Spearhead Traverse In One Day

On April 3 2017, my dad and I set out to do an amazing traverse, the Spearhead Traverse. This traverse can be done in 2 directions, either from Blackcomb mountain to Whistler mountain or the reverse. We went from Blackcomb to Whistler because it can be cut short if you are running out of time or daylight. If you take the Singing Pass Trail, you skip two climbs. This is a hiking trail in the Summer, but is widely used in the Winter by backcountry skiers. We were at the base of the first climb (Blackcomb east col) at 7:50. We hoped to be back in the village by 6 or 7. Our first climb was a bit cold, but we got to see the sun slowly touch the mountains around us which was amazing.

Skiing down we discovered that the snow was very nice. I had never skied such nice snow at such an early time in the morning. When we descend to the base of Decker mountain we passed a group of campers who were eating their breakfast. We said a quick hello and headed on our way. We tried to ascended a bit of a ridge up Decker. This didn’t work because of the steepness and the snow conditions of the slope. We soon cut back towards the climbers right to ascend on another track. We reached the top of this climb and looked out at the amazing mountains ahead of us. We took our skins off and had another great ski down. We saw that there were tracks that went up a steeper left face. We opted to go here instead of going under Trorey and up Pattison. At the base of our ski we saw a group of two coming down the slope in front of us. We greeted each other and talked briefly about our plans for the day. After this we put our skins on and started up the slope. The steep section was not hard to climb because of the firmness of the trail we were on. It was a lot faster that the alternate route. At the top of this climb my dad skied a nice line off of a small wind lip, I videoed. The slope here was a bit steeper than the others we had descend and the skiing was awesome.

 

I was not wearing Gortex, just soft shell pants and I was worried that I was going to get wet from all the snow that stuck to my legs. At the base of the Tremor climb we had a drink and a snack. At that time it was 10:30. We also applied sunscreen. Sunny weather is awesome, but I need to be protected form the sun or else I will fry. I remembered this climb from 2 years ago when I did the Spearhead Traverse over 3 days. It was our first climb of the second day. I remembered it being long and steep at the top. While we were hiking up I was feeling good. We had set our turn around time for 1pm on the top of Tremor. I knew that we were ahead of schedule, this fueled me even more. At the top of this we talked about how the top had been steep before because it had been a bad snow year. This year was a great snow year so it was not steep at all. We reached the top at 11:45.

Then we had a short decent and gentle climb across the Platform glacier where with skins on and  we had cell service. My dad called my mum and told her where we were. During this it was incredible to look out across at Overlord mountain and all the beautiful glaciers. After the Ripsaw there was the Naden glacier and another awkward traverse.

This part took a while because we were descending on skins after another nice ski down the south east side of Macbeth. We traversed across the rocky ridge that lead to the bottom of the Iago climb. Last time we had been here we had gone under the ridgeline and ended up much lower with more to hike up. This was the climb where I started to become tired. I knew that I was getting tired, but I also knew how much farther there was to go. I knew that there was one more longer climb, some traversing and then one very short climb. While we were climbing up we saw someone skinning to the top of Iago. My dad guessed that they would be skiing the north west face of Iago. We reached the top of the our climb and weren’t sure exactly which chute to go down where to go down.

There were tracks that seemed to be going everywhere. Soon enough we found the route down. I remembered that this ski had been unpleasant last time due to the melt-freeze of Spring. As soon as we dropped in we saw that there had been a fairly large avalanche here in mid-Winter. We traversed to the skiers right so that we were skiing a slightly less south facing slope. We skied off of the fracture line that was not filled in and about 2 feet high. My dad pointed out to me that the slide had gone over snow that stayed put. He could tell this because of a fracture line at the bottom called the staunchwall.  He said that this is unusual to see so clearly, I thought that it was bizarre. We skied down some debris from a cornice fall on the right of the slide. When we reached the skin track Cheackamus mountain looked amazing. A few clouds had come in and their shadows made the landscape look even more magnificent.

I knew that the climb ahead of us was one of the longest ones, but looking at it, it looked so far. I thought of how it was the last real climb and it helped me a lot. Going up this I didn’t look up for almost the whole time. If I looked up I knew that it would seem like it would take longer. I did look back though and I’m glad I did. The views up there are crazy! When I look at those views I am consumed, I cannot believe how beautiful the mountains are.

I looked up when my dad pointed to where people go up to ski the north side of Fitzsimons.  From there I could see that we had less than 10 minutes. I knew that staring at my feet had made the climb seem shorter, as opposite as that sounds. After passing through Benvolio Fitzsimons col we could see Overlord. I had not remembered Overlord being so close. This also boosted my mood. We quickly crossed under a big cornice on Mount Benvolio. This brought us to a notch that lead under Overlord. During our last trip here we needed to down climb this part. I was amazed at how much more snow there was this time. We skied down this and under some more cornices. We took the lower route to give us more room between the cornice and us. That meant that we needed to climb a short distance back up to the Whirlwind Fissile col. During this short hike I continually looked back. I knew that this would be my last view of all the mountains we had just come across.

I cannot express how amazing that view was. It was just heavenly beautiful, it also signified to me that I had completed a big goal of mine. I knew that I was almost done, I had a lot of kilometers to go, but it was downhill. Once we took our skins off I looked back one last time. We skied down to a small col above Russet lake and the last little climb. From here we didn’t need to put our skins on, we could have just sidestepped, but I would rather skin up. This climb was only 5-10 minutes. When we took our skins off, there was only down. The skiing down to the Singing Pass trail was really bad. Because of the lower elevation there was a crust, the temperature had been cooler today than the previous days so the crust had not melted. It was hard to turn, I was glad that there was not much farther to go on this snow. When we reached the trail I knew it would be a fast ski down. The trail had melted and frozen just like the rest of the snow. The beginning of the trail is fairly flat so that part was good. When the trail got steeper I was snow plowing and side slipping frequently. I do not like going very fast on this trail. At about half way down the trail we pulled over and let someone pass us. I do think that much of the trail is fun, but some parts do scare me. Once we reached the far end of the trail the slick snow was great. We could get up lots of the small hills without side stepping. I find that the end part is the most fun. The trail is wider so I know I can stop if I need to. Once we came out onto the main run it was 6:15. We took the Blackcomb gondola up to lot 6 where we had parked. We hugged and ate chocolate once we reached the truck. I had made it. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did, I had really enjoyed it. That day was maybe my favourite day ski touring so far. If you ever have the chance to go into the Spearhead range, definitely go.