Part I — Breaking trail
Today you can do the Spearhead Traverse from Blackcomb Mountain to Whistler Mountain in a day or two if you’re in a hurry, the ski lifts are operating, the weather co-operates, and there are some good skin tracks to follow. Most people now take about three to five days, stopping at the Russet Lake cabin along the way.
But back in the spring of 1964 there weren’t any skin tracks or a ski lift to get you started. There weren’t any usable cabins. There wasn’t even an up-to-date topographical map for the area surrounding the Fitzsimmons Creek watershed. It was as yet untamed – and largely unnamed – territory.
By all appearances the watershed is a remote and inhospitable bowl of rock and ice, hemmed in by forbidding glaciers and stark peaks with a corridor of trees huddled at the bottom. Aside from a few mining claims here and there, the area was really of interest only to a handful of mountaineers with the same motives that all explorers share.
Whether you label it a geological, geographical or other scientific expedition, the real point of the whole journey to the top of the mountain and back down again is the adventure – meeting challenges, facing the elements, and treading into the unknown where few, if any, have gone before.
In 1964, with mountaineering teams criss-crossing the province, tackling one peak after another, the Spearhead ski traverse was finally conquered.
There was an attempt at a high level ski traverse of the area 10 years earlier, in 1954, by some of the more rambunctious members of the University of British Columbia Varsity Outdoor Club, but that group was forced to find a shortcut out through the bottom of the valley when the weather turned ugly.
Their earlier claim to fame was the first ascent of Mount Neal in the north-east corner of Garibaldi Park, named after Dr. Neal Carter, a legendary explorer and mountaineer who made a number of first ascents and discoveries within the park decades earlier.
It would be 10 years before another VOC expedition would make another attempt at the traverse. The group consisted of Albert Port, Alistair MacDonald, Chris Gardner and Karl Ricker, all experienced mountaineers and skiers.
The community of Alta Lake, a collection of lodges and cabins, was usually a three-hour train ride from North Vancouver in those days, which was about three to four hours faster than the teeth-rattling, bone-jarring ride up the rocky dirt road under the power lines.
On a May morning, the day after exams Ricker recalls, the group boarded a passenger train to Rainbow Lodge Station, where Rainbow Park currently sits.
According to the official version, as written by Ricker in his submission to the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographic Names (CPCGN) in December of 1964, the "primary purpose of the trip was to check the future recreational possibilities for the clubs concerned and to pioneer a safe route through the area to many would-be followers once the lifts are installed on London Mountain."
During the trip the group would use a 1928 map of Garibaldi Park, the best that was available at the time, as well information they had collected from members of the 1954 trip. However, it was clear from the start that they would have to improvise as they went. The area hadn’t been mapped thoroughly in the past, and the 1928 park map was shy of many important details – only the major features in the area were identified and had geographical names.
Further complicating things, the reproducers of the map they were using had curiously omitted the outlines of major glaciers.
"Upon casual glance of the 1928 map, one is led to believe that the area is well garnished with names denoting its physiographic features," wrote Ricker.
"Closer inspection of the area on the map shows numerous large sized glaciers, permanent streams, lakes, and even major mountains without geographic recognition by name. While this area is remote the lack of names is of relative inconsequence to most people save a park ranger or scientific research parties…
"However, remoteness is soon leaving the area as the new provincial highway to Pemberton along the Cheakamus River, Alta Lake, Green Lake and the Green River valley floor is very near to completion and is already in use by the motoring public. Furthermore you are no doubt aware that a large cable aerial gondola lift and associated smaller ski lifts are being built in 1965 on the west facing slopes of London Mountain by Garibaldi Lifts Inc. This may not appear to be relevant or significant until one realizes that this will be the first high level easy access into Garibaldi Park."
With the lifts going in, the round trip around the area that the expedition was calling the Fitzsimmons Horseshoe Traverse – after the famous and geographically similar Öztal Hofreis ski traverse in Austria – took on an added urgency; in another couple of years, part of the challenge would be gone, and with it the opportunity to log a genuine first in mountaineering and ski touring.
There was also a question of safety once the mountain opened – if a skier went missing, there weren’t enough geographical names for the area surrounding the mountain to effectively organize a search party.
The foursome arrived at Rainbow Lodge Station at approximately 9:30 in the morning and started the hike towards Blackcomb Mountain. Around the Nesters area, they were given a ride to a log sorting outpost where Base II currently sits, and then headed up the mountain where there were no logging roads.
They lit a bonfire that night in the area just below where the Rendezvous restaurant and ski lodge currently sits, and enjoyed the stars before turning in for the evening.
On the second day they climbed both the Blackcomb and Spearhead peaks, following the ridge to the north of Blackcomb and along the southern edges of what are now called the Horstman and Blackcomb Glaciers – in 1964 they thought "Rainbow Glacier" was a better name because it was visible from Rainbow Lodge.
