Hiking High Note Trail in Whistler, BC

We planned our second trip to Whistler specifically to do a hike on Whistler Mountain, which we couldn't do with Zoe. Matt had his eye on the High Note Trail because he'd heard the view was really good, so that's what we did!

The day started incredibly cloudy and chilly. The Blackcomb gondola opened at 10am, and we boarded around 11am. My biggest complaint about this hike is that the gondolas are open for a fairly limited time, which makes planning an entire day up there difficult. We didn't have time to try the restaurants on Blackcomb or Whistler because we had to get back to the gondola to descend before 5pm.

The ride up was crazy. We couldn't even see the gondolas in front of us! We took the Blackcomb up, then then Peak 2 Peak over to Whistler Mountain, then took a chairlift up to the start of the 130-meter long Cloudraker Bridge, which you have to cross to get to the trailhead. This was all really cool, except the chairlift gave me helicopter flashbacks and I wasn't a fan. 

The clouds began to break and made the walk across the bridge incredibly cool. I actually think the cloudy day gave us excellently dramatic views.

By the time we started the hike, the clouds dispersed and we got a sunny day with a nice chill wind, which is perfect for hiking! The first part of this trail was downhill, and it was fairly steep and slippery with the loose rocks and dirt, so I was glad we had our hiking poles.

Once we were past the steep start, the majority of this hike follows a narrow, flat trail along the southeast side of mountain. It overlooks the Cheakamus Lake, which is the most astounding shade of blue. From there, you loop back toward the Roundhouse Lodge, where you take the Peak 2 Peak back to Blackcomb and take the gondola back down to Whistler Village.

Don't mind the protein bar wrapper that somehow made it into this shot!

The hardest part of this hike came in the last mile or so, where we hit most of the hike's elevation. This part was really hard; we passed a lot of people who didn't have poles and were clearly struggling. Matt took a detour to Flute Summit and I opted to sit and enjoy the view because that extra trek just wasn't in me.

This isn't my favorite kind of trail, but the views were gorgeous and it was a new and different experience to reach the trailhead, so it was definitely a cool one and I'm glad we did it.

I'm glad we made time for it, and I'm actually glad we couldn't do it in July because it would have been way too hot! We ended up having the perfect day for it in late September.

Ali