VOC trips are organized by members like yourself, not professional guides. The trips go into wilderness areas where assistance is unavailable and unexpected events can occur. You could be seriously injured or die. You are responsible for your own actions. Please use caution.
Spearhead in Red · Mon. Mar. 1st, 2021 - Fri. Apr. 30th, 2021
Warning: This is an old trip - it already happened
Warning: This is a tentative trip : Covid, weather
- Details Page: Where you can see brief trip details (publicly viewable).
- Wiki Page: For additional information/organization (publicly viewable).
- This trip does not have an associated Message Board Thread.
- Signup Page: Where you can signup, bail, edit participation entries, see/email members on the trip, etc.
- Wikitext Page: From where you can cut and paste information formatted for the wiki.
- Printable List Page: Which generates a printable list of participants.
- Edit Page: Where the trip organizer can edit the entry for this trip.
- Mark Going Page: Where the trip organizer can sign members up as "actually going".
- Modify Signups: Where the trip organizer can change signup classes.
Start: Monday, Mar. 1st
End: Friday, Apr. 30th
Description:
The Spearhead traverse is a ski traverse that starts at Blackcomb mountain and ends at Whistler mountain, meaning you can ride the lift and skip skinning up ~1500m of elevation. It is 35km long with ~2000m cumulative elevation gain. It's easily accessible as it starts and ends at Whistler village, although this also means it is rather popular.
Since this is likely my last season with a Whistler pass, I would like to try to do this traverse before the end of the season (and save the ~70$ I would have to pay for a backcountry pass if I were to do this in a later year)! The above dates are entirely dependent on whether Covid restrictions ease up, a nice weather window opens up, and there are low/moderate avalanche conditions. So really, not super likely. This trip could occur anywhere between late February and end of April.
This trip is the Spearhead in RED because everyone has to wear red on this trip, whether that involves spray-painting your goretex or using sheets as a red toga (I personally have a red T-shirt and loose red pants to wear over my other layers). If you think you are capable of doing this traverse, then you should also be capable of appearing red. I believe in you.
I hope to do the traverse in 3 days (2 nights of winter camping) so we can enjoy our time in the backcountry, and possibly ski some noice lines. Since we will be waiting for optimal weather, this may involve skipping 3 school days *gasp*, but ideally fewer.
As of now, this trip is ENTIRELY tentative, with no set plans, but if it does occur, it would likely be in seperate bubbles, possibly each with varying objectives for the day. I may make a message board thread for this later. If you have skiing and glacier knowledge/experience and are interested in wearing red, feel free to sign up as interested! I am posting this to 1) gauge interest and 2) because the trip agenda is lookin kinda sparse due to Covid. BUT WE CAN DREAM!
Photo credit: Skyler Des Roches, 2013 (VOC Gallery)
Additional credit: I believe it was originally Joe O'Brien (?) who came up with the 'Spearhead in Red' idea at a trip brainstorming session I held a couple years ago.
Posted: 2021-01-19 22:55:05
Last modified: 2021-02-04 16:21:21