The sun had brought plenty of other ski tourers out and some were also going for the Spearhead in a day. We were lucky to have a track to follow... which turned out to be from some of Paul's friends from work. The first climb was a struggle and the first few switches of gear from climbing to descending and back again seemed to take forever. Of course pretty soon we had everything running smoothly and were making (and having a) great time.
The views were amazing, and a real contrast to the treed terrain we normally spend so much time skiing in. Being up among the peaks and glaciers was quite an experience. The snow conditions were suffering a little from the warm temperatures and we had some fun dealing with loose wet snow... but nothing too tricky and we still had some great skiing.
We were getting close to the home stretch after 9 hours of skiing and decided to finish the day by climbing back up to the Whistler ski area and skiing down the groomed runs. Of course everyone else around had long since abandoned the mountain for the pub and all the lifts were closed... it was great skiing down through the empty resort. Then we hit civilization again, hundreds of people stood in the village square to watch a freestyle competition... quite the reception for 5 heroic ski tourers. Here's the essential GPS plot of our route:
After that you'd think we'd all need a rest, which we probably did. Instead, on Sunday I think we were all still so excited from completing the Spearhead Jacek and I went out for a ride on the North Shore... and then we all rode out and met up with some others at Lighthouse Park in the evening to climb (not very much or well in my case) and watch the sunset. It was a beautiful ending to one of the best weekends I've had, ever.
Paul has loads of photos here... and I have a few more here.
