Russet Lake

Russet Lake 

8/11/25-8/12/25

25.4km +606 elevation gain and –2081 elevation loss

Russet Lake at sunset looking to the spearhead group

My first overnight backpacking trip of the season. I can’t believe it’s already August and I still had yet to spend a night out. Long overdue. Compared to the last seven summers working as a Wilderness Ranger where I spent every week out.  

It’s been a busy start to the summer for me including moving twice.  

I knew I wanted to camp at Russet Lake to photograph the sunrise and sunset. I also really wanted to climb Overlord Mountain which is 5.4km past Russet Lake with an elevation gain of +863m and loss of -179m. Overlord Mountain is one of the mountains in the area which has been closely monitored for glacial research. I have also read that there are mountain goats up there. 

Lila enjoying the sunset

Lila and I took the Whistler chairlift to the summit and started the hike from there. We walked down the service road, around Symphony chair, and over to the summit of Flute.

It took a little over an hour to reach the summit of Flute. From here you can see the Keyes and Claire hut which sits on the ridge above Russet Lake.  

BC Park sign at Flute summit

The ridge fooled me as I thought it would be a straight shot to the hut staying high on the ridge. 

From this vantage point it is hard to see that the ridge drops and reclimbs several times.I guess that's why they call the trail musical bumps. The trail did have a sound of music vibe to it.  Similar to my old stomping grounds on Copper Ridge getting to the fire lookout.  

Mt. Carr group from Keyes and Claire hut

We made it to Russett Lake in about three hours. The horse flies and heat were brutal on the way in and at the lake. I immediately went for a swim to cool off.  

Fissile peak catching the last light

Once at camp we quickly got setup and ended up falling asleep in the tent for an hour. We then went to the creek to get water. However, both our water filters were clogged. I’ve been using the Katadyn Befree filter for several years and never had an issue.

 I tried cleaning it out a bit and was able to get a small flow of filtered water out of it. Feeling sus on the integrity of the filter we opted to filter and boil our water.  

Lila trying to embrace the bugs and lack of water/fuel

The next morning, we ran out of fuel from boiling all our water. Between the heat and lack of water we opted to bail on climbing Overlord. I will be back for it! Possibly as a fast and light day trip.  

I also recommend taking Singing Pass down to the village versus taking the gondola back down. Despite the trail being 2km longer, it is all downhill and forested. Having to re-climb up the musical bumps in the heat looked brutal and I'm happy we opted to take

 Singing Pass last minute.  

This was also my first time camping within a BC Parks zone. Here are my notes as a former National Park Service Wilderness Ranger and someone very well adverse in various permit processes:  

Getting a permit was easy online. I just had to constantly check the website and found a cancellation the day before.  

However, the lack of Leave No Trace (LNT) information provided was poor.  

I had to dig through the BC Parks website and other blog posts to find out if there was a bear locker at Russet Lake. I couldn't find anything, but assumed there would be some kind of food storage. I brought my bear canister anyways just to be safe. Note: there is a bear wire but you need to bring a bag to hang your food from. It should be noted that all scented items need to be in your bear hang including toothpaste, sunscreen, chapstick, cooking pots, food dehydrated or not, and all garbage.  

There is an outhouse at camp which was clean and bring your own toilet paper.  

I overheard another party at the lake comment on how the Keyes and Claire hut looked very out of place, citing that it looked too modern and not blending in with the environment. 

I wonder what kind of commercial use permit BC Parks has granted to helicopter tour companies to operate and fly in the air space.

All of the campsites constructed at Russet Lake are too close to water. One should camp at least 60 metres from water. 

The site marked #3 is placed right next to the bear hang and right next to the outhouse. This seems like a bad idea for obvious reasons. 

Overall, Russet Lake was stunning and the entire trail was very scenic.

Despite the lack of LNT the camp felt very clean. I cleaned up some micro trash at our camp as well as along the trail.

My favorite photographs I've captured this season are from Russet Lake. 

Enjoy:

Russet Lake at sunset

Sunrise at the lake

Western Pasque flower aka Dr. Seuss flower