So. Story Time.
Back in May 2007 I was just getting in to touring, so I convinced my Dad to attempt the Spearhead Traverse with me. He'd never done any touring at all, so I took the majority of the gear and packed my bag full. He had a 30 L pack with some of the denser stuff in it.
Going up the Blackcomb Gondola
At the bottom of the traverse I taught him how skins worked and tried to show him how to keep his edge while skinning up corn. We (slowly) made it up to East Col, where someone looked at the two of us and our packs and made some comment about me being a sherpa or something (60 L pack vs. 30 L pack)
Skiing down to Circle Lake, I struggled to make tele turns under my heavy pack. We traversed over to Decker and skinned back up. The face had softened a bit, but it was frustrating to skin up. My Dad got a little freaked out after he lost an edge and took a bit of a slide on his bum, so we decided to turn around. We ended up camping just on the S side of Circle Lake instead of skiing out.
We set up camp and I went to get some more turns in while he rested. After dinner, I saw his sleeping bag. I had told him to grab my sisters sleeping bag, but instead he grabbed the first one he saw. It was one that she got when she was a kid, and it was intended for sleep-overs. I asked him if he wanted to ski out in the dark, and he declined, so it's easy to say that that was probably one of his coldest sleeps ever.
The next day I tried to convince him to ski up over Decker without a heavy pack on, but he resisted. So I went and did some turns on Decker. I skinned back up to our camp, we packed up, and skinned out over Disease Ridge. Despite failing at our intended goal, it was still a fun trip and one that I'll always remember. RIP Peter Gibbs. I miss you.
And always remember sunscreen (because Fuck Cancer)
