Author: naomiprohaska

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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… Read more

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Snowspider

On March 28th, my dad, my dog and I had a late start. After sleeping in we drove up the duffy to the Van Horlick logging road. After taking the spur leading towards Snowspider we stopped at around kilometer 11. We unloaded our beater snowmobiles and left our truck at 12. We snowmobiled for another 5 kilometers before leaving them near a creek.

We walked in the flat meadow for about half an hour. Shortly after that we stopped to have a snack and admire the landscape. Even though it was very foggy, we could see that the trees around … Read more

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Cayoosh Cols

On Monday March 20(aka the first day of Spring), I had an awesome day. My dad, my dog and I left our house at 6:15 hoping to reach the summit of Cayoosh mountain. It is accessed from the Duffy lake road. In the parking lot for Cayoosh there was only one other vehicle. My dad unloaded our antique snow mobile. We started up the logging road and watched the sun glow on the mountains, but it didn’t actually rise for another hour. Joffre and Mattier looked especially amazing. We took the left hand fork when the road turned right near … Read more

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Three Huts, One Day

On Saturday March 11, my dad and I ski toured until dark on the Duffy lake road. Before we left I put Leukotape on my blister prone zones on my feet. Having read about this and tried it once I decided to tryout for blister prevention. We left our house at 8:15. Our goal for the day was to train, not to ski powder. We were planning to hike into and out of as many huts as possible in one day. The max would be four huts. We arrived at the salt shed parking lot at 9am. Our dog jumped … Read more

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Whirlwind

On Monday February 27th, my dad and I left our house to ski Fissile Like a Missile. The avalanche advisory for the backcountry was low in the alpine, tree line and below tree line. It is very rarely low across the board. My dad did not think it should be that low, he thought that wind loading was definitely a problem now seeing as it has been very windy in the alpine lately. The visibility was not very good so we knew we might not make it to our preferred ski line. Fissile is a mountain that is accessed from … Read more