The main purpose of my trip to British Columbia in August 2007 was to get some more mountain climbing experience. Even though we failed to summit, the climb was still a great experience and exposed me to a few new elements of mountaineering. At just below 9,000 feet, Mt. Garibaldi is not a very high mountain, but it has some technical climbing and opportunities for glacier travel by rope teams, something I had never done before.
On the left is Mt. Garibaldi seen from the small town of Squamish, just over an hour north of Vancouver. We started our climb at around 5,500 feet, carrying enough gear for two days on the mountain.
Starting the Climb
At the beginning of our climb, we were mostly hiking through small shrubs with many trees in the distance. It didn’t take us long to reach the first snow. On the left are some plants near our starting point, while the photo on the right shows a steep slope that drops down before leveling out below.
Close to two hours into the climb, we came across a very rocky ridge that we had to scramble through. Most of the rocks were very loose and didn’t provide the best footing, but at some points we had large bushes to hold on to. On the left is one of the rocky sections that we actually had to climb over. We got a short break in the clouds and I was able to take the picture on the right, looking back at the entire ridge we had come down.
Camping Below the Glacier
After we crossed the rocky ridge, we had a long, steep climb up some gravel-like terrain until it finally leveled off. We made our camp here, seen on the left, with our first view of the glacier on the right. During the night we had some terrible weather, with heavy rain and extremely strong winds that made me wonder if the tent would come down.
Glacier Travel
The next day our plan was to start at 4 a.m. and head for the summit, but the weather didn’t improve until 8 in the morning. Even then, conditions weren’t good because of the constant clouds rolling in and reducing our visibility. We roped ourselves together for the glacier and started heading up the mountain.
As you can see above, there are lots of nasty crevasses here. We had to step over several of them and saw dozens more around us.
Turning Around at the Bergschrund
Just as we got to the technical part of the mountain, some more nasty clouds rolled in and our visibility became very poor. Our guide decided that we had no choice but to turn around. In front of us was a bergschrund, and we were already short on time since we had started several hours later than planned.
On the left is a picture of me in front of the bergschrund, our stopping point since we couldn’t see how wide it was or the best way to approach it. The picture on the right came out bluish because I accidentally put my camera in auto mode, but it shows my guide and climbing partner heading back down the mountain. You can tell how difficult it was to see anything around us, which greatly increased the danger of getting lost or falling into a crevasse.
Though I didn’t conquer Mt. Garibaldi, I’d likely try a new mountain if I climb again in the area, since I prefer having a whole new experience instead of repeating something I’ve done before. It was disappointing that we didn’t summit, but I still definitely enjoyed this trip!
