Regions: BC Coast / Greater Wedge / Castle Towers Park: Garibaldi Provincial Park JavaMap . ZoomMap . Automap . Radius Search May 11, 2006   (8 days) Calculated Length: 79 km     Elevation Gain: 6976m Participants: Betsy Waddington, Robin Tivy, Doug Brown, Sandra McGuinness Difficulty: 4: Steep sidehilling above cliffs, some avalanche, cornice danger Equipment: Skis, Ski crampons Abstract: Concise route description including traversing the Garibaldi Neve and the "Musical Bumps". Some discussion of alternative routes. Value: 49

Access Level: 1 = Any Car   Access via Diamond Head Road, and car left at Whistler.     Final Access Road: Diamond Head Road

Trip Report: This is a condensed route description for the McBride Traverse. See also my Full Trip Report. It is written to be most useful south to north - just print it out, then mark the route on your map, and then consult the specific paragraphs while on your trip.

Our route includes the Garibaldi Neve traverse to Glacier Pikes. But rather than starting from Diamond Head, many parties start from Garibaldi Lake, which is 1 day shorter. From Glacier Pikes, contour over to Phoenix Pass then up to Sphinx pass and around the Bookworms and down to Gray pass. Then traverse across to the Crosscut-Luxor Col, and then around Hour peak, and down to Drop Pass. Then traverse across the Forger Glacier, and down into Wolverine Pass. Then climb up east of the Gatekeeper to the Sir Richard-Lecture Cutters col, then down the McBride Glacier to Diavolo Creek. Then up Detour Ridge and thru the Benvolio-Fitzsimmons Col, around Overlord and out via Singing Pass and the Musical Bumps.

Here are the specifics:

Section 1 - Diamond Head to Glacier Pikes

Plant a car at the north end (Whistler), then drive back down highway 99 to start at the Diamond head parking lot. (See waypoints). To find the Singing Pass Parking area from the highway, turn right on the main road into Whistler village, then left on Blackcomb way, and right into the gravel parking lot. Then follow signs directing you left to "Singing Pass parking". Where you park there is a sign saying "Overnight Parking for Singing Pass Permitted in this Area Only".

From Diamond Head parking lot, ski the trail to Elfin Shelter. The summer route goes west around Round Mountain, and is an hour shorter. From Elfin shelter, head east above Ring Creek. Cross three major gullies in deep slushy snow, the elevation of the last gulley is 1435m (see waypoints).

After the gullies, continue east at about the same elevation until you reach the point below the Gargoyles where you have to descend toward Ring Creek. This descent can be worrysome, because you will be crossing avalanche debris from the Gargoyles above. Once you have decended to an apron at 1310m, you will reach a "morraine" which forms the west bank of the tributary coming into Ring creek from the small lake north of the Gargoyles. This is referred to as "Goth Creek". (see "apron before moraine" in waypoints). Goth creek will be completely covered with snow. Although many people descend the morraine directly to Goth Creek, we found it was safer to instead follow the morraine down to its lowest point, then kick steps down the spine of the morraine (3 or 4 trees) to get to the level of Ring Creek, somewhat south of the confluence of Goth and Ring. This means the SE part of the morraine, rather than the usual oversteepened NE slopes. You end up below the confluence of the tributary and Ring Creek, and then you can double back (NW) to come around the corner. Once at the level of Ring creek, cross Ring Creek to the east side on snowbridges above the Goth-Ring confluence.

Head north, up the east side of Ring Creek. This should not involve any steep slopes, to 1680m and beyond. Ski up the middle of Garibaldi Glacier and onto the Bishop Glacier, then over the high point on the Neve traverse. Once across the high point, turn abruptly west and traverse down and over to a point just below the ridge coming up from Shark's Fin. Then turn north. This avoids the crevasses that are lower. At the Shark's fin, ski down the steep little hill just east of the rocks and to the broad pass between the Warren and Pitt Rivers, then climb the slight hill to the pass NW of Glacier Pikes.

Section 2 - Glacier Pikes to Gray Pass Glacier Pikes is the point at which you branch off from the standard Neve Traverse. Traverse over the north shoulder of Glacier Pikes and down to the pass between Sentinel and Phoenix Glaciers (Called Phoenix Pass). Our high point was 6211 feet, see waypoints. From Phoenix Pass, climb north, up to Sphinx Pass, which should be fairly easy. From Sphinx Pass contour across the Sphinx Glacier. You'll have to drop about 300' (100m), then put skins back on to climb around to the Bookworms. Stay near the crest of the Bookworms ridge until you get right onto the spine of the ridge coming down from Carr. This will involve bypassing the blocky towers of the Bookworms. We stayed on the east side, but I suspect it is better on the west.

[This is the point at which a route coming up from Garibaldi Lake would intersect the route from Sphinx Pass.] [Another variation as done by Klaus Haring, is to bypass Sphinx Pass and Gray Pass completely by going directly down the Phoenix Glacier and into the Pitt River at about 4300', then climbing NE up ridge and morraine to glacier W of Isosceles.]

