Wedgemount Glacier descends the steep valley down from Wedge Mountain and flanked by Parkhurst Mountain and Mount Weart. A couple decades ago the glacier reached Wedgemount Lake with an abrupt wall of ice. Now the terminus is a few hundred metres from the shore and has a huge, gaping glacier window at its end.
Like a giant mouth, this huge ice cave with fridge sized chunks of glacier tumbling into the brilliant turquoise pool that spills into Wedgemount Lake. Wedgemount Glacier, along with the extraordinary turquoise coloured Wedgemount Lake is the big attraction to this beautifully wild and hostile alpine paradise. The seven kilometre Wedgemount Lake hiking trail is quite steep and with a heavy pack is very challenging. The trail arrives at Wedgemount Lake at the opposite end from Wedgemount Glacier, and at once everything comes into view. The sight of Wedgemount Lake surrounded by Cook Mountain, Weart Mountain, Wedge Mountain, Parkhurst Mountain and Rethel Mountain is breathtaking. To make the image even more incredible is the looming, stark white, hulking glacier that fills the valley at the end of the lake up to the summit Wedge Mountain. Wedge Mountain is the highest mountain in the Garibaldi Ranges and its broad, south facing, wedge shape has its north face encased in the monstrously thick Wedgemount Glacier. The brilliant turquoise coloured Wedgemount Lake contrasts with the almost black colour of Rethel Mountain and the blindingly white Wedge Glacier. Unlike most other hikes in Garibaldi Provincial Park, at Wedgemount Lake you have this amazing glacier to hike to in just a few short minutes. You can hike from your tent to Wedge Glacier in just 10-20 minutes. The glacier window is a pretty impressive sight up close and you grasp the enormous size of Wedge Glacier when you are dwarfed by this comparatively small feature of the overall huge mass of ice.
Mount Sproatt, or as it is known locally as just Sproatt, is one of the many towering mountains visible from Whistler Village. Above and beyond Alta ...
Blackcomb Mountain is much less known for its hiking trails than Whistler Mountain. It is hard to compare the two mountains hiking trails as they are so ...
The Cordilleran Ice Sheet covered most of north-west North America for much of the last 2.6 million years. At the Last Glacial Maximum during the Last ...
Wedge Creek cuts through the valley that separates Wedge Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain and empties into Green River near the north end of Green Lake. ...
The Rubble Creek trailhead is the main access point for many of the best hikes and sights in Garibaldi Provincial Park. Rubble Creek is located midway ...
Coast Douglas-fir trees are medium to extremely large trees that you will encounter in Whistler and Garibaldi Park. They are the second tallest conifer ...
Mills Winram was a very active mountaineer from Vancouver with some very notable ascents in the 1920's and 1930's. He, along with Fred Parkes and Stan ...
Moraines are glacially deposited ridges of debris that accumulate at the sides or terminus of a glacier. Lateral moraines form at the sides of glaciers ...
Charles Townsend (1900-1997) moved from London, England to Vancouver in the early 1920's where he met Neal Carter while studying Agriculture at UBC. Townsend was ...
The Peak 2 Peak Gondola connects Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain at a dizzying height of 436 metres(1427 feet). It runs all winter and in the ...
May is an extraordinarily beautiful time of year in Whistler. The days are longer and warmer and a great lull in between seasons happens. Whistler is fairly quiet ...
June is a pretty amazing month to hike in Whistler and Garibaldi Park. The average low and high temperatures in Whistler range from 9c to 21c(48f/70f). ...
July is a wonderful time to hike in Whistler and Garibaldi Provincial Park. The weather is beautiful and the snow on high elevation hiking trails is long ...
August hiking in Whistler definitely has the most consistently great, hot weather. You can feel the rare pleasure of walking across a glacier shirtless and ...
Hiking in Whistler is spectacular and wonderfully varied. Looking at a map of Whistler you see an extraordinary spider web of hiking trails that are unbelievably numerous. Easy trails, moderate trails and challenging hiking trails are all available. Another marvellous ...
Squamish is located in the midst of a staggering array of amazing hiking trails. Garibaldi Provincial Park sprawls alongside Squamish and up and beyond Whistler. Tantalus Provincial Park lays across the valley to the west and the wonderfully remote Callaghan Valley ...
Clayoquot Sound has a staggering array of hiking trails within it. Between Tofino and Ucluelet, Pacific Rim Park has several wilderness and beach trails, each one radically different from the last. The islands in the area are often Provincial parks on their own with ...
Victoria has a seemingly endless number of amazing hiking trails. Most take you to wild and beautiful Pacific Ocean views and others take you to tranquil lakes in beautiful BC Coastal Rainforest wilderness. Regional Parks and Provincial Parks are everywhere you turn in ...
The West Coast Trail was created after decades of brutal and costly shipwrecks occurred along the West Coast of Vancouver Island. One shipwreck in particular was so horrific, tragic and unbelievable that it forced the creation of a trail along the coast, which ...