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Chairlift Assisted Hiking

A weekend in Whistler

By Adventures Not Vacations

October 13^th, 2015

Getting there

For Labor Day, Meghan and I wanted to try somewhere new. I had never been to Whistler in the summer and we found what looked to be a pretty awesome lake nearby. So we made plans to drive from Seattle to Squamish, BC on Friday night, then head up to Whistler on Saturday morning for a two night trip in the Garibaldi provincial park.

Our plan was to stay at Howe Sound Inn and Brewery in Squamish. After a long wait at the border, we made it just as a bluegrass cover band was finishing their set. We heard a few songs, drank a few beers, and went to bed.

In the morning, we stopped by the brewpub again for a pre hike breakfast. We ate, bought some beer for the hike, and hit the road. Soon we were in Whistler, looking for parking. From experience we knew that there was an indoor lot at the heart of the village, near the Whistler and Blackcomb gondolas, so that’s where we headed. (Later, we found out there is free outdoor parking not too far away.)

We grabbed our packs and started walking through the village. Whistler in the summer is a weird mix of fancy looking tourists and scraped up, muddy, mountain bikers. We seemed to be the lone backpackers.

We made it to the ticket booth and while we were in line, someone gave us a free extra ticket! This was great because their sightseeing rates are outrageous. We paid for our one ticket and, at the suggestion of one of the mountain hosts, headed to the Blackcomb village where the chair lines were shorter.

That weekend, they had the Blackcomb gondola closed, but we were able to take chairlifts all the way up to the Peak 2 Peak gondola. We took that across to Whistler and then took the Whistler Peak chair to the very top. We at least were going to try and get our money’s worth.

Hiking in a ski resort

Our hike started from the top of Whistler Mountain, elevation 7,156 ft, and our destination was Russet Lake, elevation 6,233 ft. For the first time, we would actually be camping lower than our starting elevation. Don’t let those elevations fool you into thinking we didn’t have to do any climbing. The hike had several 1000+ foot ascents and descents along the way to the lake.

The hike started by dropping down from Whistler Mountain along the back of the ski area. The trail was very busy with lots of people up for the day. No surprise there. The views from the backside of Whistler are incredible. There is the impressive Black Tusk poking straight into the sky, and the bright blue Cheakamus Lake, and finally the countless glaciers and towering peaks.

We stopped for lunch before the final climb within the ski area. We saw a few backpackers on their way down and lots of people heading back to the village. We finished the climb and were treated to great views of the provincial park beyond the ski area boundaries from Flute Summit. The summit is part of the Musical Bumps trail, presumably named because the summits along the way are named after musical instruments.

About a mile outside of the ski area, we came across a lone ski on the trail. It was broken in front of the binding, but otherwise in good shape. It wasn’t the kind of ski people would typically take out of bounds and it didn’t have touring bindings. I would love to know the story of how it got out there, and how the person that brought it got back.

The next summit was Oboe Summit. The last high point before the lake. After cresting the summit, we saw a huge beautiful valley with Fissile Peak on the other side. That marked our destination, since Russet Lake sits in its shadow.

Russet Lake

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Behind Russet lake is Fissile Peak and below you can see the Overlord Glacier spilling down the mountain. In addition to the beauty, there were a LOT of people. We counted 15 tents set up around the lake, plus a small cabin that the park service had put up that could sleep about 6 people.

The campsites sit on a shelf between the lake and a valley containing the glacier. There was a strong wind blowing and people had piled up rocks in front of their tents to make windbreaks. By the time we got there, most of these sites were gone and we had to make due with what was left. Luckily, we found a patch of gravel in a boulder field that was flat and out of the wind. After a few minutes moving the large rocks, we had ourselves a campsite.

We made dinner, had some warm drinks, and ended up going to bed pretty early. We had plans to climb a mountain in the morning.

Whirlwind peak

While looking at maps of the area, we noticed a marked trail that went to the top of Overlord Mountain. It looked like a relatively short day hike that would be perfect day hike for our second day. It would take us around Fissile and give us great views of the Overlord Glacier.

We woke up and made a hearty breakfast of bacon and pancakes. Then we packed my daypack and headed up. There was a somewhat beaten path away from the lake, which soon became dirt and rocks as we left the last bit of vegetation behind in lower elevations. We came across a ridge that the map said the trail went up, but didn’t look very doable, so we tried going around it. It wasn’t the shortest way, but it did give us some spectacular views of Cheakamus Lake.

From the bottom of the ridge, we climbed our way up to what we thought was Whirlwind Peak, the first summit along the route to Overlord. Along the way we ran into another couple who was hiking towards Overlord as well. We could see some skepticism in their eyes, since we were wearing nothing but shorts and hiking boots. They seemed more prepared. They stopped for lunch and we continued on.

When we reached the high point on the ridge, we realized we still weren’t even to Whirlwind, instead we were at the edge of the Overlord Glacier. What we thought was maybe Overlord was actually only Whirwind. We had a long way to go.

From the top of the ridge, we had to drop down a bit to cross a snow filled gully in order to make the climb up to Whirlwind Peak. We looked around and saw clouds had lifted off of Fissile and now would be a great time to get up there. We crossed the snow field and headed up. The climb ahead was also snow covered and we hadn’t brought any traction gear or even our hiking poles.

Lucky for us, it was easy enough to follow patches of dirt and the snow was usually deep enough that traction wasn’t an issue. As we neared the summit, the snow got deeper and the temperature got colder. We could see clouds coming in on the peaks around us. Overlord probably wasn’t going to happen today.

We hurried to the top of Whirlwind and opened our summit beers. As we took in the surroundings, we noticed a group of people coming up from the other side. When they met up with us, we asked if they had made it to Overlord. They had not. The snow was too deep.

We donned our layers to stay warm, and finished our beers before heading back down the mountain. This time we found an easy way down from the ridge and were able to make it down much faster. As we got to the lake, a light sprinkle of rain began to fall.

Back to Reality

Luckily, the rain passed quickly and we never even had to take refuge in our tent. We explored the lake a little and took a look in the cabin. It looked like a great place for a backcountry ski trip. We went back to our site, made dinner, and called it a night.

In the morning, we ate breakfast, packed up, and headed out. Instead of going back to the top of Whistler, we would be taking the High Note trail back to the Peak 2 Peak gondola, then heading down.

The hike home was the same until we got back into the ski resort. This time we would be walking right through the heart of the Symphony Amphitheater and the Harmony Bowl. We saw marmots and chairlifts. As we got closer to the peak lodges, we came across a snowmaking reservoir that is protected by an electric fence. The signs said it was to prevent animals from falling in and drowning.

When we finally got to the Peak 2 Peak area, we saw that they had a snowcat set up that you could go inside. So we got inside and took some pictures. They also had some of their snowmakers on display. Whistler gets their snowmakers from a company right down the road from where I grew up in Michigan. Small world.

We took the Whistler Gondola down to the village and had lunch before heading home. Since it was early, we decided to stop by the Whistler Brewing Company, which is on the way out of town.

After some drinks, we got back on the road and promptly got stuck in traffic. We thought we were being clever going to Canada on an American three day weekend. It turns out that Canada has a three day weekend too (similarly called Labour Day) and we weren’t the only ones on vacation. With traffic and the border, we got to the US later than we wanted. Luckily we still had time for a meal at Aslan Brewing in Bellingham before heading back to Seattle for some much needed rest.