The descent from Mt Carr to Gray Pass is via the rock ridge coming from Mount Carr. In general, stay on the rocky ridge, but go off to the northeast where necessary. The south side of the ridge looked too steep. There is at least one very steep snowface that you should bypass on the north. This puts you on a lower shelf, where you can descend a few hundred feet more on rock, then a short steep cliff which can be side-stepped to again swing around below rocks to the north side of the ridge. From here it is an easy ski down to Gray Pass.

Section 3 - Gray Pass to Drop Pass

(Luxor Col, Hour Peak, Sinister Peak)

From Gray Pass, head south along the west side of Isosceles Peak to the notch between Crosscut Ridge and Luxor. At the start, stay reasonably high to avoid the steep slopes lower down. As you get to the south end, there may be some slide debris from the slopes above. Once through the col, drop a bit then climb slightly, contouring across to Hour Peak. Then drop a few hundred feet to 6600' and swing around to the col NE of Hour Peak. North of this col is Sinister Peak. See South Ridge of Sinister Peak.

[From this col, the Klaus Haring route drops directly east into the Pitt River and then climbs up the Pitt to Drop Pass.]

The normal route bypasses Sinister Peak via steep slopes on the northwest. This had a huge cornice in 2006 May. As an alternative, one could kick steps up the very steep little slope going up to the top of Sinister Peak. This was also corniced.

Once past Sinister Peak, normal route is to stay high on the ridge till Watchdog Peak (just above Drop Pass), then work one's way down the ridge from Watchdog. It is usually necessary to be slightly N of the pass on the lower sections, you can't see the cliffs below till you get close to them. Some parties have bypassed the Watchdog by contouring down into Drop Pass directly from the col immediately N of Sinister Peak.

Section 4 - Drop Pass to Wolverine Pass

(Traverse of the Forger Glacier)

From Drop Pass, climb the slopes of Fake Peak, the southeast peak of the Forger Glacier. Boot stepping and then easy skiing. At about 6600' start contouring around the corner of Fake Peak, rising slightly to 6800' and cross the northwest slopes to the saddle in the center of Forger Glacier (See waypoints). Climb over the southeast shoulder of Forger peak crossing the ridge about 300' below the peak, and descend into "The Snowbowl" on the far side. From the Snowbowl, swing north and drop gradually to get over a small ridge at about 7000'. Then begin the steep contouring descent to Wolverine Pass. Best to plan on doing this descent when the surface has softened up a bit.

Section 5 - Wolverine Pass to Diavolo Creek

(Gatekeeper, Sir Richard, McBride Glacier, Cheakamus River)

From Wolverine Pass, kick steps up the short 200' bump immediately NE of the pass, then begin the "Gatekeeper Traverse" across the steep rock slopes above North Tuwasus Creek, below the Gatekeeper. This steep traverse is on rock, not glacier, and has danger of snowslides from above, and cliffs below. So avoid it in afternoon after fresh snow, or early morning if icy. You can see it on the 1:50000 map. The basic problem is to cross the south ridge of the Gatekeeper, at about 6500', to get onto the gentler slopes to the east. The route starts just below a fairly obvious rock on the crest of the ridge, and goes across in two sections. See Gatekeeper Traverse

Once past the traverse, it is a long, gentle climb to the col between Sir Richard and the Lecture Cutters. From the col, it is a straightforward climb of the final 700' to the summit of Sir Richard. Then ski down the McBride glacier to the Cheakamus River. Make sure you stay to the north side of the river right from the start, to avoid problems crossing the river. Stay on the north side, and near the river, right down to 4800'. Then climb directly up from the river to cross the wooded ridge at 5350'. These are gentle slopes, going up the snow slopes covering a small creek. Then drop 300' to Diavolo Creek, which is an open meadow.

Section 6 - Diavolo Creek to Singing Pass

(Detour Ridge, Diavolo-Benvolio Col, Overlord)

From Diavolo Creek, climb Detour Ridge. The main part of the ridge is easy, with only one short steep slope, and easier than either Gray Pass or Drop Pass. Looking at the map, you can see a couple of 100' contour lines for the actual peak. Various guidebooks indicate you can traverse the final peak on the rocky ledges to the south, but we didn't spend any time looking for this route, and instead went over the top. Our route involved a steep little downclimb of 5 meters at the top, then kicking steps down a steep little slope. See Detour Peak from the West.

Once back on the Diavolo glacier climb to the Benvolio-Fitzsimmons col at 8150'. It is the leftmost of the two possible looking cols above you. Once across the col, drop slightly and contour across the Benvolio Glacier, staying well out from possible big cornices on Benvolio. Then climb back up to below the north ridge of Overlord. The north ridge is easy to cross, you just contour across above a small rock tower. After that, you wrap around to the NW ridge. From here there is a huge drop to the broad Overlord glacier. To get past the drop, you must find one of the two gulleys that descends. The highest of these two gulleys is at about 2450m, right up against the rocks of Overlord.

Once down the gulley, descend to 7400' then ski gradually back up to the Whirlwind-Fissile Col at 7650' col. Once over the col, ski down the broad slopes below Fissile Peak, above the Russett Lake cabin, and down to Singing Pass.

Section 7 - Singing Pass to Whistler Gondola

Climb up to Oboe summit and work your way over to the ridge coming down from Flute Summit. Here you can pick up roads/ski outs. Follow runs down to midstation at 1800m. Here you can download for free on the Whistler Village Gondola.