The backyard of British Columbia is one of the most majestic areas on this planet and Vancouver is one of the most accessible cities in the world for outdoor adventure. Yet as a born Vancouverite, I’ve found myself taking my own backyard for granted for most of my life. After traveling to over 30 countries and searching for different national parks and new cultures, I’ve come to finally realize that there is nowhere I want to see more than the area I was born, the Vancouver Sea to Sky.
On August long weekend 2015, my good friend and tech mentor to ShareShed, Jef King, led us on an adventure that has created a paradigm shift in how I few Canada and the mountains we have at our disposal. We hiked from Squamish to Whistler (S2W) through the Coastal Mountain backcountry, tackling a variety of glaciers, mountains, and rivers. What amazed me most about this trip is the variety of landscape and challenges we faced. It felt as if I was reading a book and each chapter was in a new area with new risks, rewards and beautiful uncertainty.
Day One
Chapter One: Squamish to Elfin Lakes
A group of six of us met on Friday and drove from Vancouver to Squamish. A couple guys from the group dropped a car off in Whistler for when we arrive three days later. We started our hike at Diamond Head Trail and hiked towards Elfin Lakes.
The BC coastal mountain landscape is gorgeous in late summer, with spring flowers everywhere and the mountains painted a luscious green. If you haven’t done this hike before, I highly recommend it. No experience necessary and little fitness is required.
We took our time and made it up to Elfin Lakes for sunset. The mountain turned a bright pink and the air become crisp. Breathing the air quality in the mountains feels like taking a chug of freshest drink our world has to offer.
Day Two
Chapter Two: Elfin to the Start of Glacier Travel
We woke up at sunrise since this is the biggest day of our four day trip. We hiked the Mamquam Lake Trail through abundant green mountains and before we know it the wild blue berry plants started to vanish and we were above the tree line.
The trails are well maintained and super easy to navigate. This was the last trail we were going to see for awhile.
The landscape was now made up of rocks that were different shades of brown, red and yellow. Our easy meandering path turned to scrambling along huge rock slides. By late morning we felt like we saw a week worth of hiking.
Chapter Three: Lava Glacier; Our first glacier hike
All we could see from hiking up the loose rock was rocks and a river that was caused from the glacier melting. After hours of hiking, without nearly any sign of vegetation or a sight of the glacier we were climbing towards, we arrived at the beautiful beast, Lava Glacier. We changed into our mountaineering boots, crampons and covered up to avoid getting burned from the sun reflecting off the snow.
Jef was blown away by how much the glacier has shrunk from the last year he did the hike. This glacier was quite flat and stable, allowing us to run around solo and attempt to take in the size and beauty of our new found landscape.
We hopped over small crevasses and cracks in the glacier, stopping to drink the fresh glacier water, and making our to our first glacier accent.
This part of our trip was pure fun. The crevasses were small and the glacier was stable. Taking the below photo was somewhat nerve racking but all in good fun.
Chapter Four: Climbing the Steep Glacier of Atwell Peak
When Jef first started hiking from Squamish to Whistler five years ago, there was no rocks on the glacier and nearly no life threatening crevasses. In 2010 there was only thick glacier snow that was relatively easy to navigate. The effects of global warming has hit our BC mountains hard and at this rate this hike no longer be possible in the near future. Adjusting to the new landscape, we climbed across rock and sand covered snow towards the to the bottom of our first serious glacier ascent.
We made it out of the dirty ice and started solo hiking towards what became the steepest ice ascent of our trip.
The climb became extremely vertical and we roped up for our first time. Just as we roped up we saw a couple mountain goats effortlessly trotting across the side of the mountain we were about to climb. Before we headed up, we took a minute to rest up and mentally prepare.
We put the cameras away and zigzagged our way up. The slope was so steep that I was using my crampons to create a ledge for the side of my foot to walk up. Because of how steep the slope was we were often stuck with one person above another person while zigzagging our way up. If one person falls, we all fall.
