Garibaldi Neve Mar29-31

Spent the past weekend up in BC with a group of 6 on the Garibaldi Neve
Conditions were ideal.  The roads are melted out to the TH, save about 1 or 2 kms on the Rubble Creek side.  The lake is still completely frozen and the 'schrund poses no major issues.  After Friday evening, all the clouds moved out and we had wonderful weather the entire weekend.  This was our second attempt at the traverse after getting shutdown by near whiteout conditions last May.


I left Bham at 6 on Friday, picked up some folks in Van and we were at the TH by 930.  The rest of our group had taken care of the car shuttle and we were on the trail by 10.  The trail to Elfin Lks was crowded.  We didn€™t spend much time at the hut and were eager to get across the Ring Creek avy chunder before too late in the day.  We made across the slide paths without much difficulty, except for a can of beer that got punctured inside someone€™s pack.  After what seemed like a long climb out of Ring Ck, we set up camp on the Bishop Glacier around 5pm.  The skies had been overcast to this point but as we set up our camp we got our first views of Garibaldi.

Beautiful sunrise on the Glacier, cloudless skies and practically no wind.  We couldn€™t have gotten better conditions for the trip.  We made the climb up to the ridge that marks the highpoint of the traverse.  From here, we turned west and made or way towards the summit.  Near the tent, we ditched our overnight gear and made a summit push with lighter packs.  We were able to skin up to the bergschrund and booted the rest of the way from there.  Crossing the 'schrund was a non-issue and there is a well-worn boot pack from there to the summit.  Skiing of the summit was amazing with a nice corn run down to our stuff.  We noticed some crevasses along the route to the sharkfin but nothing that wasn€™t well bridged.  We made it through glacier pikes and down to the lake by 5pm.  We set up at the glaciology huts for the second night. All six of us squeezed in for a warm night in the old shelter.

Another blue-bird morning had us out of the shelter and skiing across the lake by 9.  We made it across the lake by 1030.  From the shelters, we made quick work of the creek trail and skied down the switchbacks until about 1 km from the summer TH.  After a short walk we were able to put skis back on and ski out the remaining 1 or 2 kms down the road to the car.  After shuttling cars and getting everyone picked up, we met at Howe Sound brew for some well deserved drinks and food.

A great trip with great people.  The only minor casualities of the trip were a broken binding, a broken boot, and a punctured IPA.  Only the IPA was un-fixable.  It was nice to return to the area and completed the traverse after getting skunked last spring.  Thanks BCFC  for making this happen and for allowing me to have so much fun.  Let€™s do something again soon!!!