Hiking Black Tusk

David had wanted to take me on a hike to Black Tusk in Garibaldi Provincial Park in BC, Canada for a couple of years. It is accessed from the Sea to Sky highway close to Whistler.
	We did it as a day hike, arriving at the trailhead about 8:30 AM.
	The trail is wide and very well maintained.
	We stopped by Garibaldi Lake. It is fairly big (3.5mi, 5km long) and is fed by several glaciers.
	At this outflow point, it makes a pretty good river.
	The color of the water was a beautiful milky aqua blue from suspended glacial flour (rock dust).
	The lake was like glass because the water was very calm and transparent.
	We climbed above the lake. Notice the flat-topped Table Mountain behind the trees on the right?
	It actually has a tea-cup handle hole through it, so that you can see the glacier of the mountain behind it!
	Our climb went through alpine meadows.
	The wild flowers were waning, but there were a few good ones yet.
	And glacier-fed streams crossed our path.
	Finally we could see Black Tusk. It is the hard lava core of an ancient volcano. The cone eroded, exposing the black rock core. Although it looks flat on top, that is only a trick of this perspective. It actually slopes from the left up to its peak at the right. We climbed the gravel to its base at its right side, and going along the edge went to its back at the left.
	The Tusk rock is actually somewhat crumbly because it has many fractures related to how it cooled. The patterns can be seen in the wall just below the peak.
	And that wall is very vertical!
	This looks back the way we came up. At the left, we are about to scramble up a chimney.
	The texture in the rock made this climb be pretty easy. Lots of foot-holds; lots of hand-holds. The trick is to be sure each hold is not portable.
	It was as steep here as a ladder.
	After that, the slope was pretty ordinary to the top (going to the left). Although the rock is black, it is more like a matte-finish glass material than sooty charcoal.
	From the top over that vertical wall, the drop-offs were tremendous.
	We ate lunch on top.
	There were glaciers all the way around you.
	Coming down this slope, I was able to ski through the gravel. It was an easy, quick descent and was fun!
	We went out a slightly different route to get a different view. This looks back on where we climbed up the chimneys. We had climbed the crack on the left and followed the zig-zag trail on the left up to the top.
	A final view from the meadow.
	Fall colors were starting to show.
	The trail out was also beautiful, but it was long and we were tired when we got to the car.
The round trip was 20 miles on foot, but it was well worth it.