Spearhead Traverse Whistler/Blackomb

Quick numbers & main takeaways:

45km, 3450m elevation
Started on Blackcomb, finished on Whistler
2 days
April 13-14th 2024
We didn’t use ski crampons, boot crampons, or ice axes (we had ski crampons and ice axes with us)
We set up camp on Ripsaw glacier
There is a new anchor on the Overlord rappel
TOPO note: Outmap has a good topo of the whole thing + all the glaciers 🙂

We lucked out on a beautiful weather window this past weekend, and some amazing conditions to do the Spearhead Traverse. I tried it at the end of March and decided to turn around due to some weather coming in and 30 cms of fresh snow from the last storm.

Bethan and I started around 9 a.m. from Whistler village. We took the Excalibur gondola up to Blackcomb base and then all the way to the top. From there, we loaded on the Glacier chair. Lucky for us, the T-bar opened right on time, so we got a nice lift into Blackcomb Glacier. At least three other parties were heading into the traverse, understandably so, given the weather and good conditions.

The way up from Decker lake, into Spearhead traverse.

Crossing Trorey Glacier, on our way to Mount Pattison

Coming over Decker and going down into Trorey Glacier, was a hustle with big backpacks! That was our first big climb. Because there were so many tracks and it was quite shredded out, we decided to transition into boards instead of split skiing down the slope. The way up to Mount Pattison wasn’t steep but it was very long and it felt like it went on forever. From the glacier we got up on the shoulder, where I split skied down into Tremor Glacier.

Baist Gloves – Code: “ALENKABaist“

Bethan doing the final boot pack up Mt Pattison

From there, it was about a 1.5-hour traverse over Tremor Glacier into the col between Tremor Mountain and Shudder Mountain.

Frozen angled traverse, snowboarder nightmare

We didn’t feel the best crossing these frozen angled traverses on our soft boot splitboard setups and we noticed a huge difference on how quickly the skiers were cruising through, compared to our calf-burning experience. Easy to say that by the time we were crossing the Platform Glacier, we were getting pretty tired and almost looking for a place to sleep. As we passed the col between Quiver Peak and Ripsaw – that was our last climb. We decided to make camp on the Ripsaw glacier, under the Ripsaw Peak, and leave the rest for the second day. It took us about an hour to dig out a hole, set up camp and change into some dry clothes. Then the endless process of melting snow and trying to replish the lost liqueds, without much success. We dozed off into a beautiful sleep with no dreams and I must admit, I got the best sleep I have had in a while!

My biggest key to staying dry in the mountains is wearing merino underlayers!! BRANWYN Merino Underwear is my number #1 choice!!

This was also my first time using the ASSAULT 2 NORTH FACE tent and I loved it! You set it up from the inside, and it takes minutes. It’s designed to be set up in the storm, without consuming much time.

Our camp coordinates, under Ripsaw summit. Spearhead traverse

Spearhead Traverse Day 2 – April 14th 2025

We woke up around 6, just as the sun was coming up into a beautiful day! The only way I like to spend my Mondays! 😉 We weren’t in a lot of rush to leave, as the days this time of the year are very long. We strapped on our boards leaving camp around 8 am, and crossed one of the ridges coming from Mount Macbeth, into Naden glacier. Only a short skin up to Couloir Ridge from there and another fun ride into Iago Glacier, crossing the ridge between Couloir and Mount Iago. That was our first bigger climb of the day and it dragged on forever. The altirnative to our route would be staying high on the ridge tops but given the frozen and unfriendly conditions, we decided to ride down and spend a little more time climbing back up. All the way to Mount Iago East shoulder.

Crossing the ridge between Couloir and Mount Iago – stay high – stay left to avoid the boot pack up 🙂

Crossing the Diavolo glacier took another toe-side traverse out of us – we are both regular snowboarders. Coming around on the left side of Mount Fitzsimmons, you get a fantastic view of Angelo and Diabolo peaks and this is also the last truly big climb of the Spearhead traverse. It tested us, that’s for sure! We got up to the col between Mount Benvolio and Mount Fitzsimmons and from there it was a breezy short traverse around the summit of Overlord Mountain. From there you have the option of rappeling down a short pitch from the shoulder or skiing all the way down to Overlord Glacier and then climbing back up to wrap around Fissile mountain. We chose to rappel down. We combined both Petzl rad lines – 2x 30 m but there is still a lot of snow, and we probably could’ve done it with one single 30 meter rope as well.

Another easy traverse over the Overlord glacier, passing the Spearhead classics like the Refuse Pinnacle (with a massive slab avalanche on the NW side of it) and the Whirwind peak. Wrapping around the Fissile mountain, that was the last time we also put our boards into a solid-mode and rode down the soft spring snow, almost all the way to Kees and Clairs hut. That home stretch overfilled us with joy, because we were getting so close to the end, and the worst was behind us!

Baist Gloves – Code: “ALENKABaist“

Even though we had nothing but easy terrain ahead of us passing the Musical Bumps, this part dragged on without an end in sight! 5 minute skin up to Cowboy ridge, no food or water left at this point. Split ski down to Oboe, on very sticky and wet snow. 40 minutes-sh up to Oboe summit, quick run down and the last small grind up to Flute. We passed Symphony chair around 5.30 in the afternoon, and got into the village just after 6. Probably the last few days of the season, when you can actually ski into the village! With full sun still out, we walked passed all the people and celebrated the moment when we finally got to take our boots off our very unpleasant smelly and wet feet. Overfilled with joy, we were so stoked to be down – already planning a day when we will be trying to do the traverse in the day.

We didn’t bring crampons, we brough our ski-crampons which we didn’t use. We had ice axes, which we also didn’t use!

For the local weather, my number one app choice is Windy

I would also like to thank my sponsors for supporting the journey: