Armchair Glacier - Hike in Whistler Glossary

Armchair Glacier is one of the many easily identifiable mountain features around Whistler. Along with Wedge Mountain and Black Tusk, Armchair Glacier has a distinct shape that it is named after. Armchair Glacier can be seen from a considerable distance and from many places in Whistler. In the winter it is a solid white ridge with three peaks and in the summer the ridge and peaks are bare rock and the glacier can be seen as a solid, horizontal line below.

Whistler & Garibaldi Park

Ablation Zone Accumulation Zone Adit Lakes Aiguille Alpine Zone Arête ARRTI Armchair Glacier The Barrier Battleship Islands Bears Bench Bergschrund Bivouac Cairn/Inukshuk Carter Chimney Cirque Cloudraker Coast Mountains Cordilleran Cornice Corrie Lake Crevasse Dalgleish Deadfall Emerald Forest Erratic The Fissile Fitzsimmons Creek Fitzsimmons Range Fyles Garibaldi Ranges Garibaldi Volcanic Belt Gemel Glacier Window Green Lake Hoary Marmot Krummholz Lithophyte Moraine Mt Garibaldi Mt James Turner Northair Mine Nunatuk Overlord Peak 2 Peak Roundhouse Rubble Creek Scree Spearhead Range Tarn The Table Townsend Usnea Winram

January February March April May June July August September October November December

The three-peak mountain ridge above Armchair Glacier is actually called Mount Weart. Despite its distinct armchair appearance and it being known for decades as Armchair Mountain, or simply Armchair, in 1930 the Garibaldi Park Board officially had the name changed to Mount Weart. John Walter Weart(1861-1941) was a lawyer, politician and the chairman of the Garibaldi Park Board at the time of the name change. Though officially called Mount Weart by the Geographical Names Board of Canada, the original name Armchair is still almost universally used. Mount Weart is generally only used to refer to the prominent and highest of the three peaks, the southernmost peak, or the peak on the right if viewed from Whistler. This southern peak of Mount Weart marks it as the second highest mountain in Garibaldi Provincial Park at 2835 metres or 9301 feet. Weart's neighbour, Wedge Mountain is the highest peak in Garibaldi Park at 2895 metres or 9497 feet. The two summits are just 3.7 kilometres apart and joined by the Wedge-Weart Col. The Armchair Traverse is a popular, though very challenging, Class 4 route from Mount Cook to Mount Weart and descending down from the Wedge Weart Col via the Wedgemount Glacier. Highlights of the Armchair Traverse are the incredible views of Wedgemount Lake, the surrounding mountains and the enormous Weart Glacier. Weart Glacier fills the valley to the north of Mount Weart and is fantastically huge. From Mount Weart you can see over Rethel Mountain and down to Whistler Valley. Extraordinary considering how monstrously huge Rethel seems from the shore of Wedgemount Lake.

In the image below Mount Cook is on the left, Armchair Mountain aka: Mt Weart is the three peaks in the middle with the peak on the right being the second highest mountain in Garibaldi Park. The mountain in the foreground to the right is Rethel Mountain. The faint horizontal line below Armchair is Armchair Glacier. Hard to make out in February when the mountains are heavily blanketed in snow.

Mount Weart is probably the most popular of the branching hikes from Wedgemount Lake. This is because of its extraordinarily beautiful views from its summit. It is quite difficult and some tricky route finding is involved as you leave Wedgemount Glacier for the Weart ascent. But you will have trouble finding more beautiful views from another peak in the area. It is a difficult and long scramble from the Wedgemount Lake hut and a considerable elevation gain of 780 metres from the Hut. Give yourself at least four hours roundtrip, hut to hut. From the Wedge hut head down the scree valley trail to the left side of Wedgemount Lake. Continue up Wedgemount Glacier staying to the left edge of the glacier on the talus and scree as comfortably possible until you see the creek that flows from Mount Weart. Continue up the left side of this creek, this is where the scrambling becomes difficult, but only for a short while. The difficult section leads to a basin with a glacier to your right. Stay to the left edge of this glacier and make your way somewhat directly up the scree slopes until you reach the ridge leading to Weart. You will take this ridge to your left until you reach the summit.

