Rubble Creek Classic

Lara and I tackled the Rubble Creek Classic Trail Race on Sunday in Garibaldi Park, Whistler BC. Here's a  recap of our day on the trails:

First, some info about the race. The race is part of the Sea to Sky Trail Running Series and is put on by Escape Route, an outdoor store based in Whistler and Squamish. The race has been going since 1985 and is a "grass-roots" style run. There is no support, aid or trail markers, you must be 100% self-sufficient along the course. There is a sweep however, in case of emergencies. The course runs from Cheakamus Lake over the Helm Creek Trail to Garibaldi Lake in Garibaldi Park. Click here for Course Map by Trailhunger.com

Course Details

Distance:  24.5km
Elevation Gain:  1338.4m
Elevation Loss:  1592.8m
Highest Elevation: 1781.6m
Lowest Elevation: 557.4m

 We decided to do this race because neither of us had ever explored Garibaldi Park and a group of friends that we run with were also planning to try out the race. We'd heard glowing reviews about the amazing scenery along the course so thought we'd jump on the band wagon.  We didn't exactly start out overly well prepared for the race. In terms of training we'd run 10km once a week for the last 2 months with one "long" training run coming in at 2.5hrs and a few long days of hiking. But we'd done the Knee Knacker training back in June, so we could do it on residual fitness, right?!? We knew we weren't properly trained so we opted for the soft start at 7:30am and went into the race with minimal expectations, i.e. goals of getting thru it alive and just enjoying a day in the mountains.

The day started out with a 4am wake-up call and a dark, rainy drive up to Whistler to meet up with our carpool. On the way to the start line we encountered a fallen tree from a wind storm the previous night that was blocking the road. Luckily there were several cars on their way to the race, so we teamed up, grabbed a branch and pulled the tree off the road. After a few minutes to sign in and get ourselves organized, a small group of us were off on our soft start. The route starts off with a gradual climb for the first 2km, that quickly turns steep and continues to climb  for about 8km up to the Helm creek campground and then onto the rolling hills of the Cinder flats. I surprisingly felt pretty good on the climb, even with the lack of training; I guess mountaineering all summer has to have some benefits! There was continual rain up the climb, but it was tolerable since the trees cut the wind and provided some shelter. Once we broke out onto the flats however we were met with a brutally cold wind and once we climbed to the high point, we had the fun of running in blowing sleet and snow! So Cold! I think the term "soul destroying" was used at one point to describe the conditions, along with several choice words from other runners we encountered on the course.


If we weren't already cold enough, after running for  a couple of kilometers through the flats we encountered a creek that was pure glacial run-off that had no bridge. We had to wade through the wide, seemingly never ending, creek that was knee deep in spots. The next couple kilometers were spent trying to get feeling back in our feet and legs. Luckily, even with the challenging weather conditions, the scenery and terrain on the Helm Creek Trail and Cinder Flats is spectacular, making the run well worth the effort. I can only imagine how extraordinary it would be on a clear day.


At about 15km into the race we started closing in on Taylor Meadows with some great views of Garibaldi Lake. By this time we were losing elevation and re-entering the treed trails. Even though we were losing the great views by entering the trees, we were happy to have their shelter and be back out of the wind. Once we passed the Taylor Meadows campground we hit the epic downhill of the course that drops 1500m over 8km down the treed switchbacks of the Rubble Creek Trail. After about an hour of crazy downhill (that seemed to take forever) we were spit out of the forest at the finish line in the Rubble Creek Parking lot.  4hours and 3min of pure adventure!

We didn't linger at the finish line too long due to begin cold and wet, so we finished off our afternoon at the award ceremony in Whistler at a little restaurant called "Creek Bread" that was nice enough to provide us with food and drink specials to celebrate our race. After warming up, eating some fabulous pizza and collecting our goodie bags we hit the road and headed back home for a much deserved rest. All in all a great day of camaraderie, running and adventure.

Click here for Full Photo Album

Blackcomb Buttress: Our Unicorn!

Last Weekend Mike and I got up bright and early on Sunday morning to head out to Whistler to go for our third attempt to climb the Blackcomb Buttress, a PD, low-5th climbing route to the 8000ft summit of Blackcomb Peak.

