Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 0 Likes
Twitter 0 Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
0 Likes
0 Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • The Great Outdoors
  • CLIMBING

From Mount Logan to the Spearhead Traverse, 16-year-old Naomi Prohaska Discovers Her Perfect Place

  • March 20, 2018
  • Ben Osborne
Total
10
Shares
10
0
0
0
0
0
Total
10
Shares
Share 10
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

Name a significant peak in the region—Mount Baker, Mount Currie, Mount Garibaldi, Mount Sloan, Wedge Mountain, Mount Matier, Mount Marriott, Mount Slaylok, Whirlwind Peak, Mount Benvolio, Joffre Peak, Overlord Mountain—Naomi Prohaska, aged 16, has stood on top of it.

 

Untitled.001 copy 1

words :: Lisa Richardson

And on May 23, 2017, after two years of local expeditions to learn the craft of mountaineering, then-15-year-old Prohaska ducked out of a semester of classes at Pemberton High, flew north, and climbed her way into history books by topping out on Mount Logan, Canada’s highest peak.

The expedition didn’t happen on a whim. Spring break two years previous had seen Naomi binge-watching videos of rock-climbing’s most talented she-phenoms, including Ashima Shiraishi, who at age 14, had climbed the hardest boulder problem of any woman in the world. It was proof to Prohaska that even though she’d never done “any hard stuff,” she wasn’t too young to be shooting high.

After watching Will Gadd, Julie Angus, Darcy Turenne and Suz Graham at a Mountain Life Multiplicity adventure talk in Whistler, then 13-year-old Naomi began to conceive her own grand adventure. “All the people who were there were always out in the mountains doing cool stuff.”

She set her sights on becoming the youngest person to summit Mount Logan, a 5,959-metre summit in the Saint Elias Mountains and the second highest peak in North America (only Denali looms higher). Mount Logan also happened to be a backyard beat for her dad, ACMG (Association of Canadian Mountain Guides) guide, Rich Prohaska.

At the time, however, Naomi had never even ventured out of bounds on her home ski hill. So, the 13-year-old and her father boot-packed into the backcountry off Whistler Mountain. Then they ski-toured Flute, learning and testing out some of the equipment she’d need in the big mountains. Noticing that Naomi grew more enthusiastic with each adventure, Rich took her on the Spearhead Traverse, Whistler’s infamous 35-kilometre high alpine route that’s often called “The Haute Route of the Northwest.”

Naomi was totally in her element—she had discovered her perfect place. But she was still a long way from being ready. If she were to attempt Logan with her father as guide, he would treat her the same as any other client. There are no free rides that high above sea level: Naomi would have to get there under her own steam.

Her parents sketched out a list of objectives for her to do over the next two years in order to be ready, signed her up for an Avalanche Skills Training Level 1 course, and handed her the book Surviving Logan by Erik Bjarnason; so she’d know how badly things can go wrong.

It’s no spoiler to say that nothing went wrong. Prohaska’s summit made headlines across the country, and her name has been added to Wikipedia under Mount Logan’s notable ascents.

“I think differently in the wilderness. I dream more, I smile more, I feel alive.”

The bigger revelation is that becoming “the youngest on Canada’s top” didn’t change her life. Or her. When Naomi got back to school for the last three weeks of the semester, nothing was different. She was still the same driven, un-princessy girl she’d always been.

“It didn’t ever sink in the way I thought it would. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But it’s not like it changed the everyday me.”

After training almost non-stop for two years, Prohaska skidded into a surprisingly non-strenuous summer. She didn’t go back into the mountains. She didn’t even think about them or feel the urge to tap back into the alpinist’s zen of putting one foot in front of the other and slogging doggedly upwards. And then, on the Labour Day long weekend her family decided to do Spearhead Traverse one last time before the upcoming Spearhead Hut Project begins building permanent shelters along the route.

“I love the Spearhead,” says Prohaska. “I’ve done it four times now. Last winter, I did it with my dad in a day. It was one of the best days of my life. I felt so strong. Mentally. Physically.”

Harnessing up that September day, wide-stepping to avoid ripping her pants with her crampons and pacing herself against her sister to keep slack out of the rope, reminded Naomi how much she loves travelling across glaciers. Nearly four months after summitting Canada’s highest peak, she fell back in love with the simplicity and clarity that comes from being in the mountains.

“I love doing it. It’s so powerful. It makes me so excited, going out to places where you’re working, your body is working hard, you’re not around people all the time, you’re just doing everything slowly. Out there, no one cares how you look. The experiences you’re having are so much more important than what you look like. All you’re doing is walking and thinking. It’s peaceful.”

And it was there, “walking along the beast of ice,” jumping across crevasses and scrambling up steep rock with her parents and sister, that Naomi realized mountaineering had changed her. “I think differently in the wilderness. I dream more, I smile more, I feel alive. Doing the Spearhead again with my family made me remember how much I need the mountains.”

Summiting Logan taught Naomi that she can do whatever she sets her mind to. “It was such a big goal for me and I actually did it.” But it wasn’t until she was back in her backyard, on the Spearhead Traverse with her family, that the full meaning of that historic feat came back to where it started.

A speaking event full of mountain loving adventurers had inspired Naomi to “be one of them,” she says. “Now I want to be the person who inspires someone to climb, ski, hike or just love the mountains.”

Shortly before press time Naomi reached out and confirmed that her next big goal is to climb Denali, North America’s highest peak. Giv’r Naomi! 

