TR: Tantalus Mar 2019

https://vimeo.com/329531331

3 splitboarder buddies and I hired Justin Lamoureux for a 5 day custom ski mountaineering course. I first heard of Justin through his Backyard Project vids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAVyW-a_o-A. He's a former pro and olympic pipe rider turned splitboard guide who is apparently currently the only ACMG-certified full splitboard guide on the BC coast. We wanted to do all 5 days in the Tantalus range but due to logistical constraints ended up doing 3 in the Tantalus and 2 in the Blackcomb backcountry.

The Tantalus is the beautiful and intimidating looking range that is the highlight of the drive south from Whistler and is featured in this Patagonia vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdJAM8L031A. It's a 5 min heli ride from Squamish that costs the same as a Whistler lift ticket, there's a beautiful hut to stay in, and every backcountry skier/rider I mention the place to says they want to go, but from what I can tell, not many do, and after visiting I know why. Besides the Serratus glacier, there is nothing mellow to ski there. Every line and approach is steep and committing, there are crevasses everywhere, and you are at the mercy of the weather unlike anywhere else I've toured.

We arrived at the hut in crazy howling winds out of the north. I was sure that everything N-facing (basically everything we were hoping to ride) would be completely windfucked and that we'd be confined to the one mellow run or would be flying back out ASAP. The wind was so strong that when we tried to light the wood stove, wind coming down the chimney kept putting out the fire and smoking us out of the hut
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Not a bad view while doing the dishes (btw, i'm 95% sure that raven is a sticker - I'm not that lucky)
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None of us wanted to tour in hut stove-extinguishing winds, so we reviewed/learned some rope skills in the hut. Being a snowboarder first, a mountaineer only when I need to be, and not a climber, I find rope skills difficult to remember, so I quite liked the practice. Here I am learning the classic 2-man spooning style crevasse self-rescue technique
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Then we went a stone’s throw from the hut and practiced going up/down stuff and self-arresting with pointy things attached
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The sunsets from the hut are the most spectacular I’ve ever seen. As the sun started setting everyone got quiet and just snapped pics for about an hour straight as colors changed by the second to every hue between orange and purple. Pics don’t do it justice

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We woke the next day to discover the wind had died down so we decided to poke around. None of us were very hopeful about what we’d find and Justin had already started planning the possibility of flying out to find better snow elsewhere. But our mellow first lap down the Serratus glacier indicated the wind hadn’t done what we thought it had everywhere. The only explanation we could come up with was the col where the hut is acted as a wind tunnel and made it seem a lot worse at the hut than it was elsewhere.

Looking up at our tracks on the Serratus glacier. Dione to the right of the col:
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Encouraged, we started heading back up to the col. Serratus Mtn is the highest peak in view:
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After some pit digging, snow science discussion, and lunch at the hut, we headed up the backside of Serratus for our first real line of the trip. That vertical looking wall of snow is called “the wave” and we would later climb it:
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Our first peek into the line (Serratus shoulder):
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Justin on belay, getting ready to ski cut
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and the other end of the rope
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He turned a little less than we did
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We started skinning towards the Serratus N face when clouds started rolling in
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Not wanting to ride in flat light, we decided to do another quick cruiser lap then head back to the hut.
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Of course, it cleared up as soon as we got close enough to the hut to not want to turn around. Alpha on the left:
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Serratus:
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Did I mention I was a fan of the sunsets?
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Cypress and Vancouver visible on the left:
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We were all a bit worried/skeptical when Justin said his plan was to climb the Wave to access the Serratus N face, but this ended up actually being the highlight of my trip. I’ve ridden lines of comparable steepness before but I had never climbed anything like this. The only pic I managed to snap of the climb:
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Looking back at our bootpack later that day:
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The summit of Serratus. Snow above here was pretty windscoured so we didn’t bother summitting
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Looking down the N face:
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Our lines
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Heading back up for another lap
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More lines
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After a 3rd lap off the shoulder, we headed back to the hut to catch the next heli coming in and drop our costs
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Stoked and ready for a pickup
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The next 2 days in the Blackcomb backcountry were fun and very educational but the Tantalus was definitely the highlight. Overall the trip was everything we’d hoped for - learned a ton and got to climb and shred some amazing terrain in good snow. As a splitboarder, I can’t recommend Justin enough. I’ve been on a few guided trips with ski guides and they’ve all been great experiences but having a guide who had a snowboarder-centric view of the mountains was a huge plus. We also loved that he is an absolute ripper with freestyle roots. The Tantalus is a spectacular location that’s ridiculously close to home. If you can, go! I am going to do my best to make it an annual trip.

Way chill TR, thx for sharing! [emoji1360]

well done

Very nice.

Well done. Thanks for sharing.

Most excellent!

Nice!

Sick!

Those sunsets.

TR was the tits.

Wow. Maybe it's the angle of those photos, but that bootpack makes my sphincter clench!

Thx all. Photo angle def makes it look steeper, but it was still pretty steep!