Cheese wedge, door wedge, Wedgemount Lake. Wait. One of these things is not like the others. What makes it different? The Wedgemount Lake hike is MUCH harder than the other two. Wedgemount is right up there with the Lions in terms of difficulty.
There is something majestic about the glacial lakes in general. Not quite sure how to describe it. They just seem to radiate a certain beauty in addition to the vibrant turquoise color.
Getting to the Trailhead
To get to this pristine glacier fed lake, we drove just over 2 hours from Vancouver. The trail head to Wedgemount Lake is located a bit north of Whistler. There is a designated parking lot, but it isn't very big, so it tends to fill up fast. Leading up to the parking lot, you will find lots of cars parked on the side of the dirt road. For future visitors, we suggest making a loop around the parking lot first before parking on the road side. There are often people leaving after an overnight trip throughout the day!
The Hike: Day Trip or Overnight Trip?
You can do this hike as a day trip or as an over night one. Yes, Wedgemount Lake permits back country camping! And, if you are part of the BCMC (BC Mountaineering Club), there is even small hut available on a first-come-first serve basis. We did our hike as an overnight trip with back country camping permits.
The Trail to Wedgemount Lake
The hike to the top is about 7 km long with about 1200 meters of elevation gain. The trail is well marked and maintained. The last bit of the trail will require you to do a bit of scrambling before leading you to the lake. It took us about 3.5 hours to get to our camping spot.
Wedgemount is more of a tease than your typical lake hike. Near the end of the journey, after the scramble (the most difficult part of the trail), you will find yourself standing on a ledge looking down on the turquoise water. How majestic - you may think - but to get to the edge of the lake, you will have to go DOWNHILL for another 10-15 minutes. Do your knees really want to do that? No... not really. But the serene waters are worth it.
Once we reached the lake shore, we couldn't wait to dive in! We were tired and drenched in sweat. But soon after dipping our toes in, we realized that the water is freezing and jumping in would be a poor idea because we wouldn't have enough time to warm up before nightfall.
So instead, we set up our home base right by the water and chilled our beverages in the lake. The lake side cooled down very quickly after the sun drop below the horizon. The temperature also dropped significantly during the night. So be sure to be prepared and pack lots of layers if you plan on doing spending a night at the lake!
Here's a Fun Fact: Wedge Mountain - the Wedge, is the highest summit in the Garibaldi Mountain Range!
Thoughts on Wedgemount Hike
Wedgemount is a REAL hike. If you have hiked all of the “popular” trails around Vancouver, and are looking for a challenge, Wedgemount is a must. Even though the hike is not as busy as some of the easier hikes, it still gets a substantial amount of traffic, which keeps the trail in good condition.
Would we do it again? Well, we have actually done this hike more than once, so yes. This happens to be one of Chris’ favorite hikes.
