TR: Spearhead and Garibaldi Neve, Mar. 9-10, 2013
After a few weeks of resort skiing, it was time to get some touring done. Whistler had received more than a meter of snow towards the end of February/beginning of March, but the coastal climate had worked it's magic and stability was surprisingly good.
Sometime last year, AngryBeard came across a TR about the 'sea to sky sufferfest' which involves completing the Spearhead Traverse and Garibaldi Neve Traverse back to back over a single weekend. These are two of the more classic traverses in the south coast mountains of BC. The Spearhead connects Whistler and Blackcomb via a large horseshoe that crosses 13 glaciers and about 35km. The Garibaldi Neve Traverse goes about from Diamond Head (Squamish area) to the Garibaldi lake area (the Black Tusk area south of Whistler) over about 45km.
AngryBeard, CrazyHorse and I completed our first Spearhead 2 years ago (and in fact that was the first bit of serious touring I did with either of them). Sparks and I had each been around a few times, but several members of our core group had never completed a Spearhead traverse before, so after a bit of an e-mail chain we ended up with a group of 7 planning to head out. Hardly ideal for moving fast, but we figured we could make it work.
Day 1- The Spearhead
The traditional Spearhead route starts from the top of Blackcomb, so at about 845 on Saturday AngryBeard, Splitz, CrazyHorse, Wiggles, Sparks, FoxyLady and I found ourselves at Glacier Creek waiting for the Glacier Express chair to open. Glacier Express didn't crack until about 915, so it provided plenty of time to enjoy a coffee and question my choice to test new boots with a spearhead traverse.
The usual hive of activity near the Blackcomb Backcountry gate (photo by AngryBeard)
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There were 2 parties of 2 starting on the Spearhead at the same time as us. Crazyhorse managed to break a dynafit toepiece before clearing Decker (continuing his trend of gear failures on big days) which we managed to remedy with a judicious application of bailing wire, tape and Voile strap. All the groups had spaced out by the time we reached the top of Pattison.
Most of our party strung out ahead of me on Tremor.
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Wiggles and AngryBeard cruising up Tremor.
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Most of the glaciers were looking way better than they did when Sparks and I did the Spearhead in January, but the snowpack is definitely still way thinner than normal. A few people had skiied the skier’s right side of the Curtain glacier, but the main part of that line was mostly covered in house sized crevasses.
Splitz at the Naden-Macbeth Col about to drop down towards Iago. The Overlord Glacier is visible behind him.
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CrazyHorse Cruising up Iago
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A bit behind schedule but still doing ok. We topped out bonk hill around 4pm. We opted for the less exposed but slightly longer route of going over Benvolio.
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After a bit of ski down through the rock spires, we traversed above the Overlord Glacier. The slots are still somewhat more apparent on this section compared to other years, with one just below the traditional route
FoxyLady stoked to be almost done.
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And we enjoyed some lovely views of the Tusk before dropping down onto the Glacier below Refuse Pinnacle.
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Headlamps finally went on at the top of the climb to Fissile Whirlwind Col. Wiggles is pleased to be back in familiar terrain.
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A leisurely ski out singing pass had most of the group finished in about 10 hours. Sparks and I lagged behind a bit and finished in just under 11 hours.
Day 2 - Garibaldi Neve Traverse
We ended up with a slightly leaner group for day 2 with only AngrBeard, Crazyhorse and I participating. After grabbing about 4 hours sleep we left our car at the Rubble creek parking lot, and Wiggles dropped us off at Diamond Head near Squamish.
We hit the trail around 7:30 to light rain at 950m, and were at the Elfin Lakes shelter around 9:30am. Conditions were about 0°C, and a few 100 m of visibility. AngryBeard was reasonably confident of his route finding abilities, and we set off with a plan to retrace our steps if we weren't confident of the way forward.
Plenty of old slide debris around Ring Creek (photo by AngryBeard)
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The cloud mostly cleared as we reached the high point of the Traverse, giving us some nice view of Mt. Garibaldi and the Tent.
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AngryBeard skiing down from the high point
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Our tracks from the high point are visible in the left side of this shot.
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And finally all that remained was to skin about 6km across Garibaldi lake and ski down the barrier.
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Got to the car around 530pm for a Neve crossing time of about 10h20m. About 80km on skis over 2 days. Overall not a bad bit of exercise for the weekend.