The route took them to the top of the Blackcomb Glacier and onto the Spearhead-Blackcomb Col – the edge of an open and spectacular basin where the ridges of Blackcomb Mountain, "The Spearhead" and "Mount Decker" meet. They called the basin "Decker Glacier." The glacier has since receded, and the area is now occupied by a sizeable lake.
Names like "The Spearhead and Decker" are in quotations because they were unnamed at the time of the expedition, and wouldn’t receive official names until the Canadian Permanent Committee on Geographic Names finally got around to addressing the proposals from an ad hoc geographic name committee.
The names committee, which was assembled after the first Spearhead Traverse, was comprised of expedition members Ricker and Port, as well as members of previous expeditions in the Alta Lake area that date back to the 1920s. They also championed the names that locals and early visitors to the area had used as long as anyone could remember, but didn’t make it onto the 1928 map for whatever reason. Ricker and company caught a whiff of political intrigue, as many of the names of the 1928 map were connected to the provincial government of the day.
On the afternoon of the second day of the traverse the expedition skied across the "Decker Glacier" on the north side of The Spearhead, and crossed over onto Trorey Glacier, where they would camp for the second and third nights.
"We had troubling finding a route because it’s steep around the edges of this glacier and we couldn’t find a safe way down. From below it looks pretty easy and obvious, but from the top you had the impression that the slope to the glacier just dropped off," said Ricker. "Nobody wanted to take a chance and find out."
At last a route was found at the mid-way point in the glacier, but on the next day it was impossible to travel as a fog rolled in and the party was stranded in an almost complete whiteout.
The following day things cleared up and it was an easy ascent to the Col between Mount Pattison and Mount Trorey. The group climbed both peaks before pushing across the "Tremor Glacier."
Ascending to its head, they climbed over a ridge onto "Platform Glacier" beneath "Shutter," "Shatter" and "Quiver" peaks.
Tremor Mountain was already on the map, having been named by a group of Garibaldi Park map surveyors in 1927 or 1928 when they experienced a small earthquake on the massif while setting up their fragile camera equipment.
The fourth night was spent on "Platform Glacier" and during the evening the group summitted Mount Tremor and Shudder Mountain before turning in.
They made some good progress on day five, passing by several unmarked geographical features – "The Ripsaw Ridge," "Naden Glacier," "Mount Macbeth" – before accidentally missing the easy way around off the adjacent "Couloir Ridge."
They ended up descending a narrow gully to reach "Iago Glacier" below. Where to go from there was a mystery.
They chose an approach via "Diavolo Glacier" but before stopping on it there were confronted by a colossal icefall that had been hidden from their view. "We had to back up and rethink things," said Ricker.
The actual route is less roundabout than their detour these days, and the traverse stays on the ridge of "Mount Iago" at the back of the valley where the "Spearhead Range" and "Fitzsimmons Range" link up. The easiest way was to descend Macbeth Glacier, but the group had overshot the entrance while traversing along "Couloir Ridge."
With no idea where the easy route was, the party chose to go farther east on the "Iago Glacier" to its terminus.
After traversing as far as "Diavolo Creek" at the terminus of the "Diavolo Glacier," they swtichbacked up a steep slope to the crest they called "Detour Ridege," where they pitched camp for the fifth night.
They got back on track the following day, skinning the upper "Diavolo Glacier" to a col separating "Mount Benvoilio" and Mount Fitzsimmons. Both peaks were bagged by the party, and followed up with a short trip to the top of Mount Overlord. Several hours were wasted trying to descend the "Refuge Pinnacle" end of the Overlord massif, but they had to retreat. Instead they completed a difficult route over the high side of "Overlord Mountain."
They camped on the spectacular "Overlord Glacier," one of the most distinct landmarks in the traverse that can be seen from both Blackcomb and "Whistler" Mountains.
They climbed "Whirlwind Mountain" and "Fissile Mountain" the next day, and dropped down to the Singing Pass Trail as the snow and the weather turned soggy. They slogged their way to the "Oboe" and "Flute" saddle, and set up camp quickly in the deteriorating weather conditions.
They spent the seventh night there, and were trapped the following day and night by the weather – snow, rain, strong winds and enveloping clouds.
On the ninth day they traversed the ridge top, through the mists, to the peak of "Whistler" Mountain. From there they guessed which way the B.C. Rail Microwave Station lay, following the ridge down and back into the treeline where the Highway 86 ski run lies, and into the Kyber’s Pass area.
They found the Microwave Station and by 3 p.m. were following the Caterpillar tracks down the road on their skis until it became icy. Beside the road, the snow was a breakable crust but hardly fit for skiing.
"It was horrible," Ricker recalled. "The scariest part of the trip," for the two members who decided to walk on the cat tracks rather than brave the crust.
By the time they made it back to Jordan’s Lodge – where the clubhouse for the Whistler Creek Tennis Club now sits – word had already spread among the locals that there was a party in the mountains attempting the traverse.
As a result they were warmly greeted by the proprietor of the lodge, who told them they still had half an hour to spare before the 6 p.m. train was to arrive. For a change it was right on schedule.
