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| Difficulty Rating
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Advanced
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| Route
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4km/3hrs
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| Starting Elevation
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875m
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| High Point
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1803m
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Gin Peak is the summit immediately south of Rainbow Lake. It makes a nice day trip when approached from the Whistler Olympic Park. There is a ski run north off the summit to Rainbow Lake. North and Northwest facing slopes going down to Hanging Lake are also excellent ski runs.
Access
Access is from Whistler Olympic Park, the cross-country skiing, biathlon and ski jumping facility in the Callaghan Valley. Whistler Olympic Park is at the far end of Callaghan Valley Road, which leaves highway 99 north of Brandywine Falls, about 20km south of Whistler. The backcountry access trails begin from the Biathlon Range Parking Lot, which is about 1km past the main Day Lodge on Callaghan Valley Road. Overnight parking is only permitted at the Alexander Falls Recreation Site parking lot outside the main gate. Parking here adds an extra 1.5km of skiing along groomed trails. Whistler Olympic Park normally closes in mid April, and the road is gated just after Alexander Falls. After the Olympic Park is closed, park at Alexander Falls and use the unmaintained cross-country trails to reach the backcountry access trailheads.
Route
A marked wilderness ski trail climbs steeply up to Hanging Lake from the Whistler Olympic Park Biathlon Range.
- Park in the Biathlon Spectator Parking lot (P8) located on the left as you drive towards the biathlon building.
- Head into the forest east of the Biathlon Range, to the right of the scoreboard. A marked route starts here. The route and climbs steeply at first to get out of the dense second growth forest, then heads east parallel to the outermost XC trails. There is a narrow road here which is reserved for snowmobile/snowcat use by the XC area staff. Do not use this road, and do not use the outermost XC trail. This trail is for downhill traffic only and XC skiers may be going very fast around some blind corners.
- After a pair of switchbacks, the snowcat/snowmobile service road forks. The right branch is reserved for snowmobiles/snowcats but the left branch is ungroomed and available to BC skiers. Follow this narrow road a short distance until it forks again. Go right at the upper fork, and then when the road switchbacks to the left continue straight through some tangled trees to reach the end of a wide logging road.
- Go along the logging road for perhaps 50m to where the snowmobile/snowcat service road emerges from the forest. The marked route enters the forest here on the uphill side of the road. Follow the orange diamond markers up the valley towards Hanging Lake. Initially, the route ascends gentle slopes on the north side of the creek, trending right. At 1086m, the route crosses the creek and continues up the south side.
- At 1160m, the route heads steeply uphill (avalanche hazard) to climbers right, reaching open meadows at 1239m. The route through the meadows heads up and left to a bench along the bottom edge of a large talus slope at 1320m.
- Continue left along the bench, until it ends near the creek flowing out of Hanging Lake. Then climb steeply straight up to gain a higher bench that continues left over to the outlet of Hanging Lake.
- The trail markers end at the outlet of Hanging Lake.
If the Biathlon Range parking is closed for an event, an alternate start for this route is possible from the day lodge using the XC competition trails. Don't forget to purchase a $6 backcountry trail ticket at the day lodge. Pick up an XC trail map since route finding is a bit tricky in the complicated XC trail network.
- Start on Olympic XC Blue and cut over onto Olympic XC Red to the top of the first hill.
- Take shortcuts on Olympic XC red to quickly reach the highest point on the trail. Head uphill and pick up the flagged route from the logging road as described above. From here to Hanging Lake, the route is the same as coming from the Biathlon Range.
- Return via Olympic XC Red, taking all shorcuts possible to return to the day lodge directly.
Hazards
- Avalanche terrain - ATES Challenging