A little bit of history: As mentioned above this is the third attempt we've made at climbing Blackcomb Buttress. In theory it shouldn't be too difficult of a route to climb, however the weather never seems to co-operate for us. We made our first attempt on the July long weekend last year (2009) and after spending $40 for a chairlift ride up we hiked to the base of the talus fields and discovered that there was still way too much snow on the route to climb it safely. We spent the day practicing anchor building in the talus field and hiking at Whistler. We went back later that year in August when we were sure that the snow would be gone and we thought we were well prepared. This time we brought a tent and overnight gear and camped out beside Blackcomb lake, right below the buttress in hopes of having an early start and a good weather window in the morning. We went to bed under beautifully clear skies and woke up at 5am to a socked in and mega cloudy day making the decision to go back to sleep for a few hours and then have leisurely hike back to the chairlifts to head home an easy, but disappointing choice to make.

A few pics from our attempt/camp in August 2009:

And that brings us to Sunday's attempt (Take 3). After experiencing how quick it was to hike from the chairlifts to the base of the route at Blackcomb Lake the year before (about 45 min on sidewalk-like trails) we decided to try to climb the peak in one day. According to the ascent times listed in the guide book it should be possible to take the first chairlift up in the morning, climb the mountain and be done in time to catch the last chair lift down that same night. This is, however, a tight window. The first chair up isn't until 10am and the last chair down is at 5pm; the climb is estimated to take 6 hours round trip. This doesn't leave a lot of spare time, however, if you do miss the last chair all it means is a looooong hike down Blackcomb mountain, which sucks, but isn't the end of the world. The downside to doing the route in one day using the chairlifts is that you can not get an early start and weather in the moutnains tends to be better (and safer) early in the morning.

We left North Van at 6:30am on Sunday morning and after a quick breakfast at Timmy's we were on our way to Whistler. We had an uneventful drive along the sea to sky and arrived in Whistler shortly after 8am. Along the way we noticed the weather was deteriorating the further North we went but the forecast had promised no rain until that evening so we thought we'd go for it, even with the dark clouds looming in the distance. We bought our lift tickets, harassed the lifties to let us up the mountain early (to no avail) and grabbed a coffee while we waited for the lifts to officially open. The lifties let us board the chairs at 9:45, 15 min earlier than expected. Every minute counts on this climb so we were happy. The last two times we've been up to Blackcomb Buttress we have taken the Whislter Gondola followed by the Peak to Peak over to Blackcomb. This time however we took the Wizard and Solar Coaster chairs to the top, which turned out to be about 20min faster. We were at the top of the lifts by 10:15 and at Blackcomb Lake (the base of the Buttress) by 10:50am.

Marmot beside Blackcomb Lake

We took a minute here to do some route planning and then we were off and heading up the scree slope to the base of the Bu tress. The scree slope was fairly easy hiking that alternated between loose scree, big rocks and grass/dirt trails. It was steep but not too technical so we could make good time on the approach. It took us about an hour to hike/climb up the approach and reach the start of the 3rd/4th class scrambling. At this point the route quickly went from a reasonably easy hike to fairly technical scrambling. Not having much experience with scrambling or unroped climbing I was a bit uncomfortable ascending this bottom portion of the route as it quickly steepened, which slowed us down a bit. We scrambled over the first few steps unroped and then we harnessed up and short roped the next step.

Approach to the Buttress

At the Base of the Buttress

At this point we were traversing to climbers left to gain the easier rib up the Buttress. We came to a step that was quite steep (almost vertical) where we stopped to reassess. We spent a few minutes deciding if we should rope up and simu-climb this step and this is when the snow started. It was only snowing lightly but the dark clouds in the distance made us decide that we should probably cut our losses before we got into anything too technical. So, once again we turned back and retreated off of Blackcomb Buttress (for the Third time!), officially making it seem incredibly elusive to us, i.e. our Unicorn!

Black Tusk and Bad Weather

We took our time and enjoyed the hike back to the chair lifts and the ride down to the village where we took a stroll through the Whistler Farmer's Market followed by a great dinner of beer and Nachos in Squamish.

Bad weather and Blackcomb Lake

Retreating; Blackcomb Lake in distance

Photo Album:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37015411@N06/sets/72157624728446831/