Garibaldi Park Whistler A to Z: ErraticErratic or glacier erratic is a piece of rock that has been carried by glacial ice, often hundreds of kilometres.  Characteristic of their massive size and improbable looking placement.  Erratics are frequently seen around Whistler and Garibaldi Provincial Park.  Either as bizarre curiosities or a place to relax in the sun.  On a sunny day, a large sun-facing erratic will often be warm and sometimes even hot, providing a comfortable and surreal place to rest. 

Whistler & Garibaldi Hiking

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During the last ice age, glaciers covered British Columbia, and where Whistler is today, the glaciers were two kilometres thick.  Glaciers from the last ice age can often be measured by the grinding marks made on the mountains they covered.  In the mountains around Whistler you can see just a few that poked through the glaciers, leaving their peaks jagged.  Other, shorter mountains around Whistler can be easily recognized as completely covered in ice.  Shown by their rounded, glacier ground peaks.  The most impressive erratics lay in an area with dissimilar rock types in the surrounding mountains.  For example, rock and mountains around the erratic should be of different colour, texture and composition.  An erratic should look very out of place and distinct from its surroundings.  Erratics are frequently the result of glaciers carrying or grinding the erratic as it slowly moves down a glacier valley.  Rock slides from mountains can deposit house sized boulders onto a glacier which then slides down a valley for centuries, eventually releasing it.  These erratics are easy to trace back to their parent rock by matching them to identical rocks up the likely ice flow route.  Ice rafting is another way erratics have been moved great distances.  Ice rafting results from an ice dam breaking apart and tremendous volumes of water and ice flooding through.  These erratics are often detected by the high water marks left by the floods that moved them.  Another cause of erratics is via icebergs floating in the ocean and eventually releasing the rock encased in the melting ice.

Brandywine Meadows Lounge Chair Erratic

Brandywine Meadows Suntan Erratic

 Monstrous Erratic Along the Brandywine Meadows Trail

Brandywine Meadows Erratic

Enormous Broken Erratic Along the Flank Trail

Flank Trail Erratic

Erratic at Beautiful Wedgemount Lake

Wedgemount Lake Erratic

Erratic at Russet Lake

Russet Lake Erratic

Erratic Split by a Tree on the Helm Creek Trail

Erratic Split by Tree

The Cloudraker Skybridge and the Raven’s Eye Cliff Walk are new additions to the summit of Whistler Mountain.  The Cloudraker Skybridge stretches 130 ...
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The Fissile is the stunning Matterhorn-looking mountain that is visible from Village Gate Boulevard in Whistler.  Looking up from Village Gate you will see ...
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Erratic or glacier erratic is a piece of rock that has been carried by glacial ice, often hundreds of kilometres.  Characteristic of their massive size and ...
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Every unusual phenomenon in the forest seems to have a name, but one natural work of art seems to be without a commonly used name.  Big trees with ...
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Whistler spruce is a hybrid of the Sitka spruce and the interior Engelmann spruce. Sitka spruce trees thrive in the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest ...
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Col: a ridge between two higher peaks, a mountain pass or saddle.  More specifically is the lowest point on a mountain ridge between two peaks.  Sometimes ...
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Bergschrund or abbreviated schrund: a crevasse that forms from the separation of moving glacier ice from the stagnant ice above. Characterized by a deep ...
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Hoary Marmots are the cute, pudgy, twenty plus pound ground squirrels that have evolved to live quite happily in the hostile alpine areas around Whistler.  ...
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June is a pretty amazing month to hike in Whistler and Garibaldi Park.  The average low and high temperatures in Whistler range from 9c to 21c(48f/70f).  ...
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July is a wonderful time to hike in Whistler and Garibaldi Provincial Park.  The weather is beautiful and the snow on high elevation hiking trails is long ...
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August hiking in Whistler definitely has the most consistently great, hot weather.  You can feel the rare pleasure of walking across a glacier shirtless and ...
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September hiking in Whistler is possibly the best month of all.  The snow has melted far up to the mountain tops, yet the temperatures are still quite high.  ...
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Whistler and Garibaldi Park Hiking Gear Rental

 

The Rainbow Trail is a convenient and popular trail near Whistler Village that takes you to Rainbow Lake as well as the Rainbow-Sproatt Flank Trail, Rainbow Falls, Hanging Lake, Madeley Lake, Beverley ...
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Callaghan Lake Provincial Park is a relatively untouched wilderness of rugged mountainous terrain. The valley walls were formed by relatively recent glaciation. Evidence of this can be seen in the ...
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Brandywine Falls is one of the must see sights on the drive to or from Whistler, and arguably the nicest of Whistler’s numerous beautiful waterfalls.  Located about halfway between Squamish and Whistler, the ...
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Keyhole Hot Springs (aka Pebble Creek Hot Springs) is located 100 kilometres from Whistler (Village Gate Blvd). Closed from Apr 1- Nov 15 every year by BC Ministry of Forests due to potential bear conflicts.  Though much of ...
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