May 12, 2015
Seven of us out for the day on the quieter side of Garibaldi Park to tackle Empetrum from the col between itself and Black Tusk.
The Cheakamus Road was in decent shape... some deeper ruts have developed about 2/3 of the way up, but a 2WD with normal clearance can handle it if you are careful in dry conditions.
We left the parking lot at 8:30am and quickly made it to the Helm Creek junction where you head down towards the Cheakamus River bridge crossing. From here you start gaining some elevation via switchbacks passing close to the Helm Creek a few times. The trail is clear and well marked all the way to the Helm Creek campground area. We had about an hour of annoying 1-1.5m deep unsupportive snow staggered with bare dirt and pure ice sections before we broke out of the forest at the campground area... we were all in snowshoes for the duration of that... it was not ideal nor quiet, but most efficient imho.
Once we hit the campground area it is a gradual rise to the Helm Lake area, but the snow here was the worst of the entire trip... I was post holing with snowshoes randomly every 3 or 4 steps which just drains the energy out of you... we lucked out a couple km's later as the snow was more supportive and I was only sinking 10cm instead of 25-30.
We made our way up the flats and curved towards the col between Empetrum and Black Tusk hoping there would be an easy creek crossing. To my surprise we crested a little ridge about 30m from where the creek would be and it was totally snow covered. Bonus!! We did not have to add another 2km heading further south to cross at a shallower point.
Getting up to the peak from here was a snap... a couple natural ramps brought us to the top of the sweeping bowl you can see from the flats... we crossed along the top to the next rise... again another treeless ramp and we were pretty much there. We actually did not go to the exact peak... we stopped on ridge about 20m gain below the true peak, primarily due to time... if we could have made a loop back to the campground it would have been a good idea... but the unknown was re-crossing the creek closer to the Helm campground and I have done that before on a sketchy log precariously placed across some very fast moving water... I was not willing to take the risk that no longer existed as an option. So we lounged for close to an hour taking in the views and re-energizing for the trip back.
5 hours up, 45 minutes for lunch and 4 hours down which included the snow near the campground softening another 30% making it a bit of a slog.
We only say 1 other person on the switchbacks on our way in and 1 other that was soloing Panorama Ridge... (there is a tiny speck in one of my photos I think...). We saw no one on or around Black Tusk... probably a good thing... that narrow shoulder to Black Tusk is heavily corniced.
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Have fun and stay safe!
Regards,
Rex
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