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  • Run
      • Whistler Golf Course 5k(3.1 Mile)
      • Blueberry Hill 6k(3.7 Mile)
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      • Alta Green Lost 15k(9.3 Mile)
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  • AtoZ
      • Ablation Zone
      • Accumulation Zone
      • Adit Lakes
      • Aiguille
      • Alpine Zone
      • Arborlith or Lithophyte
      • Arête
      • A River Runs Through It
      • Armchair Glacier
      • The Barrier
      • Battleship Islands
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      • Bergschrund or Schrund
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      • Bungee Bridge
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      • Caterpillar RD8
      • Chimney
      • Cirque or Cirque Lake
      • Cloudraker Skybridge
      • Coast Mountains
      • Col
      • Crevasse
      • Deadfall
      • Emerald Forest
      • Erratic or Glacier Erratic
      • The Fissile
      • Fitzsimmons Creek
      • Fitzsimmons Range
      • Fyles, Tom
      • Garibaldi Ranges
      • Garibaldi Volcanic Belt
      • Gemel or Inosculation
      • Glacier Window
      • Green Lake
      • Hoary Marmot
      • Krummholz
      • Moraine
      • Mount Garibaldi
      • Mount James Turner
      • Northair Mine
      • Nunatuk
      • Overlord Mountain & Glacier
      • Peak2Peak Gondola
      • Roundhouse Lodge
      • Rubble Creek
      • Spearhead Range
      • Tarn
      • The Table
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Logger's Lake

Wedgemount Lake

Joffre Lakes

Whistler Train Wreck

Newt Lake

Brandywine Meadows

Wedgemount Lake

Black Tusk

Northair Mine

Adit Lakes

Black Tusk

Cirque Lake

Callaghan Lake

Spectacular Whistler!

Whistler hiking is wonderful! Check out our Best Whistler Hiking by Month guides! WeRentGear.com rents tents, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, camp stoves, packs, complete kits and more!

Best Trails This Week!

Best This Week: Whistler Train Wreck and Parkhurst Ghost Town are easy, fun and dog friendly. Check out our June and July Whistler and Garibaldi Park guides here!

Russet Lake is a surreal little paradise that lays at the base of The Fissile. The Fissile is the strikingly bronze mountain visible from Whistler Village.  From the Village look into the distance at the Peak2Peak hanging between Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain and you will see The Fissile. Its pyramid shape in the distance perfectly separates the two mountains.

  • At least 5 amazing routes to this hidden paradise
  • The Fissile looms ominously over the lake
  • Overlord Glacier fills the valley below and across
  • Part of the Spearhead Traverse
  • Every direction you look is shockingly beautiful
  • Adit Lakes is a hidden world nearby
  • Scrambling routes up & beyond The Fissile!
  • Musical Bumps Trail to Russet is very beautiful
  • Russet Lake is not as beautiful as other lakes
  • The old 5k access road is inaccessible due to slide

Though Russet Lake is not terribly impressive in terms of size or colour, the valley around it is remarkably beautiful. The colours change from moment to moment in and extraordinary way. The distinctive colour of The Fissile and the stark grey of the mountains around contrast amazingly with the blue of the lake and green grass in the valley. So many different factors fill the place with colour.  There are several ways to get to hike Russet Lake.  The Singing Pass trail from the base of Whistler Mountain near the Whistler Gondola. The Musical Bumps trail that begins near the top of the Whistler Gondola.  The High Note trail that begins at the top of the Peak Chair on Whistler Mountain. There is an increasingly popular route that begins from Blackcomb Mountain.  And finally, a very infrequently hiked route from Cheakamus Lake that runs along Singing Creek. In short, the three ways to get to Russet Lake are 1. Musical Bumps (direct route and beautiful), 2. High Note trail (a bit longer but even more beautiful), and the Singing Pass trail (not as nice as the previous two and constantly uphill, but no expensive gondola charge).  All three routes are have signs and well established trails. None are very difficult with the exception of being long trails. Though each can be done in a day, 28 kilometres of hiking in one day is quite a long way.

