Spearhead Traverse by Lukas Chrostowski(转载)

lulululu

January 28, 2007   (1 days)
Participants: myself
Equipment: tele skis, skins, day-pack, 10 cliff-bars, 2L water
Difficulty: tiring
Abstract: 1-day solo traverse of the spearhead range, from Whister gondola to blackcomb peak (counter-clockwise)


This photo is looking S from MacBeth's S slopes, looking at several peaks including Fitzsimmons.


shiny & hard snow

For $60, I took a ride up the Whistler gondola at 7:15am, for their breakfast club (they called it fresh tracks, but it hadn't snowed in 4+ days). At 8:05 am, received the patrol's permission to finish breakfast, and skined up to the top of the Harmony chair, on a freshly groomed road. Flute, Oboe, ... around Fissile, W of Overlord, MacBeth col, ... many cols, ..., traversed across Decker's N face, .... All the way around the scenic Spearhead range, returning to the col SW of Blackcomb peak (body-bag couloir, a fun dusk/moon-lit descent).

Down at Blackcomb Fairmont hotel at 6pm.

Excellent skiing (about 1000 ft vertical, foam) on the slopes W of Overlord peak. Crusty everywhere else.

Half-way through the Spearhead traverse, I ran into several parties. Popular weekend (10+ people, all going clockwise).

Snow conditions, hard wind-slabs > 2000 m, rain-crust < 1900 m. Ski penetration, 0-5cm, generally hard, fast skiing, but tiring on the ankles. Several hut-sized cornices have fallen in the past several days, near Overlord peak.

Labelled Waypoints

50°02' 06.0"-122°47' 18.0"=MacBeth/Couloir Ridge Col