14.07.2012
Mosquitoes... so... many mosquitoes. You know it's bad when you're sitting at a Tim Hortons and slapping yourself sporadically thinking that they're still after you.
For all the inclement weather we faced in June, July has been fantastic. April, Fred, Kelly, Sophie and I arrived at the Whistler Olympic Park at about 7:20am. The original plan was to use the more commonly known trail leading from hub of Whistler itself. But Fred was a good salesman, and sold the majority of us on the more adventurous bushwack presented from the Callaghan Valley side. There is a gated entrance to the park, and it is only open 10am-4pm. We parked off the road, just short of the gate. I don't know if it's frowned upon, but we didn't run into any issues.
The route set out by Fred was to start gaining elevation from near the ski jumps. There were a series of roadways and forks, but if you keep a general bearing of North to Northeast, you'll remain on track. The point at which we started to bushwack was when we hit about 1070m elevation. The route closely followed the winter route, which is marked.
The bushwacking was pretty straightforward for the most part. We generally kept heading Northeast. The terrain was steep and marshy. Our movement was slow and trudging, which was a perfect setup for the mosquitoes attack so vociferously; they were horrendous!
It took us about three hours to get to Hanging Lake. The lake itself is still in process of thawing out. At this point we had re-joined the marked winter route. We skirted along the Western shore of the lake, and went for the saddle that led us Northeast to base of Rainbow Mountain. The Southwestern slopes of Rainbow Mountain were quite calm and enjoyable. The snow conditions were great, firm enough to provide stable footing, and good penetration when kick/plunge stepping. In my opinion, if you're comfortable on snow slopes, you'll likely be fine without an ice axe; even trekking poles may be extraneous, but you'll definitely not need crampons. The views at this point were overwhelming. My childish wonder and yearning for the Natural spaces was filled amply that day. Mountains beyond mountains, perhaps this is what Win Butler was picturing too.
The group got up to the edge of glacier. Leaning on Fred's mountaineering experience, he stated that the glacier appeared safe to cross on. Both routes as described by Matt Gunn in his book Scrambles in Southwestern British Columbia appeared doable, but we didn't get that far. I was quite tempted to burst ahead, and go for the route leading off near the rock pinnacle. But it was getting late into the day, and the group collectively decided to turn back.
The going back was amazing, the glissading... it was phenomenal! It was a quick glissade and boot ski back to hanging lake. We followed the marked route for a while, but at one point it became very steep, and it wouldn't have been fun to veggie belay down. We kept a general bearing Southwest. At one point we ran into some nasty microterrain, a cliff bank. The movement was very slow and measured; you can easily hurt yourself here if you rush it while bushwacking. Fighting through the Devils Club and flying bloodsuckers, we safely made it back to car at about 9pm; it was a full 14 hour day. I can't speak for the others, but I was feeling great.
This hike also taught me something, and that's how awesome humans are. It was great a joy for me to see the individual skills of each participant on this hike. April and how much she has learned between now and her first hike. Her tentative movement on the snowfields Slollicum were a distant memory as she rambled comfortably up Rainbow. During the car ride Sophie talked of her inexperience on snowfields. I visibly saw her become more fluid and comfortable while moving on the snow; flashing a smile while doing it. Kelly, her cerebral approach to the outdoors. Even with only three hours of sleep, she just kept moving; she stated stoically that Rainbow had been her toughest hike yet. Fred, his vast experience and knowledge of the outdoors. The guy is an alpine database just ready to provide answers and tell stories; we wouldn't have gotten through that bushwack without him.
My GPS track is little screwy right now. I have to delete some points off of it. I will update this post once I have done that.
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