From Sea to Sky

After an excellent week in British Columbia at the Kokanee Glacier Cabin, I returned to BC the very next weekend with Wyatt and Chris. Our main goal was to ski Matier and Slalok, but we wanted to do something the day before on the way there. Wyatt suggested Rainbow Mountain, a prominent low angle peak in the center of the valley near Whistler. I actually did a trail loop near Rainbow Mountain during my first time visiting this area, and was blown away with the beautiful views in all directions.

The tour began at Whistler Olympic Village, the nordic area. They were running a late season weekend, during which they did not sell backcountry parking passes, so we had to park about a mile back at the Alexander Falls trailhead. We began with a short walk and then slow skin through the freshly groomed nordic trails.

When we left the nordic trails, the coverage was thin, but in. We had a pretty easy time following the summer trail up towards Rainbow Pass.

Once at Rainbow Pass, we still had a ton of distance and vert to cover. Overall, this is a very gentle, broad mountain, so we covered a lot of ground. Clouds were popping up with some spring instability, but we never got snowed on.

We crossed the dead glacier on the south side and climbed the final west ridge to the summit. The wind was cold for April, and the clouds created shadows all around us.

There were a few heli skiers who had skied off to the north before us that day. Winds had reached 100mph at Whistler just a few days before, but the snow actually seemed decent on the north side. It was literal “packed powder” – not bad, but not great.

A long climb brought us back to the col where we could drop back to the south side. We paused here, watching the clouds shift around us and sun break out. The clouds had lifted up to the top of the mighty peaks around us.

Rainbow is really in the heart of the Sea-to-Sky. From this vantage, we could see the Tantalus Range looming above Howe Sound, where Wyatt and I had a 20 hour epic last summer. The Black Tusk cut through the sky, reminding me of Logan and my’s circumnavigation of Garibaldi Lake. The highest peaks around Wedge were my first experience in this zone on the Armchair Traverse. And, of course, we could see the entire Spearhead Traverse, where Wyatt, Chris, and I had an unforgettable day nearly exactly a year before. So many great memories, and so many adventures still to be had in this amazing stretch of mountains!

The snow on the south side was variable, with moments of nice corn-pow and others of breakable crust.

We had to transition a few times for some brief climbs past the lakes on the way out. The snow got really bad below 4k, but we were able to keep our skis on all the way down. Then I got a little bit of skate skiing through the trails back to our car!

Rainbow Mountain was the embodiment of the Sea-to-Sky: a high, gentle, scenic mountain with some fun skiing if you know where to look. While it was certainly a step down in snow quality compared to my trips as of late, it was still a wonderful day exploring beautiful British Columbia!

Notes:

• Coverage was very thin around 3k where we left the nordic trails. Much later and there’d be significant hiking, but there is a nice trail to follow.
• When the nordic center is in its normal season, you can pay for parking, which saves you at least a mile each way. However, I believe they close the gate at 4:30 PM so you have to finish by then.
• The glaciers seemed very filled in and we saw no cracks or sagging.