And suddenly there was this hole. So far it was a nice, narrow trail, leading through a jungle like dense forest, every now then then offering a view to the mountains on the other side of the valley. But now this: the very slippery trail goes down into a howl, where there’s been a landslide some time ago; on the left side steep going up, on the right side steep going down. Nothing you could really hold, just some wet stones. In the Alps there would be a rope safeguarding, but here is no protection at all. What to do? Risk it to continue or give up, walk back and take the fu* expensive cable car? I was thinking of pros (“You’re strong, you make this!”, “it’s not as dangerous as it looks like”, “you want to make it to the summit on your own”) and cons (“you’re alone, there’s no one else hiking this trail”, “you don’t know how it continues after the hole, it’s safer to give up”), when another cloud came from the valley upwards. I decided to walk back about 300 meters to the other side of the rock fragments I just crossed, because I didn’t want to cross these in dense fog if I decided to give up. Still thinking about what to do, two good things happened: first, the cloud didn’t make it up to the height I meanwhile reached (about 1,600 meters). Secondly: I heard some whistle, which was probably not the whistle of a grizzly bear. Later I heard voices and someone blowing his nose. Humans! On this lonely trail! I had to wait some more minutes, and then they came around the corner: a very friendly couple from Switzerland. Now I was not alone anymore, so no reason left to be afraid of the short uncomfortable passage. We hiked together all the way up to the top station of the cable car, the rest of the trail was not dangerous at all, the landscape got more and more impressing. Now I know that also for the Swiss the food prices in Canada are very expensive. I have no idea if I would have been courageously enough to continue my hike alone, but this doesn’t matter anymore. We made it!
Having taken a picture of our Swiss-German hiking group, I continued alone to the top of the Whistlers Mountain at 2,470 meters. The loneliness of the Whistler Trail was suddenly replaced by the enormous number of cable car passengers sprawling the mountain. But most of them don’t make it up to the summit, so that I was able to enjoy the great panorama without the international mixture of loud children and slow pensioners. What a great day!
For the descent I preferred the cable car. Still expensive for one way, but at least I paid only 50% of what all the other passengers paid. Built by a German company in the 1960s, it is still Canada’s longest and highest cable car. A last view out of the cabin to the surrounding mountains, combating some circulatory problems (probably just not used to the altitude…), then I walked back to the hostel. Taking a shower, having some sleep, meeting the other Germans again, writing this post, looking out of the window to the cable car. As it started to rain again, I can’t see the mountain anymore. But it was great up there.
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