Russet Lake Hiking Trail Map

Russet Lake is a great place to camp at the end of the lake with a beautiful stream that runs along the camping area. There are no tent platforms but over a dozen tent clearings.  There is a considerable amount of exploring available in the valley around Russet Lake. The Fissile is a difficult but very feasible hike from Russet Lake.  Below Russet Lake is a very accessible glacier as well as a bonanza of glacier formed landscape features, inviting hours of interesting exploration.  Above Russet Lake there is a beautiful snow covered ridge that commands incredible views all around and if you have the energy makes for a spectacular tent site.

Russet Lake Map v20

Russet Lake Sunset, BC Parks Garibaldi Provincial Park

Aerial View of The Fissile and Russet Lake

Musical Bumps Trail to Russet Lake

Moderately Challenging with Steep HillsTaking the Musical Bumps trail that begins at the Roundhouse Lodge on Whistler Mountain is arguably the best route to Russet Lake.  It is fairly direct(12.5 kilometres) to Russet Lake) and full of incredible views. Alpine forests, massive valleys, small alpine lakes, dramatic mountain views all around.  The trail has considerable elevation gain and loss though.  The trail is well marked with signs directing you along the Musical Bumps trail.  You won't see Russet Lake signs until you reach the trail junction at the Singing Pass trail.  This route is a very popular trail running route in Whistler.  From the Roundhouse Lodge to the Village is 24 kilometres, and much of it downhill.  To find the Russet Lake trailhead, take the Whistler Gondola up to the Roundhouse Lodge.  Walk out of the Gondola and past the Peak2Peak Gondola building, up a gravel slope about 50 metres.  On your left you will see a trailhead.

Russet Lake Musical Bumps Trail - Hike in Whistler

Whistler Mountain Russet Lake Map v20

More Russet Lake Hiking Info...

More Whistler & Garibaldi Park Hiking Maps!

Callaghan Lake Maps

Callaghan Lake Park is a relatively untouched wilderness of rugged mountainous terrain. The valley walls were formed by relatively recent glaciation. Evidence of this can be ...
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Taylor Meadows Maps

Taylor Meadows is a very scenic campsite and great alternative to the much busier and more well known, Garibaldi Lake campsite. Located in Garibaldi Provincial Park between Garibaldi ...
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Ring Lake Maps

Ring Lake is a fantastically serene and wonderfully remote lake similar to Cirque Lake, but considerably farther to hike to reach it. The 10 kilometre(6.2 mile) hike takes you ...
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Joffre Lakes Maps

The three Joffre Lakes are some of the most stunning lakes you are likely to ever see. Each lake gets progressively more beautiful and impossibly turquoise from one to the ...
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More Whistler Hiking Trail Maps

Amazing West Coast Trail Guide

Whistler & Garibaldi Park Glossary A to Z

The Table is an extraordinary flat-topped mountain located in Garibaldi Park just one kilometre south of Garibaldi Lake.  Sometimes reflexively referred to as ...
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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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Neal Carter (14 Dec 1902 – 15 Mar 1978) was a mountaineer and early explorer of the Coast Mountains primarily in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Astoundingly skilled as a ...
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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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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 ...
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Deadfall means a tangled mass of fallen trees and branches.  There are several name variations for fallen trees that are commonly used in Whistler.  ...
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Hidden in the tangle of forest along Green Lake where the old Parkhurst Sawmill once operated, is the bizarre and beautiful Parkhurst Plow Tree.  A very ...
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The Garibaldi Volcanic Belt is a line of mostly dormant stratovolcanoes and subglacial volcanoes largely centred around Whistler and extending through much ...
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More Hike in Whistler Glossary

Free Camping Gear Delivery to Garibaldi Park

The Best Whistler & Garibaldi Park Hiking Trails!

Taylor Meadows is a very scenic campsite and great alternative to the much busier and more well known, Garibaldi Lake campsite. Located in Garibaldi Provincial Park between Garibaldi Lake and Black Tusk, ...
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Ancient Cedars is a nice, easy/moderate 2.5 kilometre (1.6 mile) hiking trail on the far side of Cougar Mountain, just 13.1 kilometres north of Whistler Village. A small, untouched grove of huge western ...
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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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Alexander Falls is a very impressive 43 metre/141 foot waterfall just 30 to 40 minutes south of Whistler in the Callaghan Valley. Open year-round and located just before Whistler Olympic Park where several ...
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More Whistler Hiking Trails & Maps

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