Callaghan Valley

The Callaghan Valley is a wilderness recreation area in the Sea to Sky Country of southwestern, British Columbia, located in the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains 90 km 1 north of Vancouver. On its western perimeter is the Powder Mountain Icefield, and the potentially active [cite book | last = Etkin | first = David | coauthors = Haque, C.E. and Brooks, Gregory R. | title = An Assessment of Natural Hazards and Disasters in Canada | publisher = Springer | date = 2003-04-30 | location = | pages = | url = http://books.google.com/books?id=kaJz_SNNuKMC&pg=PA569&lpg=PA569&dq=wells+%22gray+clearwater%22+volcanic+field+earthquakes&source=web&ots=3-cpYxu0uM&sig=OsW3GQ5BQLaHN3HZRdzQfObnx6A
isbn = 978-1402011795] [ [http://books.google.ca/books?id=HHoOlKqsFn4C&pg=PA33&lpg=PA33&dq=Mount+Cayley+active&source=web&ots=EGmj-K8-31&sig=pUO5uE7BACocSGQZHaf6_fla5hs&hl=en&sa=X&ol=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result Life in Stone: A Natural History of British Columbia's Fossils] ] volcano Mount Cayley, which lies at the valley's southwestern extremity. Mount Callaghan, at the head of the valley, is a dormant volcano because its last eruption was not as recent as Mount Cayley's, nor does it display hot spring or seismic activity. The valley is the basin of Callaghan Creek, at the head of which is Callaghan Lake and associated provincial park. Midway down Callaghan Creek is the confluence of Madeley Creek, just above which on that creek is Alexander Falls, which lies just at a bridge on the road to Callaghan Lake.

The valley's eastern wall is the small range formed by Mount Sproatt and Rainbow Mountain, which lies in the angle of the Cheakamus River and Callaghan Creek (which in the past has also been known as the West Fork of the Cheakamus) and east of which is the Resort Municipality of Whistler. The valley's mouth and road access is at McGuire's on BC Highway 99, 14 kilometres south of downtown Whistler, in British Columbia. the location is also known as Northair, and the road as the Northair Mine Road, after a mine located a few miles north of the junction, which is marked by a quarry pit columnar basalt lava rock on the opposite side of the highway, and which are the northern end of a small lava plateau between the highway and river south to and including Brandywine Falls.

The valley has seen some logging, though not in its upper end, and some mining, but today it is primarily a backcountry skiing, telemark skiing, cross country skiing, and snowshoeing area in the winter. it is also used for access to the alpine areas surrounding it - in good seasons, skiing and alpine touring in the alpine last well into the spring, and in the Powder Mountain Icefield virtually year-round. It is the most easily accessible of all the major Coast Mountains icefields by road and a number of heliskiing companies using it on ar regular basis from bases in Whistler, Squamish. Snow-cat and snowmobile companies have also used in the valley and to access the icefield.

Common summer activities are hiking in the valley and on surrounding mountains, which are also used by heli-hiking companies, and canoeing on Callaghan Lake are common summer activities.

The valley was to have been the star feature of the aborted Powder Mountain Resort project, which was discontinued during the regime of the Social Credit regime of Premier Bill Vander Zalm) and would have also seen a smaller version of Whistler Village built at Callaghan Lake as the ski hill's basetown. The valley, then Crown Land, has since been absorbed into the Resort Municipality of Whistler, which opposed the Powder Mountain project, and was chosen to be the site of the Whistler Olympic Park, which will be the Nordic events venue for the 2010 Olympics.

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