Spearhead Traverse

The Spearhead Traverse

 

 In late February of 2010 I went with Eric Dalzell, Pablo Purncas, Ryan O'Connell to ski the ultra-classic Spearhead Traverse from Whistler to Blackcomb. THe Spearhead Traverse is around 20 miles in length and crosses 13 different glaciers and has 34 transitions, yes thats right 34. Most folks do it in 3-4 days, though its been completed in 7.5 hours. We where hoping for 1 night and two days. We were a little woried because the weather didn't look that good, it looked okay.  At least we would have this mega classic tour to ourselves.....

 After leaving Seattle at 4am we arrived in Whistler Village at 9am. Here we are leaving our car (for $25 a night) and getting ready to go. Pablo and Ryan packing up.

Pablo in the Tram riding to the top of Blackcomb mountain, our single lift ride was still $44.

Ryan stoked in the tram, because the weather was marginal they people at custimer service were like "your really going up there", "There is no-one else up there". We at least could explain to them that we were guides and "knew what we were doing".

 For most of our first day we had bad visibilities and relied on my GPS 100% of the time. Skiing was challenging because of the low light but snow conditions were great and stability was good. The skinning was challenging and we changed trail breakers often. Here are Eric and Pablo following up my "AMGA" skin track.

 Navigating in White out conditions early on the first day.

Oh yeah, getting snowed on, skiing in a white out and staring at my GPS.

At times, slight frustration from all the stopping to white out navigate, but a ton of fun to have the tour to ourselves never the less

Here we are making some of the better turns on the First day.

One of the cruxer parts of the day and the and the whole tour crossing over a step pass, in retrospect we might have been able to go around this feature. 

Digging out the mid at the end of the first day.

 Eric Chilling in the mid, we dug it out huge so we could stand up in it and the Mega-mid easily slept all four of us.

 Ryan hanging in the mid

The Mega-mid in the morning, far better weather, high clouds and even patches of blue sky. Because of the poor weather we only made it about 40% of the way around the tour the first day so we go a relatively early start, we were all extremely excited by the improved visibility and awesome ski conditions

 

 First skin of the morning.....

 Pulling up after one of our first descents of the day. Over Lord mountain in the distance. We were so happy to finally start being able to see the route. Of course part of why the Spearhead is so classic is because of its beauty.

Me skiing down one of the other "Cruxes" of the route"

The exact halfway point of the Traverse, it is now easier to continue on than to turn back. We could make out other skiers who had started that day in the distance.

This was one of my favorite shots of the Spearhead Traverse.

Pablo Shredding it

Ryan getting ready to drop in.

Turns toward the end of the Traverse.  We made it back to the final climb back into the ski resort just as it got Dark. After all the white out navigation and everything we did to get there you think it would be easy. But it was challenging, with no one around, no signs, it took us a while to find our way down. Luckily Eric could remember the topography of Whistler and we eventually made our way down in the Dark. We ate dinner in Whistler Village and then drove back, making it to Seattle at 2:30am. Eric and I had to work at Second Ascent at 10am