Winter 2023 Highlights
My 2022/2023 winter season felt like it played out a bit like a Greek tragedy. A series of rather comedic errors kept me off the slopes for a significant portion season, following a nasty and persistent herniated disc at Burning Man. Apparently desert revelry can have its own share of musculoskeletal risks. Shortly after I felt fully recovered and gained more confidence on the hill, an unseen patch of ice at Whistler sent me tumbling like Sisyphus’ boulder right into a tree, causing a mid-severity MCL tear.
The snowflake spirits whispered, “Hubris, mortal. Hubris.”
Fortunately, in the final act, the Gods took pity on me (or maybe it was the Peptides?), and I regained the strength to tick off a local classic, the Spearhead Traverse, to finish off the season.
Early in the season, I spent a solid day up at the local Squamish Sledneck Snow Club, Brohm Ridge, with Sterls and Dylan, rooping (yes, that’s a verb) and noboarding (also a verb). The holy trinity of pow, sun, and the mid-week lack of crowds made great toppings to spread on top the deep dish pizza of a gorgeous ridgeline off Nch’Kay.
In early Winter with the shorter days, on the rare occasions that you can actually see it, the sun treats you to an hours long sunset as the consistent low angle creates a beautiful color effect across the sky. As a local resident, it is hard to beat the incredible view from Brohm Ridge down into Howe Sound and the town of Squamish. The contrast of colors and light shades create a surreal and ethereal effect.
It’s hard not to feel a sense of tragedy when contemplating the possibility of yet another ski hill taking over this pristine area. While I generally oppose the idea, I recognize that there may be some positive aspects to consider.
Sharing this area and that view that I love so much with a wider audience is a positive thing. Local families I talk to are very excited and will appreciate an alternative to Whistler for skiing, and I imagine I will utilize it if it’s right there. Access to Garibaldi (soon to be Nch’Kay?) Park on skis will be incredibly easy, for mountaineering and ski touring around the Warren Glacier.
Clearly this is a real estate opportunity first and foremost. The weather and the terrain is not suitable for an elite ski hill, and with warming temps, this is only going to worsen over time. Deforestation and the impact on local resources, and potential increase in the cost of living of an already extremely difficult place to find a home. Numerous objections make it clear to most that generally speaking, this is not in the interest of the many.
Regardless of personal opinion, it seems a Squamish local ski hill we shall have indeed. Let’s hope it’s managed reasonably well, and that the benefits of introducing more people to this beautiful area outweigh at least some of the drawbacks.
The 1970s built Brohm Chalet can be seen down the hill in the background. This could look VERY different in just a few years.
I received an invite from Sterling to head into Marriott Basin and the Wendy Thompson hut with a solid crew, which is hard to turn down. Carrying an overnight pack with a few more beers and liters of wine as was sensible definitely pissed off my lower lumbar for a time after that, but a great weekend was had with some great lads (and lass).
A good demonstration of snowboarders having all the style
I think JS linked 17 spreadies + daffies in about 30 seconds on this run
Apres in paradise
What’s now become a bit of an annual tradition, Mary and I headed to the interior for Giles’ birthday, which managed to coincide with a brutal cold spell in the Interior. Mary and I spent a nice few days in Revelstoke remote working, skiing the resort on a busy but fun pow day in frigid temps, an awkward time spent learning to cross country skate ski, and some smaller hikes/tours.
When Giles made it up to Chase and Nicki’s place in Albert Canyon, we went out for a beautiful yet also savagely cold (-25) tour in Rogers Pass to try to ski a classic zone, Puff Daddy. The views were incredible, but we had difficulty finding the right line as it was just way too cold to be fumbling around with phones to route find, but had a great day regardless.
The rest of the crew arrived in Albert Canyon, and we had a fun day tour in Rogers Pass on McGill Shoulder with a larger group in slightly warmer conditions. Still too cold to for much photography!
The following photo series is a visual representation of Ali’s opinion on splitboarding 😂
Parking lot apres - good times with friends on Giles’ birthday
The outdoor kitchen that Chase and Nicki built is incredible! Had an awesome pizza party that night to celebrate.
