Tag: Garibaldi Lake

Fishing (with) questions — Part 2Fishing (with) questions — Part 2

July 6, 2026 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

Feature Image: A view of Garibaldi Lake from Mount Price in 1960. Fenner Collection.

Last week’s article focused on how spotting a school of Rainbow Trout in Garibaldi Lake lured me into a local fish-fact-finding mission around the stocking history of the local Whistler Lakes. Alta Lake’s fishing history was shared, and now we pick back up with Garibaldi’s….

In 1928 – a year following the formal establishment of Garibaldi Provincial Park (a 195, 000 hectare protected area) – 5000 ‘eyed egg’ Rainbows were released into the lake. The subsequent year, 12, 500 eggs were released. The eggs were transported by horseback up to the nearly large lake encompassing an area of almost 10 ㎢at 1467 metres of elevation. Mountaineering and pack-hauled camping holidays were becoming popular in the area.

These were the only two times, 1928 and 1929, that Garibaldi Lake was ever stocked. Differing from other (lower) lakes in the area, Garibaldi Lake never had any fish living in its waters to begin with. As the Museum reported in ‘Frontier Fish’ (2011):

“Garibaldi Lake was formed relatively recently (geologically speaking) when a massive lava flow from Mount Garibaldi slammed into a glacier and was frozen in its tracks, leaving behind what is now known simply as The Barrier.

This vertical wall blocked off an ancient valley that subsequently filled with water to form Garibaldi Lake. Since the lake’s outlet flows underground through The Barrier to become Rubble Creek (named after the frequent landslides falling from the Barrier’s unstable volcanic rock), no fish population was ever able to colonize Garibaldi’s glacial-fed waters.”

Further, according to a report in the Vancouver Province newspaper, after the catch of 3 mature trout from Garibaldi Lake in 1933, the paper then declared the lake the ‘second’ successful stocking of a barren lake in British Columbia. The Museum has not been successful in sourcing information as to which may have been the first.

The introduced fish survived and have uniquely adapted to the freezing mountain waters.

The cast of vibrant colour caused by suspended glacial silt in the lake has dazzled people for ages. There had been talk and plans to build a chalet on the edges of Garibaldi Lake – following the 1945 opening of the Diamond Head Chalet at Elfin Lakes (also in Garibaldi Park). The Brandvolds, operators of the lodge, envisioned a connective series of huts and lodgings connecting the gems of Garibaldi. Though no other lodges were built by them, for two years during the 1960s, Queen Charlotte Airline operated a hostel on the edges of Garibaldi Lake.

According to an article first published in Westworld in 1976, and subsequently reprinted by the Hollyburn Heritage Society, “A helicopter company trained its pilots for high altitude flying in that area and then provided an air-drop service for food and luggage, so that sides of beef came falling out-of the sky with red streamers flying.” At this time, the fish population would have been well-established in the once-devoid-of-fins lake.

Other Whistler fish-finding facts:

Alpha and Nita (both first stocked in 1926, with 12, 000 Rainbow eggs)

Lost (first in 1937 with 3000 Rainbow)

Loggers (1984, with 500 Rainbow)

Callaghan (1975 with 10, 000 Rainbow fry)

Madeley (1984 with 340 yearling Rainbow)

Jane (1987 with 2000 Rainbow)

Showh North and Showh South (4×4 access only via Cougar Mountain – recognized as a fly-fishing gem; first stocked in 1986 with 500 and 300 Rainbow each).

Green Lake has been stocked five times, the first in 1924 with 5000 eggs and lastly in 1973 with 100, 300 Rainbow fry).

Cheakamus Lake (first stocked in 1926 with 20, 000 eggs. The lake has been stocked four times, the last in 1951).

Other fish varieties of fish in Whistler’s waters include Dolly Varden and Char/Bull Trout.

Today, all anglers 16+ in British Columbia must hold a valid BC Freshwater Fishing License. Regulations for local lakes vary: know before you go and cast your line…

Fishing (with) QuestionsFishing (with) Questions

June 30, 2026 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

By Bronwyn Preece. Featured Image: Alex and Myrtle Philip at Rainbow Lodge on Alta Lake, 1940s. Philip Collection

Last week, I was standing on a rock on the edge of Garibaldi Lake, staring into the clear turquoise waters. All of a sudden, a school of fish – Rainbow Trout – some big, some small, with purple backs and black specks swam and kept circling by. I was entranced.

Two young anglers also shared the same shore with me, casting their lines into the glacial pool.

My friend asked if I knew if the lake had been stocked. My initial response was ‘unlikely’. I mean, ‘Up here? A 9+ km hike up from the trailhead, with no road and just under 1000 m of elevation gain…how would they? By helicopter?’ There certainly wasn’t anyone hiking fish or fry up this trail… or, not now… And yet, I had caught myself in my not-knowing… and my curiosity was hooked…

Making my way back to Whistler, I would pass through a valley speckled with bodies of freshwater: from the volcanic potholed divots around Brandywine to the highway-skirting of Alpha, Nita, Alta and Green. Lakes with fish. Lakes with stories. Lakes holding the lures of different fishing histories…

Whistler was first a fishing destination. Rainbow Lodge was the first ‘resort’ to open in the valley in 1915. For $6.00 you could have a weekend ‘Fisherman’s Excursion’ – a package which included travel on the Pacific Great Eastern Railway from Vancouver to Alta Lake and back and accommodation at the Lodge. The lake was said to be teeming with fish. The fish that were likely being caught at the time were Cutthroat Trout. Subsequent lodges and accommodation geared towards fisherman subsequently sprung up around Alta Lake.