Armchair Glacier at Sunset

Armchair Glacier in the Summer from Wedgemount Lake

The Rubble Creek trailhead is the main access point for many of the best hikes and sights in Garibaldi Provincial Park. Rubble Creek is located midway ...

Mount Garibaldi is the huge, potentially active volcano that Garibaldi Provincial Park is named after. Mount Garibaldi also lends its name to the Garibaldi ...

The Table is an extraordinary flat-topped mountain located in Garibaldi Park just one kilometre south of Garibaldi Lake. Sometimes reflexively referred to as ...

Fitzsimmons Creek is the beautiful and huge creek that crashes through Whistler Village. When walking from Whistler Village to the Upper Village, you will cross ...

Cirque: a glacier-carved bowl or amphitheater in the mountains. To form, the glacier must be a combination of size, a certain slope and more unexpectedly, a ...

The Coast Mountains run from the Yukon down to Vancouver along the west coast of British Columbia in a band that averages 300 kilometres wide(190 miles). ...

Armchair Glacier is one of the many easily identifiable mountain features around Whistler. Along with Wedge Mountain and Black Tusk, Armchair Glacier has a ...

Cairns, inukshuks or inuksuks are a pile or arrangement of rocks used to indicate a route, landmark or a summit. The word cairn originates from the ...

Whistler & Garibaldi Park Hiking

Alexander Falls Ancient Cedars Black Tusk Blackcomb Mountain Brandywine Falls Brandywine Meadows Brew Lake Callaghan Lake Cheakamus Lake Cheakamus River Cirque Lake Flank Trail Garibaldi Lake Garibaldi Park Helm Creek Jane Lakes Joffre Lakes Keyhole Hot Springs Logger’s Lake Madeley Lake Meager Hot Springs Nairn Falls Newt Lake Panorama Ridge Parkhurst Ghost Town Rainbow Falls Rainbow Lake Ring Lake Russet Lake Sea to Sky Trail Skookumchuck Hot Springs Sloquet Hot Springs Mount Sproatt Taylor Meadows Train Wreck Wedgemount Lake Whistler Mountain

January February March April May June July August September October November December

Shannon Falls towers above Howe Sound at 335 metres as the third tallest falls in BC. The wonderful, though very short trail winds through a beautiful old ...

Wedgemount Falls can be seen along the trail to Wedgemount Lake. As the falls flow directly from Wedgemount Lake, they are located about three quarters ...

Cirque Falls crashes down from Cirque Lake to Callaghan Lake, connecting these two remarkably beautiful and very different lakes. Where Callaghan Lake is ...

Nairn Falls is a wonderful, crashing and chaotic waterfall that surrounds you from the deluxe viewing platform that allows you to safely watch it from ...

More of the Best Whistler Waterfalls

The short, winding, and ever-changing hiking trail to Rainbow Falls is the same as the much more popular trailhead for Rainbow Lake. The trailhead is marked as the Rainbow Trail, and the trail quickly ...

Cirque Lake is a wild and beautiful lake that hides high above and beyond Callaghan Lake in Callaghan Lake Provincial Park. What makes Cirque Lake special among the other sensationally beautiful lakes in the ...

Madeley Lake is a beautiful, remote mountain lake hidden high up in the Callaghan Valley. From Whistler Village expect to take 40 minutes to drive there. You can drive directly to the lake, however the ...

Brandywine Meadows is a nice, relatively short hike to a massive flower filled valley high up in Callaghan Valley. Located 40 minutes south of Whistler, this tough and sometimes muddy trail gains a huge 550 ...

More Whistler Hiking Trails & Maps

HikeInWhistler.com

Northair Mine

Whistler Train Wreck

Panorama Ridge

Wedgemount Lake

Black Tusk

Rainbow Falls

Brandywine Meadows

June Hiking Update!

Garibaldi Provincial Park

Whistler & Garibaldi Park

Whistler & Garibaldi Park Hiking