Every time I think summer is about to start, it changes to miserable, rainy days again. It is not exactly warm and sunny in Whistler yet. After sitting inside staring at my computer for two days I just had to get out though. They had recently opened up some hiking trails on Blackcomb mountain, so together with some colleagues I braved the weather and made my way up Whistler mountain and across in the Peak to Peak gondola. As I was going up I realised I hadn’t really thought this through. I had no extra layers and we would be hiking at an altitude of over 1800m.
The gondola went through the clouds, changing our views from fog to beautiful vistas and this was pretty much what would happen all day. The clouds moved rapidly like they were performing for us, showing us little bits of the mountains at a time. It was chilly, but walking warmed me up quickly.
The lakeside loop trail brought us to Blackcomb lake. It looked mysterious, surrounded by white. There was still snow on the ground, some ice on the water and clouds all around. After a quick photo stop we kept going along the Overlord trail. This is where the trail started to ascend quite a bit. We walked partly through the forest, although the trees here were pretty small, and partly over rocky open areas. The path was easy to follow and turned into the Decker loop when we passed an alpine lake.
From here the trail climbs a little bit more and has amazing views over the surrounding mountains and valleys. It was a bit early for wild flowers, although some were already there. Parts of the Decker loop were still covered with snow, but mostly we walked along the edge of the snow, climbing over the rocks. I know I’ve been skiing in the area in winter, but it looks like a completely different world. From Blackcomb we took two chairlifts back down to the upper village. We were freezing, distracting ourselves with music all the way down. It was great to get some fresh air and be out there though, even though this might be a bit too fresh for this time of year.
Wow. would like to be there …