TR - The Black Tusk, BC a hiking tr 9/28/06

**HikeforTurns** · 10-05-2006, 04:40 PM

2006/09/28
The Black Tusk
British Columbia, Canada
Garibaldi Provincial Park
30km, 1615m gain
(19 miles, 5,300')
9 Hours

*not much beta in this report, just a ton of photos!

Capitalizing on a work assignment in Vancouver, BC., my brother and I decided to hike up to the Black Tusk in Garibaldi Provincial Park. We stayed the night in Whistler Village to shorten the drive a bit

. In less then an hour we made it to the Rubble Creek TH, which is inbetween the town of Squamish and Whistler. This TH is accessible for 2 wheel drive in the summer. After getting conflicting beta on the hike stats, I finally figured it to be about 19 miles and 5,300' gain with a detour to Garibaldi Lake. Unsure if we would be able to complete such a hike, we decided to go anyway and at least try and make it to the lake. We left the TH at 8:15am, under clear skies with an excellent day's forecast. Indeed, the weather was perfect during our weeklong stay, with clear sunny skies and warm temps.

Needless to say, under these conditions the scenery was absolutely amazing. The ascent begins right away as the trail switchbacks for afew miles to gain access to the upper valley. It was roughly 7.5km to the trail junction for Garibaldi Lake or The Black Tusk. From here we took a left turn and headed north towards the Black Tusk Viewpoint. At this point we started to get our first good views of the Tusk, which is a the remaining core of a stratovolcano.

The fall colors at this elevation were at their peak. Mostly ground foliage and small bushes, as the trees were all coniferous.

We also got our first views of the spectacular Garibaldi Lake!

We strolled on up to the viewpoint, a popular hiking destination in itself. It was still early and both Chris and I were feeling good despite the considerable distance and elevation traveled. We decided to continue on towards the base of the Tusk and hopefully the summit!

As we climbed up the steep volcanic scree, the views conitinued to leave us in awe. At the base of the Tusk, we got our first view to the north towards the Whistler/Blackcomb ski area.

Mt Garibaldi, Garibaldi Lake and a host of other glaciated peaks was the norm. Amazing! Once we reached the base of The Black Tusk, we contoured around the south and only route to get to the SW corner, where we would find the chimney granting us access to the summit massiff.

Here is the chimney, class 4

Chris had never done any scrambling or technical climbing so I had to coach him a bit up this part. If your used to loose exposed 4th class, Id highly reccomend this climb!

to be continued.......

**HikeforTurns** · 10-05-2006, 04:42 PM

After the intial chimney, we continued up more loose volcanic blocks to a v slot. This would be a tight squeeze for a large person...

One more exposed trail climb after the V slot and we were on the upper portion of the Tusk.

From here is was a stroll to the unofficial summit. Unfortunately it was here that we were greeted with the realization that we would not be standing on the highest point on this climb. Seperating the lower and upper summits is a 50 foot notch, followed by a rotten spire and climb of the summit mass. Without a rope I new this would not be an option.....

It may not look too bad from the photos, but let me assure you, even if I had a rope, I would be hard pressed to find the motivation to give this a try. Not much up here to fascilitate a rappel into the notch, let alone protecting the summit climb. Nothing but loose volcanic blocks, none much bigger then a grapefruit. However, the summiet has been obtained many times by competent/insane parties. I believe it was first ascended in the 1920's. "The outer peak, 10 or 20 feet higher than the main peak, was first climbed in 1920 by Tom Fyles, W. Wheatley and N. Carter or in 1917 by Tom Fyles(solo) depending on which edition of Dick Culbert's Climbing Guide you consult. In Mr. Culbert's 1st edition (if I may quote): "It is possible to jump to a gendarme straddling (the gap between main/outer peak), but a saner method is to rappel down and bypass gendarme to west." --From Bivouac.com

Allthough according to my peak bagging standards, I had not officially summited, I was more than content with our efforts. After about 30 minutes we began our descent, the only party to climb the lower summit that day to my knowledge. After we reached treeline again, we elected to take a detour to Garibaldi Lake, as it only added about 1.5km to our total day. This turned out to be an excellent choice, as the views from the lake shore were equally as impressive.

At the lake shore the temptation was to great not to take a dip!

It was an in and out swim, and after a brief rest, we reluctantly began our descent back to the TH. A return extended stay to th Garibaldi Lake in my future...............................

Here are some more photos

Here are afew aerial shots of the N Cascades from my flight home......

Mt Shuksan!

**PulverSchwein** · 10-05-2006, 04:50 PM

jeebuz that's beautiful, thanks for all the hard work putting the TR together. Most excellent!!

**Lani** · 10-05-2006, 04:53 PM

Cool shot of Triumph, Despair and the Picket Range above your two Shuksan shots.

**Hutch** · 10-05-2006, 04:58 PM

The Tusk is so impressive. thanks for the TR!

**taynton** · 10-05-2006, 04:59 PM

Me and a friend were planning on hitting that a couple weeks ago as an overnighter, camping at Garibaldi Lake but it never worked out. We figured we were too late to hit it as far as the weather goes now (and we are both busy for the next two weekends). It looks like a very nice hike though; we might have to watch the weather for an opening before the snow comes (or maybe after with the planks....). Great TR!

**skier666** · 10-05-2006, 04:59 PM

Nice pics man....very nice!

**Son1cdeth** · 10-05-2006, 05:53 PM

wow. I miss BC......thanks for sharing those....awesome photos.

**springsproject** · 10-05-2006, 08:02 PM

nice looking hike...too bad that water was so dirty

**Professor Chaos** · 10-05-2006, 08:08 PM

Hike thats awsome. Ive done that hike, but from the other side. I started in a place just before you get to Squamish (while driving from Van) and had to do about 4-5 hours of severe switchbacks to get to Garibaldi Lake, ate there, and then headed towards the Meadow to the base of the Tusk. Its a great workout and do recomend it to anyone, just be prepared for it.