…and a quick Galiano Update

Over the long weekend we headed up to Squamish to do a day hike at the top of the Sea to Sky Gondola. We were hoping to go snowshoeing, but with this winter being what it is, there’s hardly any snow, even at elevation. So we met our friend Nicole at the gondola and deaded up to see what we would find!

Galiano Update

Before we get onto that, a quick update from our last trip over to Galiano. It was after the trip to India, and we headed over for a short visit to check up on the place. The weather has been so warm (for the most part) that all of our bulbs are starting to come out already.

Our main project for the spring it to try and build a deck onto the cottage. We were completely unable to find anyone on the island to do it professionally, so I guess it’s up to us to try and figure it out ourselves. This is likely to be a slow, error-prone process, but we’ll see where it gets us.

We started out with marking out the deck footprint and figuring out where we wanted the footer for the deck posts.

Then it was the slow, painful process of digging out the holes - 2 feet deep into our rocky, sandstone/clay soil is hard labour. But we got there - next trip we’ll bring cement and set the footings.

Squamish - Sea to Sky Gondola

OK, back to the main story.

We were greeted by a spectacular sunrise, as we had an early start.

The city looked amazing for a brief time, until the colour faded.

We got up to Squamish fairly early, planning to meet Nicole for around the opening of the Gondola. We needed to get our season passes made up, and wanted to be up before the Family Day hoards showed up. Processing the passes was quick, and after deciding that snowshoeing was out (they had closed all the snowshoe trails), we pared down the gear and headed up.

The gondola ride up is pretty quick - maybe 15 minutes - and we were early enough that there was no line up to get on. We were whisked up to the top and wandered about for a few minutes to enjoy the view and get ourselves organized for our hike..

The view out over Howe Sound from the top station.

There is a suspension bridge from the deck of the main lodge that crosses a pretty substantial canyon.

We headed down off the main lodge deck to go check out the trail map, and in doing do discovered that the conditions were treacherous - pure ice! Justine had a brilliant suggestion that we rent crampons so that we wouldn’t get ourselves killed falling off a trail, and went back to grab a couple of pairs. Nicole was smarter than us and had her own - we need to buy a set for the future. Re-equipped, it was time to head out!

We had decided to do a trail called “Al’s Habrich Trail”, which climbs fairly steeply up into the surrounding alpine. We were hoping to find some snow, but at the beginning, it was all ice and hard pack.

Justine and I had not done this trail before, and so we were open for a new adventure. It was supposed to provide great views out across the area and with the elevation gain and the nice day, we hoped they would be great!

We started the day with sun and mainly blue skies, which was nice. It originally had called for rain, so this was a welcome change. The clouds did come in over the course of the day, but it certainly started out well.

The trail from the lodge to the trailhead was a sheet of ice, so the crampons were a good call. As you make your way out from the base area, there are huge walls of granite that have very cool icicles drapping down.

Icicles dripping out of the cracks in the rockface.

You can see the trail we took in the middle of the image.

The trail followed roads for the facility for a while, before plunging down a short bank and into the forest. It was crazy how little snow there was, and even the small streams we crossed initially were all flowing completely unfrozen. I was expecting that most of it would have been frozen over.

This was pretty typical of most of the trail - hard packed snow and the crampons were a lifesaver!

There were peek-a-boo views as we started to climb.

The trail was relatively easy, other than the icy conditions. I could see it being a really nice summer hike. If there had been more snow, it also would have been great. As we climbed. it did get steep in places and even required some ropes and chains to help with the ascent.

Powering her way up the rock face.

This one, though it looks shorter was harder.

More nice views.

Before too long, we came to out first view point. It provided great view out and over Howe Sound, as we were facing out that direction. We made s hort stop to enjoy the sunshine and the views, before continuing on.

From there, the climb continued much the same. It worked it’s way up and into a more open part of the alpine and we spent a lot of time scrambling over open rock face. Surprisingly, the crampons worked quite well on the rock and the snow. This area was much more open and was facing more north, providing views out over Mount Garibaldi and up into the Squamish Valley.

There was still a bit of a view up into Howe Sound.

But the new view up into the Squamish Valley. It’s a very rugged place, with lots of wildlife. We need to go explore up there more. I’ve done it a few time, many years ago.

Mount Garibaldi off in the distance.

A zoomed in view of Howe Sound, and maybe Galiano off in the distance?

Zoomed in on Mount Garibaldi.

From viewpoint #2 we made a final push up to the third viewpoint. The trail continues further into the backcountry, but this was as far as we were planning on going that day. This section of the trail plunged back into the forest and gained some additional elevation in the trees. It was the nicest stretch of the hike from my perspective, and as we gained elevation, there was a bit more snow.

The trail in this last segment got much more interesting as we climbed to our last viewpoint.

There still was not a lot of snow and there were stretches where there was a lot of ice.

This one section of the trail was solid ice - those were steps int he rock that we had to navigate down.

There were lots of cool ice formations.

This massive tree was snapped off like a twig. On the other side you could see that it had rotted, but it was just huge!

Even the moss was encased in ice.

Eventually the trail opened up onto our last viewpoint for the day. The snow was a lot deeper here - we could have actually used snowshoes - not that hauling them up this far would have been worth it. We again had some nice views, despite the clouds having rolled in. We did see a couple of people off trail snowshoeing a little further up the trails. It was a good point to turnaround and head back to the lodge.

The view was back up and into Howe Sound.

We had gained quite about of elevation - about 400 meters - and were looking down at the top of the gondola.

It was still quite a nice day.

This is a mountain across the inlet. You can see a lake in the middle of the photo. I think it’s called Echo Lake, and it is supposed to be an amazing hike. We’re hoping to maybe tackle it this summer.

There was quite a bit more snow at this elevation.

After this, it was all downhill. We made good time getting back down, and while it was a bit tricky, it was not too bad. Before long we were back at the lodge and it was time for some lunch!

The map of our hike up into the backcountry above the Sea to Sky gondola.

A well-deserved beer on the patio after the hike.

They were doing caesar flights at the bar, so we enjoyed one with our lunch.

After the hike, we headed back to Nicole’s place and hung out with her and her partner Anthony for the rest of the afternoon. We had an early dinner at a local spot in Squamish before heading home and calling it a day. It was a nice change and good to get out for a hike.