This long weekend (30.06 to 02.07) we decided to take the chance to get some glacier experience and ended up on Mt. Garibaldi which is close to Squamish.

We left Saturday morning and hiked to Elfin Lakes Hut where we stayed both nights. Sunday morning (Canada Day) we left towards the top at 3 am together with Martin from France whom we met at the hut the night before. He is not on many pictures because he was way faster than we were :) . After 12 hours we came back to the hut and were happy to get out of our boots! On Monday we hiked back to the car.

To give you some help in the orientation:
This is the view from the hut towards Mt. Atwell / Mt. Garibaldi (~2678m) on the backside (hidden), in the clouds. The first evening we hiked up on the top of the mountain which is in the front.

 

At the beginning of the trail, still laughing and happy.
Our bags were really heavy - we put them on the scale when we came back. Seppel's had 22kg and mine 15kg (after the trip!!!)

 

We hit the snow after a few meters of hiking. We knew that the hut was supposed to be covered in snow up to 4m!

 

On the way up, there is another hut, Red Heather Hut. We had a lunch break here!

 

The snow looks funny: All the formations are from melting snow and rain.

 

You can see Elfin Lakes Hut in the back and the Lake on the right.

 

After short nap we decided to hike on the top of the mountain close to the Hut to get a good overview towards Mt. Atwell/Mt. Garibaldi. The weather became better and better!

 

The next morning: We started hiking at 3 am in the darkness and had gorgeous weather. After small problems finding the trail we changed our route and decided to hike via Diamond Head. This is one of the shortest routes but has one tough section: the crossing from Diamond Head towards Mt. Atwell!

 

The sunrise at 4:30 am ...

 

Unfortunately we didn't take many pictures in between. We made it over the ridge from Diamond Head towards Mt. Atwell. This is already close to the top of Mt. Garibaldi, from the East, behind Mt. Atwell.

 

There is really a glacier under the snow :)

 

The last steep section above the Bergschrund, Martin and me.

After the steep section we came to a plateau. I stopped there, Seppel climbed on the top and Martin unfortunately couldn't because he didn't have crampons (only snowshoes), but he hiked on the snowy top on the other side (about 20 meters lower than Mt. Garibaldi)!

Seppel at the top (I MADE IT!!!)

 

Part 2 : More Pictures of the top and the descent

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