Sarah at the start for Comfortably Numb.
Last year Martin, Alexis, and I ran in the Comfortably Numb Trail Race and loved it. The course follows a 22-km mountain bike trail from the Wedgemount Trailhead right into Whistler Village. Unfortunately, Sarah and I will be away for this years edition, so instead we decided to run it for fun on our own.
Sarah picking up speed on the single track. Me cruising along a wood bridge.
We parked the car in the Village and hitchiked our way north to the trailhead. The overcast skies and cool temps were perfect for running and we started off on the big initial climbs. The trail is generally well groomed single track with log bridges, rails, rock gardens, and some drops to keep things interesting. With all the rain, things are moderately muddy and we even hit some snow patches at the high point. My spikey X-Talon shoes were perfect for the trail - I am looking forward to racing on them!
Cool rock slabs at the highpoint of the day made for some cool pictures with nice views despite the clouds. Sarah tackling a steep bridge.
After navigating the confusing trails surrounding Lost Lake, we made our way back to the car and changed into fresh clothes. After I bee-lined to the ice cream shop for a hot fudge sundae, we wandered around the village on wobbly legs hoping that we could prevent the worst of the soreness.
Finished!
Stats:
22.43 km Distance
3:36.48 Time
846 m Vertical elevation gain
9.40 min/km Average speed
1473 calories burned
Google Earth map and elevation profile.
Sarah and I spent a morning ripping around Blackcomb on the goomed runs and after lunch decided we needed to find something a bit more interesting. We toured out of the resort and made our way to the Husume Couloir. The enterance requires a short bootpack.
This is a fun, steep, out of bounds run that sees a fair bit of traffic but is well shaded from the sun. With other slopes afected by melt-freeze from the sun, our run was still nice powder. The middle photo is three quarters of the way down the run as it widens out and eases off in angle.
The next day, I met up with Paul G and we toured out of Whistler to Fissile Peak. We beat the crowds and were the first ones to boot up the peak. We had out eyes on a steep chute down the north face with the hopes of finding powder. The climb up is a bit of a slog with a long steep bootpack on scree (very loose and slippery rock - vertical gravel almost) but we were rewarded with a perfect untracked powder line.
We took turns jumping into the chute and I lucked out snapping a picture of Paul mid-air.
Alexis and I took the morning to ski a moderately steep line on Mt. Fissile. Fissile is the first of the larger peaks of the Spearhead Range beyond the Musical Bumps.
The Saddle Chute starts just off the summit from the NW ridge. A fast ski from the lifts on Whistler brought us to the base of the mountain and after a short bootpack we tagged the summit and made our way to the entrance.
We dropped all the way to the bottom of the run and skinned back up to Cowboy Ridge. From there we careened down the Singing Pass trail to Whistler Village and headed back to Squamish. All in all a pretty solid ski, with almost 1300m of elevation gain.
