Backcountry Adventures

Last weekend was a long weekend, so I went camping (in Garibaldi Provincial Park) with some people from church and their friends.

Getting ready in the parking lot.... (Lizzy, Jimm, and Noemi)

We're ready!

We were going up beyond there.

The 9km hike up to Garibaldi Lake started off well. We set off around noon and were making good time for the first few kilometres. Shortly after kilometre 4 we spotted snow, by kilometre 5 the trail was completely packed snow, and after kilometre 6 the snow was so deep that we could no longer see the kilometre markers!

Somewhere between kilometre 4 & 5

Around kilometre 6 we took a break and fed some whiskey jacks. They were so tame! (That's Chans.)

The higher we got, the snow deepened and the conditions worsened. We came to a spot where we had to cross a little bridge across a rushing stream. It was a little tricky getting off the trail and down on to the bridge and then back up the other side because the snow was so high.... especially with our packs!

You can see just how deep the snow is!

Another shot of the bridge - not very wide!!

The stream below...

The last 3 kilometres took us an average of about an hour per kilometre - the snow was no longer packed down and we would sink in every few steps. In some places it was pretty precarious, with a path of only 12-18 inches and then straight down on the other side. And we even had to detour off the actual trail for awhile because it wasn't even accessible, and the detour took us across a snow covered stream - we were walking on 6-8 feet of snow above a running stream!

The last hundred metres seemed to last forever. We were on the side of a mountain in deep snow. We had 3 pairs of snow shoes between the 5 of us, but even the snow shoes weren't really helpful because the side of the mountain was too steep so we would just slide down. Eventually we just decided to go down to the lake and snowshoe across the lake to our campsite (which later we realized was a bad decision).

Here you can kinda see how steep the mountain was.

This was pretty much the typical view - white.

This is all we could see of the lake...

(It's supposed to look like this!!)

We finally made it up to one of the cook shelters. After 6+ hours of hiking, we were happy to take off our packs and rest a while. As you can see, there was even more snow there - we estimated that it was about 8-10 feet, possibly even 12 feet in places!! I've never ever seen that much snow in my life!

Our handy snow shoes out front of the shelter.... snow-shoeing was a first for me too!

The view from the shelter

We had to get water from the lake. When we dug a hole, we realized that there wasn't even a layer of ice, it was just packed snow..... so it wasn't really that safe for us to be on it or to snowshoe on it.... (Chans filtering water for cooking & drinking.)

Despite the signs "No camping in cook shelters", we figured that since there was so much snow (and still snowing!) and very few people up there, we'd do it anyway. So we pitched our tents inside the cook shelters because it would be warmer. Besides, if anyone asked, we could say that we camped in our tents! ;)

We were originally planning on doing a day hike up to Black Tusk on Sunday, but with all the snow, we know it wouldn't be possible. Others we met on the way up had attempted and couldn't even find the trail. So we decided to hike down and camp along the Squamish River Valley in warmer weather!

Taking my turn at feeding the birds on the way down - it was such a cool feeling when they landed on your hand!!

Relaxing in the parking lot after the hike down - it only took 4 hours to get down. And look at the difference in weather! It was such an unbelievable contrast!!

Our second camping spot - a remote area long the river that we happened upon. It was so peaceful!

My friend Lizzy & I

We went exploring through the woods - it was almost magical!

We had fun after dark playing with embers and time elapse photography - can you see my name?