After a month of resting my foot from my plantar fasciitis injury on the HBC Trail, I was really determined to get back in the backcountry. To be honest, my foot was definitely not feeling 100%, but I had a two week hiking trip planned for the end of August and I really needed to test out hiking again before committing to that trip. We had permits to camp at Russet Lake in mid-August, so it was a good opportunity to test the waters. Me and Brandon bought our Whistler edge cards early this year, and the pass comes with a free summer sightseeing ride on the gondola, so our plan was to take the gondola up to the top of Whistler and hike to Russet Lake from there.

This was my first time hiking at Whistler-Blackcomb and I was totally blown away by it! I’ve never bothered to pay for the gondola up because it is expensive and I spend a lot of time there in the winter, but it is absolutely worth visiting in the summer. There are a ton of cool trails up there, as well as another entrance to Garibaldi Provincial Park. I’ve done all the other major hikes in Garibaldi Park (Garibaldi lake, Elfin lakes, Wedgemount lake, etc), so this was the last big hike in the park for me. That said, even with the gondola, Russet Lake is still a challenging hike. It’s not at all technical, but more psychologically challenging with the topography of the terrain.

There’s a few options for hiking to Russet Lake. I think the most common option is to take the gondola up the mountain and hike from either Roundhouse or Peak Chair via the High Note trail (like we did). This route is approximately 12km long, with 600m of elevation gain. However the gondola pass is just shy of $100, so the free option is to hike up from Whistler base via the Singing Pass trail. It’s only 3km longer than hiking from peak chair, but it has more than 1400m of elevation gain. That said, it’s a gentle uphill most of the way.

I didn’t do the Singing Pass trail, but the reason I say the route via High Note is psychologically challenging is because there’s a lot of up and down. Every time you finish a peak, you can see several kilometres forward to the next peak that you’re going to have to hike down and up again. We had to do this 4 times, so it some ways it felt harder. However, it’s worth noting that it’s a net downhill hike on the way to Russet Lake, so there’s more uphill on the way back. If you want to try both trails, you could hike down the Singing Pass trail on the way back instead.

Me and Brandon were joined by Carolyn and her friend Scott on this trip and they opted to hike up the Singing Pass trail. So between us we did both, but Carolyn and Scott joined us on the return trip to complete the rest of the High Note trail, which loops back to Roundhouse. I would say that Russet Lake is an ambitious hike for a single day (24km roundtrip), but the High Note trail is a great option for a day hike from the gondola. It starts at the top of the Peak chair and there’s a few cool new attractions, such as the Skybridge. From there it hikes down around the back of all the chair lifts, looping back to Roundhouse around Piccolo Summit. It’s a 10km loop option to do this trail, but I’d recommend adding on an extra 1km each way to go to the top of Flute Summit – in my opinion this was one of the best views along the entire trail.

But let’s talk about Russet Lake. The biggest thing of note when we visited was the wildfire smoke. It was perfectly clear in Vancouver the night before we did the hike, but then a lot of smoke from Kelowna started to roll in in the early morning. The closer we got to Whistler, the smokier it got. Honestly, we probably shouldn’t have gone, the smoke is really not good for your lung health, but it seems to be a fact of life in the Pacific Northwest these days, so we opted to go anyways.

Carolyn and Scott headed off on the Singing Pass trail and beat us to Russet Lake by more than 2 hours. It took me and Brandon a while to get to the top because we had to take the Blackcomb gondola, followed by the Peak to Peak gondola, followed by Peak chair. But we had the best time on the trail and the views were fantastic! You leave the resort and enter Garibaldi Provincial Park just after Flute Summit. The biggest uphill section on the way there is right before Russet Lake and when you crest the top of the pass you can see the very fancy Claire and Kees Hut looking down to the lake.

The Hut is pretty incredible. It’s managed by the ACC and requires advance booking of course. The campsite is managed by BC Parks and also requires advance booking 4 months prior to when you want to go. Permits disappear quickly, so mark your calendar in advance! The hut is gorgeous, but the campsites are right on the lake, so personally I preferred the campground. From the campsite you can look out to Fissile Peak and Overlord Glacier, so it’s pretty cool.

We went for a quick swim in the cold water immediately after arriving and then Carolyn and Scott left to head up to Whirlwind Peak for more views. Me and Brandon considered joining them, but my foot needed a break, so we ended up just climbing a short way up for a view of the lake to have our dinner instead. Carolyn and Scott opted not to go the whole way to Whirlwind Peak, but got a few more views of the area.

My foot was definitely tired when we got to Russet Lake, but overall doing well. I made a point to stop once an hour on the way there to roll it on a ball and stretch it. Regular breaks makes a huge difference and since then it’s become a part of my hiking regimen to make sure I stop every 5km to rest it.

The rest of our evening was spent lying out enjoying the views and being a bit giddy about being out in the backcountry again. We were eventually driven back to our beds as it got colder. It was pretty cool overnight, but warmed up quickly again with the sun in the morning.

Unfortunately, the smoke was worse in the morning and there was a real smell of bonfire in the air. When you’re out in it for too long, it definitely gets in your sinuses and I had a bit of a persistent cough for the next week, which is why I don’t recommend it. It helps to wear a wet mask, but it’s hard to hike uphill with a mask on. At one point even my eyes were watering from the smoke.

Carolyn and Scott joined us on the hike back to Roundhouse because we all wanted to go to the Umbrella Bar. It’s more uphill on the way back, but I actually preferred it because I find going uphill easier on my foot than going down. There’s a few cute lakes on the way back and you hike through the actual ski resort, so it was cool to compare the terrain in the summer to terrain that I’m very familiar with in the winter because it looks like a different world depending on the season.

The Umbrella Bar turned out to be a bit of a bust. You can get drinks, but there’s very limited food, so we opted to download the gondola and eat in the village instead. We treated ourselves to burgers to celebrate a successful trip. For me, I was celebrating that my injury hadn’t prevented me from doing the trip and looking forward to heading to the Rockies just 1 week later. Overall it was an eye-opening trip for me – I feel like there’s a whole world of hiking at Whistler that I didn’t know about. So if you get the chance, definitely check it out!