TR: Exploring the Fitzsimmons Range

[DyingToLiveToSki]

Christmas was good to me. I got to go home to the Kootenays, and ripped some serious pow on the Kootenay pass and at Whitewater. It was good to see some old friends, and ski with people who truly love to ski. 13 out of 15 possible days of skiing over the break and everyday was a dream. Thanks for the good times guys.

Now I am back to school on the coast. The land of big mountains and epic ski traverses. This weekend was an american long weekend at Whistler-Blackcomb, and I didn't want to be anywhere near the mountain. So I called up my good buddy Robin Foubister, and talk began of doing the Reverse Spearhead traverse.

Clear skies, a solid snowpack, and fresh turns is the motivation of the trip, and doing the spearhead in reverse (although is more climbing) provides some great north facing slopes after you climb past Overlord and battle through the valley that holds the Macbeth Glacier.

Neither of us were too familiar with the portion of the traverse from Overlord to Tremor, but we figured that with clear skies this weekend, this would be the perfect time to explore the outer bounds of the Spearhead and Fitzsimmons ranges.



1:00 Saturday, Brad (me) at the ski area boundry, east of Flute. We plan to hike to Fissile and spend the night at the Himmelsbach hut.


3:00: arrive at the Himmelsbach hut, the cabin is nearly vacant due to the cold weather (the hut does not have a stove and comfortably can house 6-8 people)

4:30: Leelau returns to the hut along with his buddy John, Lee was out taking some great sunset shots of Raphael and the Swiss machines (these guys ripped some epic lines this weekend!) skiing at sunset. I have read many of Lee’s trip reports and it was cool to actually meet him. He is a great guy and he helped us fine tune our route for the next day. Thanks Lee!

We had a good night in the Himmelsbach Hut, everyone was really friendly and had the same attitude about being the the mountains. Lee, John, and the Swiss Machines were to set out for Fizsimmons in the morning, and Robin and Myself were to set out to explore the Outer Regions of the spearhead.



Sun setting on fissile…


January 14th

7:45:

Out the door at quarter to 8, we set out on traverse. The swiss machines are ahead of us, and Lee and John are close behind. We begin by touring around the back of Fissile. We take the high line and end up skiing the south aspect of Fissile down to the approach to the Wirlwind and the Overload glacier. With heavy packs and an icy crust at the top this proved to be a good warm up for the legs early. The snow improved as we continued the line and we ended up with some nice early morning turns. Lee and John took the valley route and we end up meeting up with them at the bottom of the line.

9:45:

We make it up to wirlwind with no trouble and traverse across the overlord glacier. We were originally planning to take the backside of overlord but Lee informed us that the skinning conditions were not very good in that direction due to significant rime ice. We decide to take the front route, although there are significant cornices above we decide that with the cool morning temperatures they pose a lesser danger.



Lee and John skinning up Overlord...

10:15:

While crossing the icy slopes of Overload and ascending around the back of Benvolio my skin falls off and we need to take 15 mins to de-ice.



The view of the route ahead while my skin de-ices...After navigating the backside of the ridge behind the back of Benvolio, Fitzsimmons and Iago we ran into some route issues through the Iago-Fitzsimmons col. The mellow pass that we planned to take had a sizeable cornice at the dropin. We also found a fairly steep, tight chute that accessed the valley below. We were considering dropping it, but decided it was not the best idea considering we could not see if there was any serious exposure, and we were 15 km's from the Whistler ski resort. So we skied down/skinned around Iago, and got some nice turns in the sun.

We found two routes for the next time we try the reverse spearhead.

Option A: If the snow is good ski off the shoulder of the North side of Fitzsimmons (can be accessed from the backside of Fitzsimmons via the Fitzsimmons bootpack) and drop into the Fitzsimmons glacier below. Caution should be taken with this route because there is some Berk exposure on the face below. If an appropriate route is taken the icefall can be avoided.

Option B: Ski the mellower but longer (route-wise) Iago glacier which can be accessed by skiing to the valley bottom on the Diavolo Glacier and hiking the ride behind Iago.

Any other suggestions?



Brad (me) skiing behind Benvolio and Fitzsimmons on the Diavolo Glacier.



Robin with some nice turns on the backside of the Iago pass/the Iago Glacier.



Robin with the Diavolo icefalls in the background.

After much effort we did find a route around Iago...



Brad looking into the distance as we finally find a possible route around/through Iago, but we have found the route too late. Although we are almost exactly the same distance from Blackcomb as Whistler we plan to return the route we came, since we know the snow conditions and we should be able to fly back to Whistler faster than Blackcomb.



