Lake Bagging at its Finest

Garibaldi Lake in British Columbia is one of the most famous alpine lakes in the Northwest. Its giant blue waters attract hundreds of hikers every day. I, too, wanted to see its famous blue waters. When looking at a map, I noticed the possibility of a lake circumnavigation, seeing the lake from all sides and visiting some beautiful glaciers. It looked like a stunning route through a real-life geologic textbook.

Upon researching, I found the Garibaldi Lake High Circumnavigation, an Eric Carter route that bagged a bunch of peaks around the lake. But I could not find much information about a lower route, other than that it was feasible. An obscure hiking forum mentioned a waist deep river crossing in Sphinx Bay, so we knew that could be an issue. We also knew it was a dynamic landscape, with rapidly melting glaciers. We figured we could find a way around.

Because of its popularity, Garibaldi Provincial Park requires day use permits. Fortunately, they are easy to get for a weekday. Logan and I started from the Rubble Creek Trailhead around 4:30 AM. We were both tired from the Tantalus Traverse just 4 days earlier. Ideally, we would have had a longer recovery, but we had to be back in the US the next day, so we had to just send it.

Unlike the primitive trails of the Tantalus, the Garibaldi Lake Trail is a mega highway. We turned off for Panorama Ridge and began to tickle the alpine in the morning light.

While the Tantalus rushed up and down through that magical tree line elevation band, our route today was going to savor it. I was excited for some picturesque meadows.

Garibaldi Provincial Park is named for Mt. Garibaldi (Nch’kay to the First Nations people), the northernmost volcano in the Cascade Arc. But it is hardly the only volcanic feature in this region. There are at least 9 different volcanic peaks, intermingling with a high alpine mountain range, creating what I consider to be the most beautiful and interesting volcanic region in the PNW. The Black Tusk was the first volcanic feature we got up close with – a steep black spire of rock. Its origins are uncertain.

We had a cold breeze as we pushed up the final rocky slope to Panorama Ridge. It is an impressive 8 miles and 5k ft gain to Panorama Ridge, but a lot of people do this famous hike! I have found that the average hiker in this area seems to be incredibly fit.

Although I had seen probably dozens of pictures, I still thought Garibaldi Lake was impressive. It might be the largest alpine lake I have ever seen (excluding Lake Tahoe, but that doesn’t really count). The turquoise blue is deep and mesmerizing. And the glacial peaks like Garibaldi as a backdrop make it special. It was a bit smoky, but it was still beautiful.

If Garibaldi Lake feels abnormally large, that’s because it is. It is far too large to be a terminal moraine lake, like most alpine lakes. Instead, it has a volcanic origin. Around 11,000 years ago, lava flows over one thousand feet thick came down from Mt. Price and dammed the outflow, forming the lake.

After a nice morning break, we continued on our geologic interpretive hike around the lake. It seems that the common route is to stay high to Gentian Pass and then descend towards Sphinx Bay. However, we hypothesized that we could traverse a little lower to do less elevation gain.

We hiked through the first basin beneath Panorama Ridge easily and then contoured around the south side of Gentian Peak. The key was to hit the 6200 ft elevation band, where we were above the trees and could walk through nice wildflower meadows.

From afar, we could tell that the Guard Glacier was largely bare ice, which was concerning. We had left behind crampons, trying to go light. We had some dinky microspikes, but we were counting on snow coverage or being able to avoid glacial ice.

We hit the final ridge around 5500-5600 ft and then had to drop down to Sphinx Bay. This was a steep dry forest, with a fair amount of blowdowns. Mosquitoes ravaged us, but mostly I was terrified of another wasp sting, since this sort of dry forest is primo wasp terrain. My legs were still swollen from the Tantalus Traverse. We had a few uncontrolled slides on pine needles, but no stings. This was definitely the most unpleasant part of the trip, but we got through it quickly.

Down at Sphinx Bay, we had to find our way across the river. We expected this to be one of the major cruxes of the day. I’m not sure how long ago the glacier came down this far, but the brush is growing back. It was never too bad, but there was definitely light bushwhacking. We crossed low, relatively close to the hut (it’s Canada, of course there’s a hut), and shockingly found just knee deep water! Although there could be less water these days due to the melting glaciers above, it was a warm stretch of weather, so I don’t expect flow to be that much higher.

We were further down valley than expected, so we traversed up the next slope towards the Guard Glacier. What looked like an unstable moraine slope from afar turned out to be remarkably solid boulders.

It was completely unplanned, but we ended up bypassing the lower Guard Glacier to the west. By the time we joined up with the Guard Glacier, we had skipped all the lower blue ice and could hop on the easy snow.

We cruised up to Guard-Deception col and had a lunch break in the cool breeze. We were shocked at how well the day was going. We had made it through all major uncertainties with ease. Somedays, things just go your way!

The descent down the south side of the col was simple and once again, remarkably brush free. There were some beautiful wildflowers and streams emanating from the hillside.

Compared to the previous glacial valley, this was must have been more recently glaciated, because there was much less vegetation. The Phoenix and Sentinel Glaciers are very low angle here and are in fast retreat. The climb up the other side was easy. Be sure to fill up on water on this climb, because we would not encounter running water again until Garibaldi Lake!

We followed a ridge line towards the Table, another fascinating volcanic feature. While Garibaldi is the only known recent “supraglacial” volcano (i.e. it broke through the ice sheet during the last ice age and formed partially on top of the ice) in North America, the Table is a “subglacial” volcano. It never broke through the ice, and so is contained in a very steep formation with a remarkably flat top.

We then cut over towards the Table/Price col. Suddenly, Logan pointed upwards to a giant natural arch on the other side of the Table. It must have been at least a hundred feet tall!

We wandered through tree line meadows towards the col. Here, we followed beta from the internet. We turned right up the marked stream bed coming down from the Clinker/Price col. The creek is dry, but it provides mostly easy travel.

Despite the lack of water, mosquitoes once again swarmed us on this hot, south facing climb. But once we reached the col, the bugs disappeared and we strode up to the summit of Mt. Price.

Now, we only had to descend the Mt. Price trail to Garibaldi Lake and cruise back down to our car. Unfortunately, the Mt. Price trail is one of the worst “trails” I have ever been on. No fault of the trail itself – it travels through the same lava flows that dammed up Garibaldi Lake. The minerals from the lava flow have prevented much soil from developing, so it is essentially boulder hopping up and down across brushy lava fields for miles. At the end of a long day, it was a real butt kicker – the true mental crux of the day.

After an hour or more, we made it down to Garibaldi Lake and finally ran into the crowds of people. We were both parched because of the lack of water on this section, so we eagerly jumped and the lake and drank straight from it.

After crossing the outlet of the lake, the trails once again returned to great shape. In BC, there is truly nothing between primitive trails and highways. We were grateful to be back on a relative highway so we could cruise back to our car.

The Garibaldi Lake Circumnavigation was incredibly stunning, but also remarkably straightforward. In an area with seemingly endless beautiful high routes, this one deserves more attention because of how unique it is. The volcanic features complement the natural beauty, creating an experience I will always remember. Until next time, Canada!

Notes:

• Our route was 28 miles and 10,600 ft gain. It took about 13 hours.
• We never did anything harder than class 2. Most of the terrain is relatively low angle and straightforward. The hardest part was probably the steep forest descent to Sphinx Bay.
• We debated about which direction to go. Ultimately, we chose clockwise because it would be easier to turn around if we could not cross Sphinx Bay or ascend the Guard Glacier. The other direction would have provided a much more pleasant descent down from Panorama Ridge vs Mt. Price.
• Although we could avoid the lower blue ice of the Guard Glacier, we still crossed the upper snowy part. In later season conditions, this also might be 20-25 degree blue ice, so plan accordingly.
• The bushwhacking in Sphinx Bay will gradually get worse over the decades as the bushes grow back stronger.