A trip to Mount Garibaldi

Here's a short story: (the cliff notes version)

We packed up the car, after a late start from Vancouver, and left for Mount Garibaldi. The objective was the northeast face. It was going to be a long day...but attainable, with a very good weather system which kept the sky clear. After driving 3k up a logging road, we hit ice and could no longer get any higher. We were supposed to drive up to 8k. So, we had to add another 5k to our hike in (all uphill). This was going to mean 12k in 4 hours before dark.

We were bookin' it. We took minor breaks, and tried to keep moving.

We got to our campsite at 9:30, and were in bed by 10:30. We were planning for an alpine start, to make a go of the northeast face.

We woke up at 3:45. It was cold...after boiling water and eating breakfast, we started hiking by 5:00. 2 minutes into our hike. We saw Mount Garabaldi (see photo above...its the peak on the left). We were stunned...not because of how it looked, but because of where it was. We were on the wrong ridge. The night before, when we came to camp in the dark, we thought we were on the side of Garabaldi, camping on the ridge running right up to the mountain. In fact, we were on the opposite side....oops. Objective: denied. It would take to many hours to get to the other side, and still have a chance of summiting.

At least, it was a beautiful day. Our campsite is on the left

But...from our vantage point, we saw a hut, about 1 hour from our campside, sitting right below Garibaldi...so, we gave ourselves a new objective. Objective: check out the hut.

It was worth it. The hut was cool, and the trees along the way were interesting.

But, all good things must end. We were all tired (I think...at least I was), so we hightailed it back to Squamish for another objective: Tim Hortans, A&W Rootbear. Final Objective: Sucess.

All in all, it was a great outing with friends in the mountains...

The End