Hiking the Chief
 

Has anyone hiked the chief lately? Which peak is the new gondola located? Is it pretty far away from the top? Thanks!

The gondola isn't on the chief. It's next to it, located just off the highway.

Actually did the chief yesterday, great time but as hud said, that Gondola won't get you to there

Is there a separate trail that will get you to the gondola? I've been reading how you can hike up and take the gondola down, but I have no idea how you even get there. Normally I would just hike down but my girlfriend has bad knees and would prefer to not go downhill

The sea to sky gondola hike is between 3-6 hour hike to get to the top of where the gondola is. Depending which trail you take the time can vary. When you park at the base of the gondola there is a trail that leads to a split. There will be signs telling you which route you would like to take. If you take left that will take you to the chief and right will be to the gondola peak. There will be markings along the trail and there will be signs telling you in which direction to go and how long each trail will take when going to the top of the gondola.

"canucksfan"

lol

Hiking the chief itself does not get you to the gondola. You must hike the Sea to Summit trail, which involves hiking the first part of the chief, and then splitting off to the S2S trail. That is the trail that has the new gondola.
The trail itself is 9k in length, with an elevation of about 1k. It's a great hike!

Good luck!

^looollll

If your gf has bad knees she may have a difficult time going up the Chief, never mind coming down. There are some sections that require some wicked knee bends and a large section of it is basically walking up stairs.

As others have said, you can't hike up to the chief and take the gondola down, the hike to the gondola is a different hike altogether.

Sea to Sky Gondola

this should help you. the gondola hike is pretty much split up into 3rds. 1/3 of it is a portion of the chief trail (pretty much the stair-like portion of the hike). next 3rd takes you to upper shannon falls. final 3rd, you have 2 choices: upper sea to summit (slightly longer but less vertical intensity) or wrinkle rock (shorter, more vertical intensity).

when i did the gondola hike from the base, i found the 1st 3rd to be the most intense since it was pretty much like climbing up stairs the whole time. for the final junction, i took wrinkle rock, which was a pretty fun stretch.

Like everyone said, as you hike it'll spit, left will take you to the Chief and right will take you to the Gondola. The 1st half of the hike is probably the hardest part, then the last half is pretty flat and wide.