiring for our ski edges, so we ended up boot-packing a short steep section. About 200m below the summit, two lads from Bellingham passed us. Not long after, we caught up to them on the top, just before noon. We shared some conversation, and of course, they inquired if we were the ones that brought the bike trailer up. They laughed as we regaled them of our hike-a-bike journey, and they kindly agreed to snap a photo of Jas and me before they pressed on to tackle Lady Peak as well.
After a nice summit snack break, we clicked into our skis for the descent (which you'll have to watch in the Short Film below). I didn't get any photos on the way down, instead opting for GoPro footage. The first 200m of snow turned out to be incredible corn, providing some awesome riding, second only to fresh powder turns. The next 100m turned into mashed potatoes, so we changed to a more pre-cautious style of skiing to reach the middle plateau. Thankfully, the snow returned to corn, and we enjoyed some fantastic turns all the way down to Spoon Lake.
Around 1 o'clock, we were back at the bridge over the creek. Much to Jas' chagrin, I tossed all of our skis across, which landed somewhat precariously on the other side. After retrieving the skis from the brink of the precipice, we changed into shorts, as the afternoon sun was heating up. From afar, we could spot our red tent-fly through the nocs. Arriving at camp around 2 pm, we stopped to eat some lunch.
Leg 5 - Camp to Bike Stash
After packing up the tent, Jas came up with a great idea to use our ski poles strapped to the arm of the bike chariot so we could drag it down. Genius! We scooted down the remainder of the snow to the bikes in less than 30 minutes, excited to take our ski boots off and put shoes on again.
Much to our surprise, our good friends Ash and Lucas drove up to us just as we were loading up our bikes. They gave us a few snacks in the form of chocolate-covered hazelnuts, and even offered to give us a lift down. But, after pushing our bikes this far up, we had to at least try to bike home.
Leg 6 - Bike Home
The bike down started as a tenuous walk, which was bound to take too long. A technique I'd used in the past was riding "side-saddle," or standing on the pedal and leaning into the bike seat while the other leg served to counterbalance. This is a useful technique on chunky terrain as it is easier to jump off the bike quickly and slow down by walking. Jas, skeptical at first, gave it a try and quickly caught on. In no time, we were scooting down the steep hill, brakes squealing with the effort to resist gravity. Eventually, we reached the flatter section and were able to ride our bikes normally again.
We made short work of the FSR, and reached the bottom about 2 hours after leaving the snow line. All that was left was 21 km of pavement to get home! At Spoon Lake we figured we might get home by 8 pm, but we were making much faster progress than anticipated. In the end, we got home at around 6:45 pm, just over 3 hours after getting back to our bikes. This gave us plenty of time to cook up some dinner and unpack from the trip before going back to work the next day: such a blessing of extra time to end the trip off!
Overall, the expedition far exceeded our expectations and we honestly had fun the entire trip despite feeling fatigued at times. We were always there to give a hug, a smile, and a laugh to lift each other's spirits. It was rewarding to work together, from Jas helping me the first time by ditching her bike and pushing the trailer from behind, to her coming up with the idea to tether both bikes to the trailer to push together. Definitely an allegory for marriage right there! Jas' low-carb fuelling (which she'd been doing for over a month leading up to this trip) was also a smashing success. All in, we did our first winter camp, our first bike-to-ski trip, and undoubtedly the most iconic adventure we have ever done together so far.
Be sure to check out the short film we made of our adventure below!
These are the overall stats of the trip:
~2,500m gain and loss
~84 km by bike, foot, and ski
~19 hours of "on-the-go" time (including breaks along the way)
Day 1 = 9 hours biking, pushing bikes, skinning with charriot; Day 2 = 7 hours ski + 3 hours bike = 10 hours. (Strava writes as "Moving Time," often inaccurate).
We left at 11 am, and got back home before 7 pm the next day - a 32 hour adventure! Meaning, we spent about 13 hours for "transition time" between bikes and skis, and of course setting up and taking down our camp, eating, and sleeping.
Short Film - Mt Cheam Bike-2-Ski Adventure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etwI2Ly91rM&t=14s (in case video doesn't work)
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