The back was feeling strong by the end of the Revelstoke trip, but fate had another plan in place. Nearing the end of a great resort day up at Whistler, I hit a patch of ice popping out of the trees, and slid knee first into a solid mountain fir. I had thought I had dislocated it at first, as the pain was incredible, but managed to limp down the hill on my own.
6 weeks of rehab and slow recovery later, the carrot of a final proper mountain adventure for the season was too strong to resist. The 34km long Spearhead Traverse puts you an awfully long distance away from, well, anything, so it was definitely a risk dragging a partially recovered knee injury deep into the Coast Mountains. Fortunately, the Spearhead Traverse is essentially a very long, mostly non-technical walk on skiis. In ride mode, your knees are well supported for the down, so you don’t have the concern about unexpected lateral movement in the knee joint that skiers do.
Mikey and Dev were keen to try to sneak this in at the very end of Blackcomb’s lifts being operational, and a short weather window meant we had to look at a long day push instead of an overnight.
My assessment ended up being sound, and the traverse was phenomenal. The idea of a really long “fast and light” push in a day, instead of taking your time on an overnight is a debated concept with these types of objectives. It’s hard to walk past all these incredible remote ski lines, as you have to just keep grinding forward to complete the traverse in a reasonable amount of time. This was my first experiment with this concept on a splitboard.
The day exceeded all expectations. The incredible feeling of moving fast and efficiently, deep into the remote reaches of a mountain range, was absolutely exhilarating. On a high alpine traverse like the Spearhead, roughly each hour is distinct from the last, as you travel across one expansive glacier, gain a ridge or col, and descend onto the next one, with each having its own awe inducing character.
The traverse takes you across 13 distinct glaciers, many of them enormous in scale, up and over 11 mountain passes, all above treeline, with stunning views into the vast and almost entirely empty regions of the area. We were all definitely pretty wrecked by the time we pulled into Whistler village at 11pm, roughly 13 hours after we started.
Still within the resort boundary, on the Blackcomb Glacier. First transition of many for the day
Decker Lake
Shredmaster bringing the steeze as always
Adventurous animal tracks, not sure what kind?
Trorey Glacier - feelin’ fresh at this point, but questioning the amount of camera gear being carried
A short bootpack to gain the Pattison Ridge. The final Spearhead Hut will eventually be located here.
Tremor Glacier
Platform Glacier
On/near the MacBeth Glacier, looking out towards the much more remote and less travelled McBride Range. The middle Spearhead Hut will be in this area, expected to begin construction in Summer 2024.
Climbing the Iago Glacier
Cheakamus Mountain and the Diavolo Glacier
Looking back to the start of the journey from the Overlord Glacier, the far left on the ridge is Blackcomb. We had the best turns of the day here, with quality thigh deep powder on its sheltered North aspect. Mikey, in his exhaustion, somehow managed to forget one of his skins on his skiis for part of the descent!
Looking down at the end of the route from the Fissile-Whirlwind Col. The Kees and Claire Hut can be seen middle right. Sadly the snow quality deteriorated significantly here, so the final downhills were not at all enjoyable.
As we planned to avoid the often brutal Singing Pass trail exit, we still had to walk/ski all the way to the further end of the visible ridge to access Whistler resort for the ski out.
We refilled our water at the hut, and by the time we left, it was well past dark, and so we finished the final hours of the exit by headlamp grinding out of Singing Pass, and making the long gradual traverse back to the Whistler ski boundary.
Useful map of the route showing the extent of the glaciation.
Route finding and travel was all straightforward, as this is a well trodden path when the conditions are right. It was a long day, but enjoyable throughout, and a flavor of adventure I’m now very excited to explore more in the future.
It was a rather emotional day for me, after a long haul of physical pain and injury the previous 8 months kept me out of the mountains for a significant chunk of time. In addition to whatever physical damage and subsequent pain you’ve incurred, the spirit takes a significant bashing too, which can often feel even more challenging to manage and treat.
Fortunately, the mountains are always there, ready for your next adventure. Never take your physical health for granted, and get out there and explore as much as possible while you can!