blackcombs spankys ladder

A snowHead

Hi, been wanting to explore spankys ladder now for quite some time but am unsure of what exactly to expect. Should i take someone with me that has already skiied it or should i be alright? should i carry any backcountry gear? What all is there for skiing? a bunch of couliors?, cliffs? or open?
thanks for any help.

A snowHead

Why not ski the glacier then look back up it from the flat run-out at the bottom? Or buy the guide-book which has pictures and descriptions of lots of the lines?

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

We did Spanky's on our last day. The ladder itself is not a particularly hairy climb, although it's by no means a walk in the park and you *NEED* to know what youre doing if you go up there. You shouldn't need any backcountry gear, it's all inbounds and avalanche patrolled.

Once over the ladder you have access to three bowls - Garnet bowl straight in front gets the most traffic, so you might want to head for one of the others to get something less skiied-out. We went to skiiers left and dropped into Ruby Bowl through a very short narrow (ish - 15 feet or so, but narrow and steep enough to have more than one of us genuinely scared) opening. Great snow once into the bowl though.

You need to Login to know who's really who.

J-fast, Went there with Ski Esprit. Fell over a lot (on skis with a 61mm waist). It is a long way from lifts, so best to have someone who knows where they are going.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

You'll need to Register first of course.

Oh and the cliff signs there really mean it!! Shocked

Generally speaking Ruby bowl (skiiers left) is the easiest to get into (unless you go the high way in nbt mentioned), Saphire bowl (skiers right)is the hardest - though there is another sneaky/better way in, and diamond somewhere in between (in both senses!). You can make it as easy or hard as you like depend on your choice of route down (relatively, it's all double black terrain).
Best plan is to get in a lesson, perhaps a supergroup with veeeight, or extremely canadian if you have a couple of days to spare, as you do really want to be with someone who knows where they are going, apart from the safety thing, it'll just be more enjoyable as they'll know where the good snow is and the right route for you so you can rip it rather than wondering where you are and where the next cliff band is.
The book (finestone/hodder) is a good start but when you're up there, route planning is a little tricker wink

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

It's a great run, with a real sense of adventure and achievement when you've done it for the first time. It's probably best doing it for the first time to go with someone who knows the way down, although the way into Ruby bowl is generally fairly straightforward, and there's usually a stream of people going up there who'll point you in the right direction.

The skiing isn't actually that difficult, although it's steep in places, and you have to comfortable planning and picking a route through rocks and cliffs, in deep snow, so you have to be confident about making turns. I wouldn't like to do it in poor visibility for the first time.

After all it is free

We did it twice with our Ski Esprit group.....I found the ladder challenging (both times) but then I am not keen on ledges etc.

Once in, as Kramer says, the skiing itself was not as challenging as elsewhere (Cockalorum or Pakalolo were certainly steeper) but we did have an instructor who knew the lines (especially useful the second time as we went from Ruby to Diamond and maybe Sapphire, not sure on that). However I think that it was a very big plus having a guide who knew the way to go or not as the case may be. As said the cliffs are very real.

Once you get to the bottom and look back up it is one of those " did I ski that !!!" moments, so worth it just for that. We were there during a dry sunny period so we had excellent visibility. The snow in thebowls was some of the best we had all week, in a period where there had been no recent new snow.

My "not as challenging as elsewhere" comment does have to be read on the basis that we had excellent visibility. In poor light, even with a guide, you are in a whole different ball game

It is a long way from the lifts so it is a bit remote but there are usually a few skiers about. When we got to the bottom onto the Blackcomb glacier run out the first guy who came after us was one of the ski patrol medics who was just cruising looking for people to help (I hope it was coincidence and not foresight that made him follow us !). In any event we all got down in one piece

You don't need the guidebook now:

http://media.intrawest.com/whistler/flash/spankys/map.html

It is quite complex terrain, but I wouldn't discourage you from taking a look in there. Just go easy until you know it well enough to attack a bit more Skullie

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

The hairiest bit of spanky's is getting up the ladder. I'd never go up there without a guide/instructor though.

Terrain: must be a good skier and confident off-piste. You have to ski round a few rock bands to get to the open areas, some of the bowls being harder than others to get into.

It's really not obvious where Garnet, Diamond and Sapphire bowls are,not having been down anything but Ruby so take someone who knows where they're going. There aren't any signposts up there and there are cliff bands all over the place! Skullie

It's good though since it doesn't get that skied out. Cool

snowHeads are a friendly bunch.

Arno, thanks for that. Yep, we took the bootpack up to Spanky's chute the dropped into Ruby Bowl. Our "guide" tried to take us into Playland but we decided that traversing across was too much like hard work and went straight down instead

snow reports

Can someone describe 'the ladder' experience....sounds scary as hell!

Helena,
The ladder is technically the climb up - Personally I hate climbing up unless I can do it with my skis on - bizzarely enough I have skied down most of the ways on the map (and some that aren't) and it's always the hike up or the traverse into spankys chute that get me. rolling eyes

The map is a bit misleading as it looks like ruby bowl entrance involves massive exposure above a big cliff, but actually this is not the case if you take the easiest root. Also it makes it look like the entrances to diamond and saphire bowls are obvious and more straightforward, this is also not always the case

You know it makes sense.

I found a pic of people climbing spanky's ladder on google, here

And I've just uploaded some pics onto the snowMedia zone of our trip over the ladder - as stuarth says, we took the boot pack up and dropped into Spanky's chute, looking at that map linked above. CLicky makey bigger-er for the pics below

Heading up on the bootpack

Looking back along the bootpack (at least one person said it was easier on skis)

One dropping into the chute, one waiting - the skiier in the photo has admitted it's the one time he was genuinely frightened, and this from a chap who broke his arm ina fall at Jackson Hole the previous season!

One clear, time for the next one to drop in

Wooo, steep!

Did we really ski that? Yes we did. The "chute", as far as I can make out, is the wider openeing directly under the sun, although I'd be very happy to be corrected (my pics seem to show untouched snow in the narrower chute to the right). The line of trees in the centre of the photo pointing to the bottom right divides "Playland" from the bowl itself

Help!!

blackcombs spankys ladder

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