Subject Mountain: Mount Garibaldi Regions: BC Coast / Greater Wedge / Castle Towers Park: Garibaldi Provincial Park JavaMap . ZoomMap . Automap . Radius Search June 11, 2006   (1 days) Calculated Length: 9 km Participants: Ivan-Christophe Robin, Tom Tiedje Difficulty: 3: None Abstract: Attempt on Mount Garibaldi from Brohm Ridge, stopped by freak electrical storm. Numerous scientific observations, including snow melt rate and suncups. Value: 32

Access Level: 1 = Any Car  

Trip Report: We left Vancouver at 5AM on Sunday morning planning to climb Mt. Garibaldi from Brohm Ridge. Ed Note: (This route follows the ridge east, then bypasses the mountain on the north and loops around to the standard route up the east face.)
  We drove up the Brohm River Road and parked just below the middle fork of the western end of Brohm Ridge at 1170 m. This is an excellent access to one of the best ski touring areas near Vancouver. There is lots of open space, spectacular views and decent road access. The only problem is the snowmobiles. We saw two large snowmobile cabins and tracks everywhere. There are some things you can do to minimize contact with snowmobiles though: (1) take the shorter spur road up the centre prong of the western end of Brohm ridge rather than the Cheekye Rd further to the south where the snowmobiles go, (2) go in mid week and (3) go in June when the snowmobilers are getting ready for whatever they do in summer. Snowmobiles would be easier to take if they didn't make so much noise.

The weather forecast predicted 30% chance of showers. By the time we had crossed the flat part of the Warren Glacier and started up the steeper section northeast of the summit the blue sky of the early morning had been replaced by a large black cloud, thunder and a scattering of rain. It looked like the storm would eventually blow away so I didn't pay too much attention until Ivan started yelling at me that his hair was standing on end. I thought, gee that's no big deal, besides I had my hat on. I held up my pole only a little above the horizontal to see what he was talking about and there was a loud and rather alarming buzzing sound. I could feel intermitent arcing from the metal pole across the plastic grip to my hand as the pole discharged. By this time the tip of my ice axe attached upright on the back of my pack was also buzzing. This kind of electrical storm is common in the Rockies but rare on the coast. To avoid electrocution we headed lower down on the glacier and climbed one of the Galcier Pikes instead, before returning to the car at 8:30 pm.

Along the way we stopped at our suncup test site to take snow pictures. We had pushed four 2.5 m plastic poles their entire length into the snow without hitting bottom on May 12. Between May 12 - June 11, 190 cm of snow disappeared, about 6 cm per day. Between 9:30 AM and 5:30 PM on June 11, 5 cm of snow disappeared. The test site was near the top of a ridge with a southern exposure. If you work it out the heat from four hours of full sun a day will melt this much snow. We were surprised to discover a decent sized tree in one corner of our test site.

Kevin Mitchell, a UBC Physics student, has discovered a differential equation whose solutions look just like suncups. Depending on the numbers that go into the differential equation the patterns can be chaotic or stationary. We wonder if suncups are chaotic. In a time lapse photograph do they look like they are boiling or do they form a static pattern? No one knows. If you or someone you know is planning a base camp on or near an icefield this summer for five or more days I would like to talk to you. You can help us answer this question.

Associated Photo Essays
Mount Garibaldi from North after Thunderstorm Tom Tiedje