Piccolo Summit - July 2 2023

Fitzsimmons Range, Whistler, British Columbia
2043m

This is the second half, and third peak of my summer journey starting at Whistler Mountain. The rest of the Fitzsimmons I either already have, or plan to get in winter, so this was the last stop for the day. After leaving the Harmony Chair, I immediately found my first snow patch of the day getting up+over the high plateau above the chair to start my descent down to the Burnt Stew Trail.

I decided to take the ~15-minute detour on the Half-Note trail instead of just going back to the road formed by Burnt Stew, which while perhaps not the fastest route, was much more enjoyable hiking, as it was an actual alpine hiking trail. However, after that 15 minutes was up, I was back on Burnt Stew, walking on a dirt road with occasional snow patches basically until I crossed under the Symphony Chair and turned back up toward the peak.

I continued along the road for around 15 minutes until it started trending downhill past the chair, so I instead took the "Jeff's Ode to Joy" trail (also a green run in winter, guess those tend to be road-like underneath) that curls up towards the peak. I actually bypassed it a bit to avoid an unnecessary snow patch, but only deviated for a few minutes. At this point, though, my decision to skip lunch for the sake of making the lift in-time came to bite me, as I was feeling my lack of calories (it was nearly 4pm, after all). I started taking a couple rest breaks, even going so far as to drink some water!

It took about 10 minutes to gain the ~100m to the chair, and another couple to get up to the summit. This, again, was not blocked off, and had a faint trail to follow. On top, I took a few pictures and had some water, but didn't linger for more than a few minutes as the wind was actually quite noticeable and a bit chilly.

The return trip wasn't super notable, just a bunch of road trekking. It took me just over 50 minutes to get back to Whistler, I was definitely a bit gassed from my lack of calories. I did make it in time for the last chair, though, so I'd say that was a reasonable enough choice. Though, given my pace, I suspect a snack would've probably resulted in a net-faster experience overall. Oh well, nothing really important. However, it was back at the Peak Chair where I encountered the true crux of the day: TOURISTS.

There were SO MANY people lined up for the Peak Chair, it was absolutely absurd. If I knew the line was this bad, I'd have walked down to the Roundhouse from Symphony. However, after trekking all the way back up, I didn't really want to retrace 75% of my steps to get back there and take the descent trail (no way down directly from peak chair without skis and snow to use them). So, instead, I made the foolish choice to wait, and spent around an hour waiting around in the line. If I knew how slowly it would move, I might've just taken the path down anyway, just to save time. Oh well, live and learn. Guess despite the short lines on the way up, everyone likes to collect at the top before the day ends.

Eventually I got out of there and made my way back home, with most of the fragments of my sanity still there. Not that I started with much. I'd say it was a pretty productive day for an on-call day, if nothing else. Got to do my first rock climbing in quite some time, got a few peaks, and stayed in signal like a good boi. Plus I got some summer value out of my Epic Pass, which felt nice since I wasted the last 2 months of its skiing value.

GPX Track + Map