3:00

Brad after the skin to the top of Benvolio for the second time…

We then decided to traverse the south side of Overlord around the Refuse Pinnacle to save some time. Although this saved us nearly half an hour we had to slowly traverse half a kilometer on rime ice that had formed on top of the snow. I do not recommend this route. After the ice we got some nice sunset turn on the backside of Fissile where the snow was much better...



3:45

Robin on the backside of Fissile at sunset...


4:00

We run into Lee and John at the head of the Singing pass trail. The sharp corners, sections of whoops and hidden creekbeds prove to be good times in the dark. I hope everyone brought a headlamp!

6:30

We finally make it back to the parking lot of Whister after a great weekend of touring. Although we didn't finish the traverse, I learned a lot about the mountains in the Fitzsimmons Range. I am confident now that I can finish the reverse spearhead with the newly found route through/around Iago. I definately plan on returning to the Himmelsbach hut and sessioning some of the mountains in the area with a lighter pack (ei. Fitzsimmons). It is an amazing area and I definately recommend it.

[klar]

so very nice!
much better with working pics

[LeeLau]

Beautiful!

The other option is to bootpack the chutes up to the ridge north of Iago and then walk the ridge. That's the "safe" spring route.

Or just routefind a way through the Iago col cornices and descent a ways to the MacBeth Glacier then climb back up to Ripsaw Ridge.

You guys played it smart, were totally motivated and got some great experience.

Present for you guys - threw in a hand-marked route

http://www.leelau.net/2007/russetlak...dmarkedmap.jpg

[DyingToLiveToSki]

haha, thanks, I am a rookie to the forums...

ya, thanks lee, the bootpack definately is a good option as well...now looking back at the pictures that I took of the ridge allows for easier routefinding. while we were on the back of the ridge with time running out it was harder...and we figured that we have all season to ski the spearhead

[Buster Highmen]

Best first post winner.

[skadams.ca]

great pics! thanks for the stoke

[Free Range Lobster]

Killer TR!

Mmmm overlord.

[forest]

nice tr Brad. Glad to hear you guys had such a good day up there. Hope Wendy treated you well. What an awsome weekend to be up in the mountains.

[Kya]

Nice pics! Awesome day

[schwerty]

That TR made my morning!! Thanks!!

[shirk]

Than be a gooooooood TR.

Thanks for the stoke. Really wishing I could have made it out for this last high pressure.

[komo]

awesome. what were temps like out there?

[skier666]

This pic is glorious...nice tr!

[skiitsbetter]

Sun setting on fissile…

Nice the polorizing filter is often the unsung hero of a TR.

[A Random Skier]

Looks like a killer time. Nice TR too, the pictures are great.

[postman22]

nice brad looks like you guys had a blast.

i'm in the process of getting touring gear, but some frostbite on my right toe, and broken ribs should keep me out of the spearhead traverse for awhile. its painful to ski anything but pow now. come crash at the place when you want. i dont really use my phone anymore so send me an email or leave me a PM on this site.

was robin on trekkers or did he get a proper setup?

on a side note i got your phone message and i would recommend skiing the resort this weekend. skied the 12cms of fresh today and its not bonding well with the surface hoar at all. everything above alpine is sliding. theres not enough snow to take you out but with the snow their expecting it may be a bit dangerous to go out this weekend

[rfoubi]

nice brad looks like you guys had a blast.

i'm in the process of getting touring gear, but some frostbite on my right toe, and broken ribs should keep me out of the spearhead traverse for awhile. its painful to ski anything but pow now. come crash at the place when you want. i dont really use my phone anymore so send me an email or leave me a PM on this site.

was robin on trekkers or did he get a proper setup?

on a side note i got your phone message and i would recommend skiing the resort this weekend. skied the 12cms of fresh today and its not bonding well with the surface hoar at all. everything above alpine is sliding. theres not enough snow to take you out but with the snow their expecting it may be a bit dangerous to go out this weekend

hey phil, i heard about your gear getting jacked, that sucks dude. Also the ribs dont sound too good either.

I was just on trekkers, havent got the $$ for some freerides yet...Oh yeah and i crashed at your place on tyuesda night, but you werent there... it was pretty random that you moved in there... anyway well be up this weekend for sure, so well probably see you around

Robin

[summit]

them mountains is sick

[watanabee]

beautiful pics man. thanks for sharing. I'm thinking of heading to whitewater soon. Any tips of terrain to hit and perhaps a good cheap place to stay?