Spearhead Traverse
On 4/5/2024 Sam, Letty, Erin and myself completed the Spearhead Traverse as a party of four in a single day. Early April was the perfect time to do this traverse, considering we could take advantage of the lift accessed terrain and skip the low-tide conditions down low. In addition to completing the Spearhead, we added on a few high quality ski descents to take advantage of the excellent riding conditions. We choose the North Face of Mount Lago and the North Face of Tremor. This was a highlight day for me this year. Total stats were 30 miles and 10,000’ of elevation gain. Below is a GPX of our route:
Due to the long drive and some early morning hiccups, we ended up purchasing our backcountry pass ($35USD) at 9AM! This meant a hilariously late start time of 10AM. Knowing we were in for a big day, it was soon clear we would be exiting in the dark. Whoops.
We took the Creekside Gondola to Big Red Chairlift to Peak Express, starting from the summit of Whistler Mountain. Traditionally, parties start at Blackcomb and end at Creekside. We wanted to take advantage of the excellent North facing aspects, so we did the traditional route in reverse. This turned out to be a great call, as we ran into several parties who were skinning high quality spring powder and descending manky snow. The only disadvantage to our route was the amount of trail breaking…. but we really couldn’t complain given the snow quality. Our detour of Lago and Tremor placed us on some of the best perches found on the traverse.
A few photos below:
Mount Fitzsimmons on the right, Mount Lago on the left. Our original plan was to ski Fitzsimmons, but conditions looked rocky and poor. We opted for the more aesthetic North face of Lago and we were blown away by the quality.
Sam Chaneles Photo
Glorious low angle turns on the Overlord Glacier. We skirted around the crevasses below Overlord Mountain to skip the rappel. More skiing, less rappelling!
More beautiful low angle skiing below the crevasses on the Overlord Glacier.
Sam Chaneles Photo
Ascending Mount Lago’s spectacular ridgeline.
Sam Chaneles Photo.
Steep and deep! Skiing the North Face of Lago.
Sam Chaneles Photo
From the summit of Tremor Mountain…. It’s getting dark…
Skiing down the North Face of Tremor Mountain at sunset, it was going to be a long night (:
Erin Kinney Photo
After our ski descent of Tremor Mountain, our tour turned into a night adventure. We spent the next 3.5 hours dreaming of margaritas, navigating, singing and skiing some great snow in the dark. When we finally reached the resort, everyone relaxed…. Until we started skiing again. We managed to ski the most horrendous ICE most of us had encountered. We were hoping for a freshly groomed track back to our car, but it turned out to be the crux of our entire day. The chattery descent concluded our 13 hour tour of the Spearhead Plus…. it was a anti-climatic ending to an otherwise phenomenal day.
