HANGING LAKE & GIN PEAK
9 km | 575 m | 3 hours
Hanging Lake is a popular backcountry skiing area in Callaghan. Depending on snow conditions, this could be a moderate to a difficult snowshoe. The day we did it there was 20 cm of fresh snow, making the climb challenging. Our intention was to hike all the way up to Gin Peak, but we only made it to the lake. You have to be mindful of the fact that the park gate closes at 4:30pm so you do need to be back down and out of the park by that time. It took us just under 2 hours to get up and 1 to get down. We took reusable shopping bags with us and slid down the steep slopes making the decent faster and rather enjoyable with endless laughter.
The trail is well marked up to the lake and remains below the tree line so Avalanche risk tends to be low. Having said that, ensure you are aware of the conditions and practice proper safety measures.
Most people tend to hike this area over the winter as it is known as grizzly territory. We like to avoid the Mount Sproatt and Rainbow Lake trail network over the summer months for this reason.
13 km | 970 m
Alltrails says the return trip to Gin Peak is only 10.5 km. Given it was a 9 km return to Hanging Lake our guess is that Gin Peak is at least another 2-3 km climb from the lake making this more like a 13-15km adventure. This remains on our bucket list for a blue bird day. They say the climb up to the peak is worth the views.
