PaulB

Good job promoting BC's adventure climbing potential. Will this set the tone for the rest of the climbing season?

The road to the parking lot is reported snow free.

The Buttress & DOA (the climb, not the ski run) looked pretty much snow free on Saturday. Might be wet in some spots. The approach might still be a bit dodgy until the snow pack settles out. Several slabs let go from the slopes in the area this weekend.

Canada too: GeoGratis

It'll probably be covered in freshies... it's puking snow in North Vancouver right now, at least where I live.

Going in, about the same... 2 hours. Coming out, you're looking at another 2 hours, while skiers could be back at the car in less than an hour depending on snow conditions.

I had a tick burrow into my back 5 or 6 years ago after thrashing about in the bush during a late season ski tour. I went to the clinic to get the leftovers I couldn't dig out removed and the doc said that it is actually pretty rare for anyone to get Lyme disease or anything else from them. He just gave it a good dousing with disinfectant and sent me on my way.

BD went down that road 10 years ago with the AerMet Stinger picks. In theory, they seemed like a great idea. It'd be interesting to know which of cost/price or performance led to them being discontinued.

I've broken one BD pick: This happened as I was starting to second the crux pitch of Night'N'Gale. Luckily, the ice was quite soft, so with some extra effort in my swings, I was able to bash my way up. If the ice had been cold and brittle it would have been a much bigger PITA. In this case, more than an inch of the pick broke off so it wasn't worth trying to save it. When I showed it to one of the mechanical engineers I work with, he commented that based on the shape of the fracture, it was likely caused by a hairline crack on the underside of the pick which got progressively worse every time the pick was removed, due to the up and down leverage. Eventually, the crack made it about half way through the pick, at which point it completely failed. Thinking back, the pick broke in 2004, but it was probably bought in 02 or 03. The original crack could have happened shortly after I bought it, but since I was only getting out a few times a season, it took awhile to fail.

Details here Dropped by this afternoon and the best deal by far was Naos and Acrux packs (lots of sizes) for $199. The rest was the usual collection of Gore-Tex, softshells, casual wear, etc. Didn't see any harnesses or Covert Scarves.

Depends who you ask.... - The Whistler bro/brah crowd will insist that you need 100mm at the very minimum - I'm quite happy with my 88mm Havocs - Lots of folks use boards around 80mm, especially for longer tours

From what I can gather, until a year or so ago, the road was in pretty bad shape and overgrown with alder. Having been reactivated, it is now as user friendly as an unplowed logging road can be. Note that Coast Range Heliskiing has a staging/refueling area near the start of the road, and they get bent out of shape () if access to their heli-pad is blocked by parked cars. On the other hand, there is no signage to indicate that they use it as such.

Avy risks aside, the biggest challenge with the Spearhead traverse is that you have to pass through a number of relatively small cols at high elevations. In good visibility, the route is pretty obvious, but when things go murky the navigation can become very difficult (even with good waypoints in a GPS), with serious consequences if you make a wrong turn. Its not uncommon for people to have to set up camp and sit out a couple days of bad weather before being able to either continue or retreat.

It takes about 10 seconds to change the datum on a Geko. Gekos support all the major datums. If all you need is a GPS to check your position once in awhile, or for the occasional bit of whiteout navigation, the Geko 201 & 301 will fit the bill.

The Squamish Forest District maintains a road conditions page. You could give them a call and see what they have to say.

Both sailboats and kayaks have been used. I'm pretty sure there is at least one account of a sailboat based trip in the CAJ within the last 5-10 years. Edit: See CAJ 1998, p.93 Sailing To The Sky: False Creek to Mount Waddington by Brian Pegg

Weird... my skins never come off the tails of my Havocs. If anything, they're so secure that its almost a PITA to take them off when you want to. I guess the radius of the turned up tail can make a big difference.

I tour on BD Havocs which have a slightly turned up tail. My G3 skins work perfectly fine without any modifications to the skis (they don't have a notch) or the attachment system.

It depends on what you consider acceptable skiing conditions, but you can typically start in Nov and go until May without doing a lot of hiking. Otherwise, if you're willing to put up with a high ratio of hiking to skiing, you can ski pretty much year 'round. Check out Turns-All-Year.com

305836 is the UTM grid reference on NTS mapsheet 92J07.

Yep, that's the spot. Have you been through there before, Matt? Edit: I just looked on your TR page, and saw that you went around clockwise a couple of years ago. Did you have any issues skiing down that slope?

As the last one in line, I hadn't started up the bootpack when the first crack sounded, so I immediately ran down our uptrack to the last switchback to get out from underneath whatever might happen. I turned to look back just in time to see the slab cut loose and the boys start to go for a ride. All I could think was to try and keep an eye on where everyone went, and how hard it would be for me to dig out four people. Luckily, GROC had been able to anchor himself at the crown, the other three stayed on the surface and no one was injured. The aftermath from my vantage point: After getting dug in for the night, re-hydrated and fed, we analysed what had happened and discussed what we could/should have done differently. Given the opportunity to walk away, best to try and learn something from the experience.

Get in touch with the ACC section in Prince George.

I have found that the nicer the Hotel, the fewer complimentary services there are. You pay for *every* little thing; Meanwhile, just about every budget chain motel next to an interstate has free in-room wireless and complimentary fresh baked cookies at the front desk. I don't think the Hilton family actually has anything to do with the hotels anymore.

For a visitor on their way to/from Whistler, if the weather is good, I would recommend an evening of skiing at Cypress. The view of Vancouver on a clear night can be quite spectacular. This picture (not mine, btw) was taken from Mt. Seymour, another of the North Shore ski hills.