Spring skiing is just around the corner
Your guide to the Spearhead Traverse and other big ski-touring objectives.
Written by Cam Fenton. Photos of Matt Gunn's 1998 Spearhead Traverse.
Matt Gunn can still remember his first time doing the Spearhead Traverse, the uber-classic ski tour that connects the backcountry between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. It was May 1998, and Blackcomb Mountain was already closed for the season.
“We did it in reverse, starting from Whistler, with a camp on the east ridge of Iago,” Gunn explained.
At the time, trip reports for the Spearhead were few and far between. No one had GPS tracks to follow or phones with satellite imagery and shaded slope angles. The only real beta was in John Baldwin’s Exploring the Coast Mountains of Skis, a book published only four years earlier.
“It was very different than my more recent experiences,” he said. “It felt much more wild to me then, in part because it was unfamiliar, and also because there was no one out there, aside from one person we saw in the Musical Bumps”.
In the years that followed, Gunn switched from telemark gear and heavy packs to touring skis and lighter setups, but his love for the Spearhead Range remained. After nearly twenty years exploring the area on skis, he published the Spearhead Backcountry Atlas in December 2020.
Gunn’s book is a detailed guide for backcountry skiing in the Spearhead Range. For Kurt Withers, an ACMG Apprentice Ski Guide with Mountain Skills Academy & Adventures, it is essential reading for anyone contemplating the Spearhead traverse.
“He's got all the nooks and crannies in that book,” said Withers. “Honestly, we [guides] use that too”.
Like Gunn, Withers, who will be leading a Spearhead Traverse clinic at Mount Waddington Whistler on March 20th, has been skiing in the Spearhead Range for years. He backed off the traverse on his first attempts before finally completing it in a single day about ten years ago.
“We knew we were strong enough and fit enough to do it on any day,” he said. “So we just kind of blasted off and had a fantastic time”.
But Withers also warns against underestimating the traverse.
“Sometimes I think people underestimate it a little bit because it is so popular and it is such a beacon trip,” he said. “It's so close and familiar, but there have been accidents and incidents on the Spearhead over the years”.
An iconic route
Both the Spearhead Range and the mountains of what is now Garibaldi Provincial Park have been navigated by Indigenous peoples for thousands of years. They visited these mountains to hunt and gather resources and moved through them for trade and travel.
The lifts on Whistler Mountain wouldn’t start spinning until 1966 and Blackcomb wouldn’t see a chairlift for another fourteen years, opening in 1980.
Instead, they started from the valley bottom and spent their first night camped roughly where the Rendezvous Lodge stands today. From there, the group continued on for another nine days. Many of the mountains and glaciers they skied over weren’t even named on the maps they carried.
Today, the Spearhead Traverse is among the most popular ski traverses on the planet. In 2010, it made the list of the Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America. And while people do it in a variety of styles, from single-day pushes to week-long expeditions exploring some of the more remote ski lines towards the back of the range, the “classic” Spearhead Traverse is a three-day/two-night trip that starts on Blackcomb and ends on Whistler.
Preparing for the Spearhead
Both Gunn and Withers agree that the key to a successful traverse, regardless of the number of days, is preparation.
“It really helps to build familiarity with any areas through successive trips,” said Gunn. “As you get to know an area, your ability to plan out your day and efficiently move through terrain increases. You can spend less time on decision-making in the moment and spend more time in the flow of the travel and the objectives.”
He also suggests taking the time to study the route, watching the forecast for optimal weather and avalanche conditions and dialling in your gear.
This last step, according to Withers, is particularly important for anyone new to multi-day backcountry ski trips. Whenever he gets questions from clients about how to prepare for a trip like the Spearhead, he always recommends a shakedown trip.
“Load up your pack with what you think you're going to bring and just go do a ski tour,” he said. “It doesn't have to be anything crazy; it just has to be movement on your feet. Try to do 1000 meters with that backpack on in 10k, and do that two days in a row.”
And while the gear on your back is crucial, Withers also stresses the importance of bringing the right knowledge and skills.
“Everybody needs to be prepared for crevasse rescue,” he said. “Then some higher level of avalanche education, at least an AST 2 in the group, so you have the ability to recognize and understand the hazards that are above and beyond, because it does travel through some quite complicated terrain.”
Glacier travel, ski mountaineering and avalanche skills are increasingly important as climate change and glacial recession alter the alpine landscape.
“A lot of sections of it have changed over the last 20 years,” explained Withers. He points to the collapse of the Decker Glacier, the changes to Ripsaw, and the rappels in the Overlord Notch as among the biggest shifts that guides have had to adapt to.
“A lot of people now are skipping the Overlord rappels and coming underneath because of the glacier recession,” he said. “They’re quite a bit longer, and the entryway into that rappel is quite exposed. It’s just as easy to go down and around.”
With all these variables, there is a lot to consider when planning big spring missions like the Spearhead. Taking courses, prepping gear and attending events like the upcoming Spearhead Traverse workshop are some of the ways to set up for success. Another option is to hire a guide or join a guided trip, where they will help you prepare, check your gear, and provide a measure of safety and support in the mountains.
“It takes the guesswork out of it,” explained Withers. “In perfect conditions, with sun in the spring, sometimes you can follow a track for the most part, but often the Spearhead just doesn't give up easily. It often has challenges in terms of weather and whiteouts, that’s where a guide really helps”.
Other traverses and big spring ski missions
While the Spearhead is among the most iconic big spring ski missions in Southwestern BC, it’s not the only one. In the Sea to Sky, there are traverse routes like the Garibaldi Neve and the Squamish-Cheakamus Divide, both usually considered easier than the Spearhead. There are bigger trips as well, like the Wedge-Blackcomb Traverse and the McBride Traverse.
Further north, the Duffy Lake Road offers some amazing trips. For now, you can find information about them in Exploring the Coast Mountains on Skis. But Matt Gunn is getting close to finishing a new book about the region.
“I've been touring in the area for over 20 years, and I'm in the home stretch for research,” he said. “At this point, 9 more solid days of touring in good conditions, and I'll have all the info I need. The book is already largely written and laid out. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!”
Closer to the Fraser Valley, the Canadian North Cascades don’t have an iconic traverse route like the Spearhead, but there are plenty of big objectives to set your sights on. At 24 kilometres and more than 1100 meters of elevation gain, Mount Frosty in Manning Park is one
The Skyline Trail, which connects the ski area to Snow Camp, Lone Goat, and Red Mountain, is another, and it can be done as an overnight traverse. On a clear day, the views of Hozomeen Mountain and North Cascades National Park are unmatched.
Across the border, you can ski off the summit of Mount Baker or try your hand at the Watson Traverse, a ski-mountaineering mission that takes you up and over Baker’s summit, before skiing down the Park Glacier towards the Mount Baker ski area.
If that isn’t adventurous enough, there’s also the Chilliwacks, a group of glaciated peaks in North Cascades National Park that are accessed from the Chilliwack River Valley. Just getting there is an adventure. Photographer and ski mountaineer Jason Hummel, who is trying to ski all of the glaciers in Washington State, described the road as “a vine-entombed gauntlet” with “woody fingernails”.
From the end of the road, it’s a long hike to Depot Falls, where “the thunderous rumble of glacier melt that poured 1000 feet to the forested valley floor” echoes beside a steep scramble up some exposed rock. Expect to walk a ways further through thick timber to reach the snow and some of the least visited, most remote ski lines in the North Cascades.
