A 45 hour crash course to Garbaldi Provincial Park

I guess this story starts in mid June when I hiked up to Garbaldi Lake with Smudge and my kayak to paddle this picturesque lake. That was when I saw Sentinel Bay for the first time and I was mesmorized by it. Unique peaks surrounding what seemed to be a massive glacier that flattened out into a stunning valley on the way to the lake. What I was most intrigued by was how much snow was still on this glacier compared to the rest located around the lake. I needed to ski that snow.

At a resting point on the way back down the trail, I noticed a map of the park that showed there was actually a couple of glaciology research huts in the bay that are used by back country skiers in the winter. An idea started to develop.

Unfortunately it took about a month to come together and after the heat wave we had for pretty much that entire month, it was making it less likely that all that snow would be around. It didn't matter though, I had just put together what I thought was the idea of a lifetime and I wasn't going to let logic stop me from trying it.

I had put together what I was billing as a "kayak/ski mountaineering trip." I mentioned it to my buddy Dan who was not only willing to humor the idea and come along but offered up his double inflatable kayak for the trip. This ended up being what really made this trip possible as the most complicated part was going to be getting everything the 9k trail to the lake.

Dan documented the first part of the trip but I didn't. After doing that hike a month previously with 60lbs on I knew doing it carrying nearly 100lbs was going to be absolute hell and I wanted to forget it ever happened. At about 9pm on wednesday night, we started up the trail.

The first kilometer came much easier than we had expected and lifted our spirits when we came across the marker for it but that faded quickly and each kilometer become noticeably more difficult. We tried to keep the breaks to a minimum as getting the packs back on was miserable but our fatigue got the better of us and we stopped a lot, not reaching the lake until about 12:30am. We now had to set up the boat and repack to fit everything on it somehow. This would have been difficult under regular circumstances, but like this we were literally giving it a shot in dark.

It wasn't long after we managed to squeeze ourselves into the boat and start off that we came across some complications. We came to the conclusion that Dan would stabalize the skis and navigate and I would paddle this tippy boat that is nearly 200lbs over capacity.

At 3:30 am our boat finally touched the shores of Sentinel Bay. Too tired navigate our way to the cabin we decided to pull out our sleeping bags and grab a nap. The sun was going to be up soon making it easier to locate the cabin and a route to it and an hour or two of sleep would give us a chance to recharge.

Thankfully it ended up being extremely cold up there and we couldn't sleep like that longer than an hour and a half. We got up and quickly started off in the direction of the cabin hoping the hike would warm us up. Thankfully it did quickly although we weren't done with the cold yet.

The cabin ended up being about 1.5k away from the water although any reports we saw said the cabin was only 500 meters from the bay. There is no established trail and it defintely required a little work to get to, we were both glad we hadn't gone looking for it in the dark.

It took a while but we finally spotted the cabins. We hurried over and check them both out and opted to stay in the larger of the two. We made our way back to our stuff and made breakfast before beginning the trek up to the cabin loaded with our gear. We decided to leave the boat and skis by the water. The snow had almost completely melted away and exposed a smaller glaciers than anticipated that had little to no snow at all. Skiing was going to be a lot more difficult then i had hoped.

Not a bad view from the stoop.

We needed to rest for a couple more hours and eat lunch before we headed out for some recon. We decided to head southwest torwards Mt Garibaldi hoping to find an easier way onto the glacier or some snow or whatever. We gained a small ridge and it was like we walked into another world.

We were in a gravel desert dotted by small snowfeilds that eventually lead up to a series of small glaciers that until recently consumed the entire area. Surrounded by some of the most distinct peaks in the park, we were in awe.

We made our way to a little peak to get a good look at what lay beyond. To our left was Deception Peak and the Sphinx, at our backs, Guard Mountain, to the right was the unmistakeable Table Mountain and ahead of us was the Shark FIn. We headed towards the dual peaks of Glacier Pikes and were stopped 50 meters short by the remains of a glacier. We decide to stop there and call it a day. We found a couple options for routes up a couple of the peaks for the next day with our gear and I even found a sloppy patch of snow I wanted to try and ski. We headed back towards the cabin excited for another day of exploring.

We got back to the cabin, ate, got into bed and read until we fell asleep. We woke up the next morning to some unexpected weather. We knew it was calling for rain but this was more than that. High winds, hard rain and looming clouds kept us in the cabin for a couple of hours. With no end in site and only the one day left we took a small window to get back across the lake before the winds picked up again.

Even with better packing the kayak was still ridiculously over loaded and poorly balanced. The paddle back was difficult as it was but when the water picked up it became a game of keeping the boat balanced as well as our composer. The wind was at least at our back and the 7k paddle went quickly. We repacked and ate at a warming hut , sharing our tale with whoever was willing to listen.

Although the trail down wasn't going to be as grueling as the slog up, it wasn't going to be easy. Our heavy packs found the familar bruises they established just over a day ago and settled on them uncomfortably. Grumpily we headed down the trail towards the parking lot but as we got closer to the car we started to get excited to never have to wear these packs again and our moods brightened. After about 2.5 hours, a few breaks and a lot of explaining to anyone we passed we found ourselves at the jeep a mere 45 hours after we left it.

It's never easy to leave a trip early no matter the conditions but it is the right thing to do when the situation is out of your control. The focus of an adventure tends to shift to the accomplishments that are achieved during it but the true goal should always be to try and make it out in the same condition you came into to it. Have fun out there.

For Dan's perspective on the trip and an awesome blog in general check out Fun Stuff in British Columbia!

http://www.paddleacross.blogspot.ca/2015/07/sentinel-bay-hut-via-garibaldi-lake.html