The Table

February 6, 2026

2021m

Garibaldi Provincial Park, BC

The Table is one of the most unique geological features in the Sea to Sky Corridor that had caught attention from the earlier explorers to the zillions of tourists nowadays hiking in the area. The geological term for this kind of formation is “tuya”, meaning a steep-sided and flat-topped volcano formed when lava erupted through a thick layer of ice. Unlike the yet-unclimbed Vulcan’s Thumb, this one does boast over 200 m prominence qualifying an independent summit by the international peak-bagging standard, and for that reason The Table is among one of, if not the scariest/hardest “ranked/P100m” peak in SW BC. There’s no shortage in the climbing history dating back to Tom Fyles’ first ascent in 1916, but most of the recorded ascents were from the “ancient time” many decades ago. Detailed accounts of attempts in the modern era were only by rumour or “words of mouth” so nobody really knew much about it. After completing some of the worst choss piles in SW BC, Washington and the Canadian Rockies I knew I would eventually come face to face with The Table, but I was hesitating to give it an attempt. I wasn’t too keen on the long approach (40 km round trip) only to come back empty-handed, but then all of the sudden Lukas Fournier climbed, and reported it as a rope-solo. I had not heard about this name until the recent year, but with feats such as “Mt. Robson solo in 27 hours C2C” under his belt I also wasn’t surprised that it was him who managed to put The Table back on the table in this modern internet era. I actually messaged him directly, and by no mean Lukas made it sound “easy” but at least he proved the beta still went nowadays, despite the rumour that the route had “collapsed” decades ago. This also ruled out any of my remaining thoughts in doing a non-standard way such as a series of snow ramps on the north face. The only route that had been climbed on The Table is the East Ridge and will still be in the foreseeable future.

Lukas did the climb mostly, if not entirely on rock so a “winter ascent” was not necessary, but having Garibaldi Lake frozen definitely shortens the approach and the low temperatures could also reduce the rockfall, so the decision was to follow as soon as the next window formed which happened about 2 weeks later. The window wasn’t as ideal as it had been warm and rainy for at least a week with reports of the lake “no longer in shape”. I saw some of the pictures posted and thought it was just water pooling on the surface ice. I ended up being correct. I have a theory that if this lake needs more time to freeze then it will also respond with a delay when melting. There’s no way for a week of rain to ruin it in February. I did most of the planning with Noah Macdonald but Francis Bailey and Nick Ayers also joined the team at the last minute. A group of 4 was almost certainly “too much” for one of the loosest peaks on planet Earth but at least the vertical part of the route can be done in a single pitch. Lukas did the climb over 2 days but with the recipe out, we thought we could certainly cook the meal in a single push home-to-home. Noah and Nick would be on skis and thought they could beat Francis and I by an hour on the approach. The decision was made for Francis and I starting at 4 am and them at 5 am, but Francis and I eventually started 20 min later than planned. I thought they would have to be Eric Carter to beat us by an hour, so there’s no point in starting that early. I was correct in the end, but Noah and Nick were still 20 min faster than us and they also carried most of the rock climbing gears.

The Garibaldi Lake trail was astonishingly dry for mid-winter, with no snow whatsoever until around 1000 m elevation. I managed to wear trail-runners all the way to the “6 km junction” and then bootpacked the rest of the way to the lake. There was no short-cutting across the two lesser lakes or the area above the main lake and the route completely followed the summer trail. Our plan was to take our time on the approach since we would be ahead of them anyway, so we did the 9-km march to Garibaldi Lake quite leisurely, slower than my last time doing this approach (to Guard Mountain). But then the views opened up and we found out the lake was still mostly a sheet of ice so our stoke level got boosted. Instead of donning traction I thought it would be more enjoyable to boot-skating across the lake. I only had such experience back in Edmonton more than 10 years ago. Our