Spearhead Traverse

March 24, 2024

After very little backcountry skiing this March due to tumultuous weather and wild avalanche conditions we were excited to have a perfect looking weather window for a day long traverse. We decided on the Spearhead Traverse, the weather really only looked good enough for a single day push, but I was looking forward to covering so much ground and so many glaciers in a single day. I won’t go too into the weeds for route and beta since there are endless resources detailing it, just an update of conditions and some nice photos.

Unlike most of my bigger days, we were lined up for a nice euro start using the ski lifts to get to the top of Blackcomb, after a leisurely start we got backcountry passes at 8am and rode up the Blackcomb Gondola, and 7th, before skinning up by the closed T-Bar. We dropped down by Circle Lake and started up Decker Glacier, it was well filled in with no visible crevasses.

We stayed fairly high on the ridge towards Trorey, crossing under the North Face onto Trorey Glacier which was in good shape too.

On the ski down to Tremor Glacier I found a nice set of Arcteryx Pants complete with phone and wallet. Rolling up to the transition at the bottom the party in shorts thought I was joking at first when I asked if anyone lost their pants, but were quite thankful once I handed them over. Tremor Glacier had some obvious crevasses.

Not too much to note across Platform Glacier and traversing around the Top of Ripsaw Glacier. Just good easy travel. We booted up the short bootpack from Ripsaw. Down from here there was a short tight section through some rocks before skiing across Naden Glacier. Skiing down from Macbeth Col to Iago Glacier was the most technical skiing and will likely melt out fast, it was a mix of avalanche debris with plenty of exposed rock. Some parties opted to bootpack down this section, pick your route carefully. Iago glacier was well filled in.

Down to Diavolo Glacier was some more variable skiing through some crust and avy debris. Glacier was well filled in to Fitzimmons Benvolio Col

We opted to rappel the Overlord Notch to save some vertical. We brought two 30m ropes in anticipation for a longer rappel, but some parties used a single 30m rope with no problem.

After skinning across Overlord Glacier and past Kees and Claire hut, we skied out singing pass by headlamp. Singing pass was a luge track most of the way, until the end where dirt sections forced us to walk. Watch out for a few fallen trees and a small landslide dropping rock onto the track at Harmony Creek. One more warm spell, and I would expect Singing Pass to be in miserable condition.

After getting back to the car, we packed up and hit the road, but not before stopping by Dominoes. Quite hungry, I easily soloed a large pizza well before passing by Squamish on the drive back to Vancouver.