Garibaldi Lake Winter Hike

For January 30-31, the Avalanche danger rating was High/High/High for the North Shore mountains. After looking at options, Slawomir recommended we try Garibaldi Lake. Avalanche danger rating for Sea to Sky was Considerable/Considerable/Moderate. Slawomir had done Garibaldi Lake hike before in winter, and it was a safe bet.

The weekend before, I took AST-1 course with Canada West Mountain School and now reviewing Avalanche conditions is part of my trip planning process. Slawomir has done the advanced AST-2 course, so I find it helpful to discuss the conditions and understand his take on the risks related to different trip options.

Garibaldi Lake is a glacier-fed alpine lake in Garibaldi Provincial Park at an elevation of 1484 m. Last year, in summer, I was thinking of going here for a family backcountry camping trip. But given the elevation gain and distance, I opted for the easier Singing Creek on Cheakamus Lake. The weather forecast for January 30 was not great, but I was excited about this hike.

The trail starts at the Rubble Creek parking lot. Even though the road is plowed in winter, I would recommend an AWD/4WD vehicle as the road is icy. By the time we reached the parking lot, there were already few cars, and we saw groups of skiers and snowshoers at the trailhead.

Garibaldi Lake Trail

We started hiking around 9 am. I was wearing my mountaineering boots and carried microspikes as well as snowshoes in my backpack. As we hiked up the switchbacks, few sections of the trail were icy but manageable. Bahareh and Sima had done this hike two weeks back, and Bahareh mentioned the icy section in the beginning. Within the first km, we crossed a couple of partially frozen creeks.

About 30 minutes into the hike, there was an opening. The visibility was limited but still better than what I had expected.

About an hour and fifteen minutes into the hike, we were at the 4 km mark. The pace felt good, and my heart rate was in the 140-150 range for the most part.

We continued with the gradual uphill climb. We passed a couple of groups on our way up. Most of them were day hikers, and there was one group that was planning to camp overnight.

It took us about two hours to get to the Garibaldi Lake and Taylor Meadows junction. A group was putting on snowshoes, but we decided to continue hiking just on our boots.

Barrier Lake

Just past the junction is a sign for Barrier Viewpoint, but given the limited visibility we continued to hike.

Soon we were at the Barrier Lake. The other group took the summer trail, but after discussion with Slawomir, I felt comfortable hiking across the frozen lake. There was a good amount of snow on the lake, so we put on our snowshoes.

After we crossed the lake, we got back on the summer trail. It took us another 30 minutes to reach the trail sign from where the trail drops to Garibaldi Lake.

It is a short walk to the lake from here.

Garibaldi Lake

We continued the hike across Garibaldi Lake on our snowshoes. Even though the visibility was limited, I was in awe of the surroundings. I just imagined what it might be to stand on this lake on a clear day.

The day shelter was engulfed in snow.

Inside the day shelter, there are two tables. A group was already there having hot meals. I was not aware of the day shelter, so I didn’t bring my stove and missed out on some hot instant chai.

Past noon, the weather got worse, and it started snowing. Initially, we had considered going to Mount Price. But given the avalanche conditions and weather, we decided to head back down.

Once we got back to the Garibaldi Lake and Taylor Meadows junction, we took off the snowshoes. We kept a good pace and got down in about two hours ten minutes.

Even though the visibility was limited, I was quite pleased with the hike and our pace for a winter hike. We had hiked 18 km out and back with about 1060 m elevation gain/loss in less than six hours.