28 August 2024
Whistler Peak to Musical Bumps Trail to Singing Pass Trail
(13 miles, +1,200/-6,000 feet).

Summer came back to Whistler!

And just in time for a truly breathtaking hike.

The plan today was to take the Whistler Gondola to the Peak Chair to Whistler Mountain. From there I would take the Musical Bumps Trail down to Singing Pass, and then a trail from there down to Whistler Village.

Down, down, down. My favorite direction!

Of course, Chris had a different plan. He wanted to go up, up, up!

And run, run, run.

But I prefer to walk.

So we dropped Chris off for his epic climb and then I walked over and took the easy way up to the top. I was immediately rewarded with blue skies and 360 views.

I took the Whistler Gondola and at the top I waited for about 15 minutes for the Peak Chair to the summit. The gondola was completely enclosed, but the chair was an open-air bench with a bar you can pull down to your lap.

The young man beside me was kind of freaking out about being so exposed and suspended hundreds of feet above the talus. I told him I was from San Diego, which turned out to be great, because then he got to talk about visiting Los Angeles for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour. He immediately calmed down, soothed by the memory of his idol….

We parted ways at the top, and I then did the touristy “Cloudraker Skybridge” to “The Raven,” a cantilevered deck that allows you to peer straight down from 10 feet over the edge of a sheer 500 foot cliff.

It was a picture perfect day. I was actually able to see Blackcomb Peak today.

I walked some maintenance roads until they intersected with the Musical Bumps Trail.

My favorite part of the Musical Bumps Trail was a steep traverse below Piccolo Summit with spectacular views of glacier-fed Cheakamus Lake.

On my way up to Oboe Summit I crossed paths with an old friend!

He continued up as I continued down.

I stopped for lunch on Oboe Summit. I could not have picked a more scenic spot!

Sadly, lunch ended. I briefly crossed paths with a PCT thru-hiker who had to abandon Washington this year due to the fires. And then I continued down to Singing Pass.

The Singing Pass Trail was extremely cruisy. Its bed was built-up for skiers in the winter, and it maintained an almost-unchanging rate of descent for the first several miles after the pass.

I stopped at one of several gorgeous streams that crossed the trail to top up my water.

It was quite lovely until about the last hour or so, but even then I was entertained by views of the Peak to Peak Gondola, the Whistler zipline, crazy mountain bikers on a parallel trail, and lovely flowers along the way.

From the trailhead I wandered back into town, where I found Chris and Dan again.

And wings and beer!