Getting a Wedgey never felt so good
Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2010 11:13 pm
South Face of Wedge Mountain, April 18
The weather forecast at this time of year is terrible. They really can't seem to figure out the timing or intensity of any systems moving in.
The forecast for April 17 & 18 (Saturday & Sunday) during the week, went something like this:
on Wednesday: Saturday = Sunny , Sunday = Rainy
Thursday: Saturday = rain, sunday = rain
friday: saturday = cloudy, sunday = cloudy
It rained pretty hard on Saturday. They really didn't know, so they probably should have just put a big ?
On Saturday they forecast the sun to come out in the afternoon on Sunday, so after some last minute calls to Andy , we got a bit of a group that was game to go ski the south face of Wedge.
Originally the plan was to wake up at an undisclosed early time in the morning (Andy said he'd call me when he was on his way up), then we'd go hike up the summer trail to Wedgemount lake, ski up the glacier and north arete, and then ski the south face.
But when I woke the brothers Tras up at 6:30 am, I think that plan disintegrated like so many weather forecasts had in the past week. They actually drove up to Whistler pretty quickly and met up with Bill and I just before 10am at the bottom of the glacier chair on Blackcomb.
note: I almost had to drag Bill out of bed and dress him too, so the Traslins weren't the only ones running late.
We skinned up and over the Spearhead and skied down the Spearhead glacier through sporadic clouds:
Then after some fun "North Shore" style route finding we got down to Wedge Creek at 11:30am at 1300m and began our ascent up one of the larger slide paths, while wading through isothermal mush.
We reached a huge bench that runs across the mountain at about 1700m, where the snow firmed up. We grabbed a quick bite and started up with Bill trailing, still recovering from his 10 month bout of Kiewitis.
Mike and I pretty quickly switched to boot packing, while Andy made a burly skin track up some not so soft slopes.
Andy also started boot packing once it got a bit steeper. But Andy's 6 foot something and his steps are a lot bigger than mine, so I tried to take over so I could make my tiny steps, that probably felt like tip-toeing up the mountain to Andy:
We crossed over a rocky rib and took a rest with some epic views of the Spearhead range:
and our route down the Spearhead:
We were a little worried about the intensity of the sun on the thin crust in the chute on the way up, but a nice wind was keeping stuff relatively solid the whole way up. Shortly after crossing the rock rib, we crested up onto the W ridge and skinned to the summit:
We got to the summit (~2900m) around 3:30pm (I think):
and were rewarded with epic 360 degree views. I think we were all looking at everywhere else we could ski, like James Turner:
After a short while we started skiing down the same way we came up. Coming back down on the face felt a little airy, since all you could see was the valley below as the slope curved away out of sight.
We ran into Bill at the rocky rib, and started down into a wide chute. With perfect corn all the way down to 1700m, it was some of the best 1200m of non-stop snow you can get. The last 400m of vertical were a bit mushy to say the least, but still fun.
Bill was pretty exhausted due to his Kiewitis, and we rested till about 5pm. Andy had to get to work by 10pm, so the Traslins left Wedge Creek just before 5 and hammered up Wedge Creek and skirted around the side of Disease Ridge probably around 8pm.
Bill and I trudged up behind them in their skin track, and stopped a few times for water, and to watch a black balloon float across the Decker Glacier during sunset. We got back into the ski resort during dusk and lazily skied all the way down to the bus loop. The beer back at home tasted that much better after a rewarding day in the sun and snow.
Participants:
Andy Traslin
Mike Traslin
Alex Gibbs
Bill Beswick
total vertical: 2600m
distance: 20(ish) km
- route
The forecast for April 17 & 18 (Saturday & Sunday) during the week, went something like this:
on Wednesday: Saturday = Sunny , Sunday = Rainy
Thursday: Saturday = rain, sunday = rain
friday: saturday = cloudy, sunday = cloudy
It rained pretty hard on Saturday. They really didn't know, so they probably should have just put a big ?
On Saturday they forecast the sun to come out in the afternoon on Sunday, so after some last minute calls to Andy , we got a bit of a group that was game to go ski the south face of Wedge.
Originally the plan was to wake up at an undisclosed early time in the morning (Andy said he'd call me when he was on his way up), then we'd go hike up the summer trail to Wedgemount lake, ski up the glacier and north arete, and then ski the south face.
But when I woke the brothers Tras up at 6:30 am, I think that plan disintegrated like so many weather forecasts had in the past week. They actually drove up to Whistler pretty quickly and met up with Bill and I just before 10am at the bottom of the glacier chair on Blackcomb.
note: I almost had to drag Bill out of bed and dress him too, so the Traslins weren't the only ones running late.
We skinned up and over the Spearhead and skied down the Spearhead glacier through sporadic clouds:
We reached a huge bench that runs across the mountain at about 1700m, where the snow firmed up. We grabbed a quick bite and started up with Bill trailing, still recovering from his 10 month bout of Kiewitis.
Mike and I pretty quickly switched to boot packing, while Andy made a burly skin track up some not so soft slopes.
Andy also started boot packing once it got a bit steeper. But Andy's 6 foot something and his steps are a lot bigger than mine, so I tried to take over so I could make my tiny steps, that probably felt like tip-toeing up the mountain to Andy:
- Andy skiing
- Mike Skiing
Bill was pretty exhausted due to his Kiewitis, and we rested till about 5pm. Andy had to get to work by 10pm, so the Traslins left Wedge Creek just before 5 and hammered up Wedge Creek and skirted around the side of Disease Ridge probably around 8pm.
Bill and I trudged up behind them in their skin track, and stopped a few times for water, and to watch a black balloon float across the Decker Glacier during sunset. We got back into the ski resort during dusk and lazily skied all the way down to the bus loop. The beer back at home tasted that much better after a rewarding day in the sun and snow.
Participants:
Andy Traslin
Mike Traslin
Alex Gibbs
Bill Beswick
total vertical: 2600m
distance: 20(ish) km