Our study focused on three ski-mountaineering routes in the Southern Coast Range in British Columbia. These routes were selected because they all appear in the book, “Fifty Classic Ski Descents of North America” written by Chris Davenport, Penn Newhard, and Art Burrows (2010). The book outlines the 50 most iconic ski-mountaineering descents in North America, based on difficulty and popularity.
These three routes are all considered iconic and are all in advanced skiing terrain with significant avalanche risk. However, all three are frequently skied when the conditions are safe and ideal. Mt. Currie and Mt. Joffre are areas which both consist of several different couloirs that can be climbed and skied in a single day. The Spearhead Traverse is a multiday trip from the popular ski area Blackcomb along with the Spearhead Range and down into the base area of Whistler. This traverse is 35 km long and is traditionally completed in three to four days, crossing 13 glaciers, and several peaks. Of the three, the Spearhead is the most popular route, typically seeing a few hundred people attempt it per year (Macdonald, 2017).
The goal of our project is to determine which of these three iconic ski-mountaineering routes could be classified as the most dangerous based on its avalanche hazard. The definition of an avalanche is “a large amount of ice, snow, and rock falling quickly down the side of a mountain” (McIntosh, 2013). Between 1980 and 2016, 428 people died in avalanches a year in Canada which is nearly 12 per year. Of those, British Columbia accounted for 72% of the avalanche related deaths (Haegeli, 2019).
Chosen Descents
(Gunn, M. (2008, February 23). NW face of Currie)
(Bader, S. (2007). Joffre Couloirs Labelled)
(Blige, M. J. (2019, October 18). Spearhead Traverse)