Alta Lake was first stocked with fish in 1923. According to the BC Ministry of the Environment’s FIDQ – Fish Inventories Data Queries page: 30, 000 Rainbow at the ‘eyed egg’ stage were released into the lake that year. Rainbow Trout are an invasive species and subsequently altered the ecosystems of our local lakes. Despite this knowledge, the release of Rainbows into our local waters would continue until 2000.

Kokanee Salmon were stocked for the first time in Alta Lake in 1939.

Myrtle Philip of Rainbow Lodge fishing in the 1920s. Philip Collection.

As the decades passed, fishing remained an important sport and pastime. An announcement in the 1959 Alta Lake Community newsletter proclaimed that the Fish Derby prize would be $10 for the largest Rainbow trout caught in Alta Lake “by any legal method.” In 1988, in the ‘Whistler Summer Guide’ (a supplement to the Whistler Question), the paper reported: “When Whistler Mountain was known as London Mountain … the fishing was fantastic. […] Generally the fish were not that big, averaging about 30 cm, but they were plentiful. They’re just as plentiful today.” Now, in 2026, local fishing guides still exist.

Since 2000, Alta Lake has been stocked with Cutthroat (almost annually, with a few years skipped) since then. Consistently, for the past ten years, Alta Lake has been stocked with 350 yearling Cutthroats and operates with a strict fishing quota. Multiple varieties of fish are caught in its waters. The lake has been stocked 52 times between 1923 and 2026.

But, what about Garibaldi Lake? In 1928 – a year following the formal establishment of Garibaldi Provincial Park (a 195, 000 hectare protected area) – 5000 ‘eyed egg’ Rainbows were released into the lake. The subsequent year, 12, 500 eggs were released. The eggs were transported by horseback up to the nearly large lake encompassing an area of almost 10 ㎢ at 1467 metres of elevation. Mountaineering and pack-hauled camping holidays were becoming popular in the area.

Garibaldi Lake… image taken by the author on the trip that inspired this two-part article.

Next week, Part II of this article will dive deeper into Garibaldi’s Lake’s intriguing fish-related history and some statistical records with regards to Whistler’s closer and other lakes…

*Please Note: In the newspaper printed version of this article (and its initial publication on the blog) it was stated incorrectly that Alta Lake now runs on a catch and release system. Apologies for the mistake, it has been amended above and a note of correction will accompany next’s week’s article in the paper.

Shaping the landscape with fire and iceShaping the landscape with fire and ice

August 30, 2022 Whistler Museum 0 Comments

In the weekly Museum Musings column in Pique Newsmagazine, we mostly explore and share stories of the past. Rarely, however, do we go back thousands or millions of years as is required when talking about the geological history of our region. In celebration of the Sea to Sky Fire and Ice Aspiring GeoRegion, the Museum is showcasing the landscape in the new exhibition Shaping the Landscape with Fire & Ice.

Throughout time, fire and ice have played an important part in shaping the land. Whistler sits in the subduction zone of converging tectonic plates, where the Juan De Fuca plate is being pushed under the North American plate, creating the Coast Mountains. All of the volcanoes considered active in Canada are found in BC and the Yukon along tectonic plate boundaries, and all are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Garibaldi Provincial Park is named after Mount Garibaldi, the largest mountain in the park and a potentially active stratovolcano. While the last eruption was around 13,000 years ago, this is still relatively recent in geological time (Black Tusk, on the other hand, likely erupted approximately 170,000 years ago). Volcanoes can erupt again after being dormant for thousands of years. Thankfully, if Mount Garibaldi was to rumble back life to we would start seeing warnings such as hot springs, hot spots and seismic activity in the region from rising magma.

*Fire and ice shaped this region, creating the unique mountains that are popular for recreation. Greg Griffith Collection.*

While Mount Baker is instantly recognisable as a volcano, Mount Garibaldi is harder to distinguish because it is not a typical cone shaped volcano. When Mount Garibaldi erupted during the last ice age, one half of the volcanic cone formed on a rock foundation, while the west side settled on top of a glacier. As the glacier melted and receded the mountain collapsed, changing shape. Giant landslides spread the volcanic debris across the Squamish Valley.

We can thank this active volcanic region for the formation of Garibaldi Lake. Also around the end of the last glaciation, Clinker Peak on the shoulder of Mount Price erupted. The Cheakamus Valley had been full of ice over 1.3 km above sea level that was rapidly melting. Lava from the Clinker Peak eruption flowed towards the valley below where it hit the Cheakamus Valley glacier. There it cooled rapidly against the wall of ice, solidifying to create a dam across the mountain valley. As snow and ice melted from the mountains above it became trapped behind this wall, known as The Barrier, creating Garibaldi Lake.

*Garibaldi Lake. Cliff Fenner Collection.*

The only water that leaves Garibaldi Lake year round gushes from springs coming through the scree slope below The Barrier. This consistent flow of water lubricates the bottom of the naturally unstable dam and poses a significant geological hazard, with some scientists worried it could one day collapse. It is not uncommon to see rocks fall from The Barrier, hence the name of Rubble Creek below, and according to indigenous oral histories a major landslide occurred 1855 when a slab of rock fell from The Barrier. With approximately 1.28 trillion litres of water trapped by an unstable dam wall at 1400 metres of elevation, a collapse could be catastrophic. It is for this reason that an evacuation order of Garibaldi Townsite was issued in 1980, with the last residents leaving the town in 1986. Today the Garibaldi Townsite no longer exists.

*Hikers looking at The Barrier around the 1960s or 1970s. Cliff Fenner Collection.*

Shaping the Landscape with Fire & Ice is on now at the Whistler Museum, open from 11am every day except Wednesday. Entry is by donation, and you can further support the Whistler Museum by becoming a Museum Member.