Blanca lake hike, a battle with the bugs

Joey Byrne
Aug 31, 2018 · 4 min read

Blanca lake is an alpine lake about 35km directly west of whistler (as the crow flies) with access coming from the Elaho forest service road out of Squamish. The drive was around 1 hour from Squamish up the Squamish valley forest service road. We took a quick right turn up the hill off the Elaho FSR towards the trail head which was surprisingly easy to find. Consdiering how little information there is online about the Blanca Lake area we were delighted.

We started the trail by parking my Jeep in a turn off on the logging road about 100m up from the trail head. The trail starts with a steep climb through the forest gaining most of the elevation within the first 2 hours of the hike. There isn’t anything unique about the first section of this hike, it’s standard coastal forest with a classically steep surpsisingly well worn trail. After about 2 hours of treking up hill you reach a crest and the terrain suddenly changes from forest to marshy alpine. This is where we stopped for lunch and a view of the valley ahead.

The second half of this hike is much easier than the first half. There is still an elevation gain but motivation to keep treking is fueled by views of the valley ahead.

The picture above is the final push before Blanca lake comes into view. You can see a faint outline of a trail though the grass on the left side of the picture. Even in late July, Blanca lake was still mostly frozen over. We were being harrased by bugs and decided to push around to the left of the lake and camp on a ridge where there was more of a breeze. We found our spot and set up camp.

The breeze that had given us bug relief disapeared and blue skys arrived.

We drank whisky, played cards, and occasionally broke down attempting to murder as many mosquitoes as possible with our hats. The sun began to set and we realized what an epic spot we had chosen to pitch our tents. The image below is of Blanca lake still frozen, with Blanca peak on the right side.

The sun finally set and we went to bed. Rocks digging into my back I realized it was time for a new sleeping pad.

Morning brought blue skies with a warm calm. Unfortunatly, would soon be interupted by the hoards of mosquites we had been batteling the night before.

We packed up camp and followed our route back to the car. Overnight, the dirt trail we had hiked up had turned into a swampy muddy mess. We all ended up on our buts more than once on the way down. One spill claiming the life of one of my hiking poles :( We arrived back at the car and made our way back to Squamish, making sure to stop at Wendy’s for a frosty and a Baconator on the way home.

Blanca Lake is a beautiful area with near 360 degree views of snow caped coastal mountains. The 1100m elevation gain took us around 4 hours from the car to camp (including lunch break) with the one way distance being 6.3km according to my GPS. While we were there (July 22–23) we passed active logging in the area surrounding the trail head. There was large machineray and felled trees, we could hear men with chainsaws working below us in a few places early on the trail.


Originally published at www.treadwild.com.

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