Skating on Garibaldi Lake

Sometimes Garibaldi Lake is frozen, and sometimes it is not. Usually, the ice is covered in a thick layer of snow. Occasionally, the lake is warm enough for its snow cover to melt, but not warm enough for the ice to melt. Under very specific circumstances, this is followed by a long stretch of sub-zero weather with little precipitation. When this happens, the surface refreezes into a sheet of glassy, snow-freeice, smooth enough to skate on. From what I can tell, this happens about once per decade. 

The lake was skateable for a few days in February 2015, so my family and I went skating. We brought some hockey sticks and played a game in the middle of the lake. It remains, to this day, the most stereotypically Canadian thing I’ve ever done.

As the day went on, the ice was softening. Every few minutes, I would place too much pressure on a weak spot in the ice and the skate would sink about half an inch. It was somewhat alarming…

I’m not aware of any other times when the lake was skateable. It would be interesting to know if this has happened before. With climate change causing more warm stretches in the winter, I would guess that Garibaldi Lake will become a skating rink more often. 

Some unseasonably warm weather in January 2026 turned the lake into a skating rink once again. The conditions held for nearly a week. I cancelled my weekend plans and made my way to Garibaldi Lake with a VOC trip. It seemed like most of the SWBC outdoor community was there to check out the ice, including a few people I knew. 

The ice was in much better condition than 2015, with a much smoother surface and none of the alarming postholing. It was my first time on skates in a few years but the muscle memory returned quickly. We made our way across the lake, avoiding cracks in the ice. 

Every few minutes, air trapped underneath the ice made strange booming sounds, somewhere between a grouse and a Nether portal from Minecraft. 

All around us were spectacular views. 

We eventually made it to Burton hut, my first time there. The ice at the mouth of the creek had frozen perfectly clear, revealing the creek bed below. We had lunch at the hut. 

While there, we were challenged to a game of hockey by another group. We returned to the western end of the lake and the game was on!

After the game, our group decided to stay on the lake to see the sunset and the stars. To kill time, some of us did a lap around the lake. We reached Sentinel Bay just before sunset and watched the mountains glow red. 

On our return, we saw a figure lying on the ice! It turned out he was just taking photos of the scenery. We asked him to take some group photos.

Back at the western end, we waited in the dark as the first stars appeared. After about half an hour, the cold finally convinced us it was time to descend.

Our trip leader had spent the trip hyping up an Indian restaurant in Squamish with $2 samosas, but it turned out to be closed, so we settled for fast food instead. 

A couple days later, I returned to the lake for an even crazier adventure: a skate-assisted ascent of Guard Mountain…