Whistler Blackcomb’s ski season end today with Blackcomb closing its lifts at the end of today. The season brought almost 50ft of snow and there is still a snowbase of over 2 metres. Pretty incredible.

The glacier will open again for skiing in a month or so. Sadly, Alltracks will not be out there this summer, but we’re already gearing up for another winter with our first course beginning in November for the 2010/11 season.

Contact one of the team on +44 (0)1794 388 034 if you need any info.

Enjoy the summer!

ALLTRACKS – New on FaceBook
Ok we might be a little late with the whole FaceBook revolution, but ALLTRACKS is now on it!

Check out the ALLTRACKS ACADEMY Page. We’re going to have a number of giveaways this year for those who have joined as well as showcasing photos from previous courses, bringing all the latest info from ALLTRACKS HQ and news from the ski & snowboard world.

During semester 2, EUSSC took part in many Scottish and British competitions and saw excellent performances from our team!

We kicked off with the Scottish round of the British University Indoor Snowsport Competitions (BUISC) in Glasgow which saw our race slalom team qualifying for the finals, as well as 4 individual male skiers. Two female and two male board racers also qualified. Special congratulations to Sam Filsell who not only beat the girls but also all of the board racers! On the freestyle front, Charlotte Clark from Edinburgh gained first place, as well as Humphrey Aitkinson gaining second for the boys. The event was finished off in the bar with EUSSC, as usual, being the last ones standing!

A few weeks later we travelled down to Castleford for the Finals with all the other British Unis. It was an awesome day of competitions and although none of our members reached podium position, the teams gave great performances! We also went to support three of our committee members, plus three snow-lovers from other unis, in their “SWEET BID” conquest to run BUSC for the year 2011-12!

Other events included Granite City Invitational; an evening of competitions, slopeside DJS, free beer and a tasty BBQ at Aberdeen dryslope organised by ABDN SNOW. Once again we saw great performances from our teams, topped off with the ski team duals which saw our team reach the final. Unfortunately we were beaten by our rivals Glasgow, but we’ve got an increasing hunger to beat them next year! We then headed into town to enjoy the highlights of the Aberdeen nightlife!

Overall, this has been a successful semester for our race and freestyle teams both on and off the slopes! We hope to increase training levels to regain our place on the BUSC podium next year!

A few weeks ago, whilst out in Whistler, myself and IFMGA Guide, Klemen Mali, completed an excellent ski tour, doing the Spearhead Traverse in the backcountry of Whistler Blackcomb. Klemen had taken one of the overnight trips for the guys on the ALLTRACKS snowboard course earlier in the season and knows the Whistler backcountry very well. Like a mini Haute Route, the Spearhead traverse takes you over numerous glaciers from the back of Blackcomb round to Whistler.

Trorey Glacier on the Spearhead traverse, Whistler

There are various ways to complete the Spearhead with some people choosing to spread the trip over 4 days in order to take in all the summits at a leisurely pace and others opting to go fast and light and completing it in a day. We decided to prepare for a night out but with the right weather we made it round fairly quickly and stopped just short of Whistler at the Russet Lake hut.

Leaving the resort boundary at Blackcomb Glacier, we headed up to the East Col before dropping down to Circle Glacier on some fairly dodgy, wind affected snow – not the best start for the bottomless powder we were looking for. From there, we traversed onto the shoulder of Decker mountain and on to the beautiful Trorey Glacier – a huge, untouched canvas of snow. Once you are out here, you really appreciate the scale of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia and with only a few other people, we really enjoyed the solitude of the space. Once on the Trorey, we passed round the south of Mt Pattison, following the route i had completed earlier on in the season. But rather than hitting the steep North West face of Pattison, we had to continue on.

From here, we faced the most arduous ascent of the trip with a pretty steep climb up the Tremor Glacier to the col between Mt Tremor and Mt Shudder. At this point it was about 1pm and it was feeling damn hot. My forehead is still feeling the burn! However, the pain was soon forgotten when we were enjoying our lunch in the sun at the top. After that, there is a steady traverse and a mellow climb past Mt MacBeth and onto the Lago Glacier., where we enjoyed some good skiing.

Paul above The Lago Glacier, Spearhead Traverse, Whistler

Our final section of the day was the traverse across the mighty Overlord Glacier where there were two ominous cornices above us – so despite feeling pretty knackered we forced ourselves on, and up to the col between Whirlwind and Fissile and down to the Russet Lake Hut where we arrived at about 5pm.

Paul at The Russet Lake Hut, Whistler Backcountry

It was cool to get to the hut and finally sit down and chill out. There were two other parties there that had been lapping Fissile and Whirlwind over the last few days. With a delicious freeze dried dinner in our bellies (Katmandu Curry????), we went to sleep happy and suitably full.

The sun from Saturday had most definitely disappeared and we all felt the wind bringing another storm in through the night. As always, in a communal hut, we woke early and enjoyed another delicious backcountry treat of oatmeal (YUM).

We headed up onto Cowboy Ridge (a great ski area close to the Whistler boundary) and enjoyed some of the best turns of the trip which we enjoyed with our fresh legs, before following the singing pass trail into Whistler Village.

Paul Beard (Director, ALLTRACKS)