My husband had a medical conference in Whistler and than had the weekend free after it so we planned to do some hiking and backpacking up there!
First, we took the Peak to Peak gondola and did a 4 mile hike to Blackcomb Lake. It was stunning!
A couple weeks prior I looked into backcountry camping in the area. I found that garibaldi provincial park was right outside of Whistler. In this park you can reserve backcountry sites online. I saw one left at helm creek campground and booked it. It was a 5 mile hike into this campsite. I did more research and found it was on the route to Panorama Ridge, an 18 mile roundtrip hike. We had very limited time to do this, a day and a half. I didn't know if we would be able to do it all in that time but we ended up making it happen. The trailhead is about 30 minutes from Whistler. You can access Panorama Ridge via two trailheads. We went in on the Cheakamus Lake one. The 5 miles to Helm Creek was a good climb with lots of switchbacks. It went through old growth forest and finally came out to a huge meadow that would be Helm Creek campsites. There is about 30 tent platforms that you can perch your tent on. There is a pit toilet here and a bear hang pulley system. We set up camp and hung out for the rest of the evening before our early wake up time to make it to Panorama Ridge.
Our wake up time was 5:00 and we were hiking by 6:00. We had a long day ahed of us with hiking all the way up to Panorama Ridge and back and then driving back to Seattle as well. We left our tent and most other gear in the tent to cary light packs up the climb. The hike climbs through more meadows and gorgeous lakes. The ever beautiful Black Tusk reveals itself along the route and it only gets better and better. It was so peaceful hiking so early with absolutely no one else around. We had the trail to ourselves for quite sometime. We eventually get to a river crossing that had a bridge for half of it and then rock stepping for the rest. A little snow walking and then the real climb begins at the end. It's on loose rock to the top and the last stretches still had snow. We got to the top by 9:00 and there were 2 other parties with us up there. The views of Giarbaldi Lake are so stunning. One of the best overlooks I've ever seen. The views of the surrounding peaks are amazing as well. We sat up there, ate some snacks, and then eventually made our way back down. We got to glissade for 2 little sections safely, which is always a blast. We shuffled back to our tent by 12:00 and ate lunch and packed up camp. We made it back to the car before 3:00 and then hit the road for Seattle. These mountains made me wanting more. This definitely won't be the last time that I explore them.
