Day one for me, this hike was planned as our ‘warm up walk’, driving to the trailhead from Whistler and walking up to the Taylor Meadows campsite, pitching the tents, then on up to the Tusk (2315m alt) and back to camp. total ascent a whopping 1750m, 14 km. Walking out via Garibaldi lake the next day. The Tusk had a few surprises in store for us:

1. Lots and lots of snow left up high, our descent was a series of marvellous glissades and cold wet bottoms, a price we were happy to pay for the outstanding fun factor.

   

   

   

   
   
2. A young black bear gallivanting around the campsite, pinched someone’s food bag, wrecked a couple of tents (we were spared), investigated the food cache and was chased away with much banging of pots. I slept through it all due to serious jet lag.

   

   

   

   
   
3. Extraordinary rock formations at the summit – the Tusk is an old volcanic ‘plug’,  all the other rock around it has been eroded to leave this monster. Apparently there is a very marginal steep and loose scramble up to the summit, but we (along with everyone else we saw that day) didn’t fancy it at all.
4. Stunning panoramas of the coastal mountain range, very snowy, and an exceptionally beautiful lake at Garibaldi.
5. We had been disappointed that we couldn’t get a space at the Garibaldi lake site as it was full, but found the Meadows to be just as nice after all, a more open aspect, despite no lake!

   

   

   

   
   

A great start.