 

Total
10
Shares
Share 10
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • Climbing
  • Naomi Prohaska
Ben Osborne

Previous Article
  • MULTIPLICITY

MULTIPLICITY 2018: Jill Heinerth, Going Deep into Another World

  • March 18, 2018
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
Next Article
  • The Great Outdoors

Artist Profile: Lan Yao’s Wonderful Watercolour World

  • March 21, 2018
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
You May Also Like
Leslie-Timms-Devils-Glen-Nutcracker-Colin-Field
View Post
  • CLIMBING
  • Ontario

Behind the Devil’s Glen Climbing Route Closures

  • Mountain Life Media
  • May 25, 2023
Lani-Imre-Jon-Turk
View Post
  • CLIMBING
  • Trips & Expeditions

Chased by Demons

  • Mountain Life Media
  • May 11, 2023
View Post
  • CAMPING GEAR
  • THE GEAR SHED
  • The Great Outdoors

Gear Shed: MEC Volt 2-Person Tent

  • Editor
  • May 10, 2023
Miya-Tsudome-Patagonia-ascend-climbing-film-Yosemite
View Post
  • CLIMBING
  • Videos
  • Women

Fleeing the Taliban, Afghan Women Find a Home in Climbing

  • Editor
  • April 14, 2023
Sean-Mccoll-MEC-climbing-gym
View Post
  • CLIMBING

Climber Sean McColl Joins MEC as Latest Ambassador

  • Editor
  • April 13, 2023
Uncertainty-mountains-Rockies
View Post
  • CLIMBING
  • Rockies

Facing Uncertainty: The Role of Chance in Mountain Adventures

  • Mountain Life Media
  • March 13, 2023
Brian-Hockenstein-surfing-Iceland-water-and-ice-ML
View Post
  • CLIMBING
  • Surfing
  • Trips & Expeditions

In the Land of Water & Ice

  • Editor
  • January 24, 2023
Marie-Pier-Desharnais-A-Womans-Experience-on-K2-flag-crop
View Post
  • CLIMBING

Marie-Pier Desharnais: A Woman’s Experience on K2

  • Mountain Life Media
  • January 23, 2023
Featured Posts
  • chu-chua-festival 1
    The Reconciliation Trail
    • June 5, 2023
  • Kathryn-Corbiere-artist-Indigenous-Ontario-Blue-Mountains 2
    Artist Profile: Elevating Awareness 
    • May 29, 2023
  • Mike-Traslin-Andy-Traslin-ski-touring-KootenaysBC 3
    The Traslin Brothers: 200 Months of Earned Turns
    • May 30, 2023
  • Leslie-Timms-Devils-Glen-Nutcracker-Colin-Field 4
    Behind the Devil’s Glen Climbing Route Closures
    • May 25, 2023
  • ML-5-panel-trucker-cap-black-white-front 5
    Father’s Day Gifts for Active Dads
    • June 2, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • John-Haines-Simcoe-Street-Collingwood2-at-CreativeSimcoe-Street
    Tribute: ML’s Map Artist John Haines
    • June 1, 2023
  • Fisher-Monahan-illustration-illustrator
    Sweetgrass Chronicles: Walking from BC to San Francisco
    • May 26, 2023
  • benno_bikes-46er-sea-otter-tour-web2
    Gear Shed: Picks for Spring & Summer
    • May 24, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 0 Likes
Twitter 0 Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM

Warning: preg_match(): Unknown modifier '0' in /home/customer/www/mountainlifemedia.ca/public_html/wp-content/plugins/powerkit/modules/lazyload/helpers/helper-powerkit-lazyload.php on line 146
avatar
mountainlifemedia
Mountain Life
25K Followers
“I have nothing to reconcile,” Tom Eustache says plainly to a room of 200 white people, followed by a small but exasperated chuckle into his microphone. 9 2
Here's your reminder that Father's Day is June 18th! 16 1
Check out our signature 20th Anniversary tees that just dropped in our shop! 🔥 13 0
For 15 years the Ontario artist drew ML’s gatefold map for both the Blue and Coast Mountains editions. 20 1
Just your average day on the trails…nothing to see here. #mountainlifer #onewheel 25 4
How many turns did you earn last winter? Most skiers and boarders would be proud to say they logged a week with no chairlifts and zero auxiliary help to the top—or toured exclusively for a month. 55 2
onekwe didn’t set out to become an artist. She first became a welder with the intention of establishing herself in the trade. But, as good welding jobs are few and far between where she lives on Manitoulin Island, she began doing commissions for architectural pieces and modern furniture. “From there, I found the opportunities and the abilities in myself to create art,” she says. 76 1
ML and partners offer a gear list curated for spring-summer stoke, including the latest sunnies, trail shoes, sun shirts, e-bikes, headlamps, racerback tanks, Rollerblades and sun hats. In alpha order. #linkinbio to check out all picks! 23 0
"Alright—where to begin? Between the months of July and November 2022, I walked about 2500 kilometres from British Columbia to San Francisco. Yes—I walked." 48 4
🚫The sweet sound of the wilderness at Devil’s Glen… 78 5
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

“I have nothing to reconcile,” Tom Eustache says plainly to a room of 200 white people, followed by a small but exasperated chuckle into his microphone. 6 2
Here's your reminder that Father's Day is June 18th! 16 1
Check out our signature 20th Anniversary tees that just dropped in our shop! 🔥 13 0
For 15 years the Ontario artist drew ML’s gatefold map for both the Blue and Coast Mountains editions. 20 1
Just your average day on the trails…nothing to see here. #mountainlifer #onewheel 25 4
How many turns did you earn last winter? Most skiers and boarders would be proud to say they logged a week with no chairlifts and zero auxiliary help to the top—or toured exclusively for a month. 55 2
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.