No photos here — much more focused on staying alive.
This part didn’t last long and before we knew it we were back to climbing in a single file line, along side incomprehensible crevasses. For the next couple hours we hiked until we reached the top of the glacier between Dalton Dome, The Tent and Mount Garibaldi.
Chapter Five: Our First and Most Life-threatening Descent
We stopped at the top of the crevasse for a snack after what felt like a full day by anyone’s standard. Most of us were out of water at this point but everyone was in great spirits. After a short rest we strapped on our bags and started the journey down the backside of Mount Garibaldi.
By now we are in mid afternoon and the sun has been melting the snow for most of the day. My crampons started to hold snow making every step slippery as if I was wearing runners. Every three or four steps I would hit my ice axe against my crampons to remove the snow, but because we were tied up as a group I would have to stop everyone for me to get the snow out.
Camera’s are back away — focused on staying alive again.
We then made it to the end of the flat glacier alpine, where were faced to descend a steep bank which leads us around a gaping crevasse that most likely drops hundreds of meters. The slope felt extra sketchy with my crampons filling with snow every step. I would walk a few steps then yell out, “stop” to the group in order to hit the snow out of my crampon. What felt equally as scary was standing on one foot, with a 60 pound backpack on to try to hit the snow out. Staring into a darkness of crevasse beside us didn’t help either. It was part scary but more so exhilarating to be surrounded with such beauty. Then it happened. I took a step with my crampon filled with snow and slipped. I started sliding towards the crevasse without comprehending that I could loose my life. I tried digging my crampons and ice axe into the snow to stop myself. Luckily we were roped in and the group we were with saved me by absorbing the tension. Lucy was tugged to the ground but was able to keep from sliding as well. This was a massive wake up call that I needed to hit the snow out of my crampons every single step. We continued on, staying grateful for our lives and the equally grateful for the area we were in.
After my fall, we safely made it around the giant crevasse and had a view of the glacier ahead. The glacier looked like a zebra, with split after split until a drop off that we couldn’t see over. We decided to jump over the crevasses at the thinnest point. One risk is that we’ll spend hours hopping over the crevasses and then we’ll reach one that is too big to jump. We could jump over 20 but then get stuck on our last one and have to jump over the same 20 back to where we started. We decided to go for it. After jumping two of them, it felt as if we made the wrong decision. The jumps were sketchy and it simply didn’t feel right. Our guts were telling us to go back so we did.
After we made it back we decided to climb up and around all the crevasses. This area was also risky though because there could be hidden crevasses, but it felt much safer at the time. Mentally we were somewhat still in shock from my fall but matched with a sense of relief that we weren’t jumping over another 20 bottomless drops. Our sense of relief was quickly stripped away from us as Lucy’s entire leg fell through the snow into a covered crevasse that we were above. We all instantly dropped into the snow and started to dig our crampons and ice axe into the snow in case her entire body drops through. We were scared that she was going to drop and wanted to get her out and away from that area as quickly as possible. What made matters more challenging was that Lucy’s crampons made it difficult for her to get her foot out of the snow. No one could walk near her to help pull her out or else the there would be a chance of our entire group falling in. She pulled and pulled and luckily made it out without the crevasse caving in. Another close call. Once again grateful.
We then started to jump over areas that lined up with the crevasses we walked in alignment with to increase our chances ever so slightly of avoiding someone falling in. After hours of glacier travel and two life threatening close calls, we mentally were quite prepared to make our way off the glacier as quickly as possible.We hiked until a fork in the glacier, both ways were filled with uncertainty since we couldn’t see below the drop offs. One option was hiking through the zebra like glacier, the other was walking over a glacier bridge towards another glacier all together. We decided to take the risk of walking over the bridge to avoid the rest of the crevasses that littered North Pit Glacier. We made it safely over the bridge and continued hiking towards The Sharkfin.
Continue with Daniel on his adventure.
Part 2. (coming soon)
