April 6, 2008, Slot Couloir

[Edited to add link to pictures]

It's five after six in the morning and no one has yet arrived for a 6am meet up time. The phone rings and it's Tim. "Hey Daniel! I'm in bound!" Five minutes later Tim should be pulling in any time and I finally ring Ari. He picks up the phone and groans. Yup, the phone woke him up. How long until he could be in Bellevue? 30 minutes? He decides to sleep in and recover from yesterday's skiing. Tim pulls in, throws my skis on the rack and the rest in back and we're off. After a brief stop in North Bend for transceiver batteries we finally arrive at Alpental around 7:30 and hit the skin track.

We make quick progress through about 6-8 inches of fluff on top of crust to the base of the Phantom waterfall. We climb the steep section through through the trees on the left with only one short boot packing section and soon we're off up the broad upper slopes. We note that we probably will need to be careful here later if the sun consolidates the snow.

Clouds and fog blow in and out with occasional patches of sun. Flurries blow and we enjoy the silence, noise deadened by the snow and trees. We're amazed that we seem to be sharing the mountain with no one.

Before long we arrive at the notch in the ridge and get our first view of the Couloir. We can see traces of the track left by yesterday's descents, but they're mostly filled in. We have a leisurely lunch while the wind blows and we marvel at our surroundings.

I take a few steps down and dig a (very) hasty pit. In about 3', I find no discernible layers and steadily increasing density. Good signs. As we prepare the skis for descent, another pair appear, grinning through the trees.

Tim drops in and I shoot pictures from the top. In 10 turns, he's gone around the corner and I pack up the camera to follow. I drop in and swing wide left to hit the steep untracked snow. The top six inches or so slough and I veer right to stay out of the way. Soon I'm at the dogleg and I stop to admire the view and look for Tim. I can't see him. Good. That means he's out of the way somewhere. I holler and then ski on. Turn after turn of powder flying in my face I pass beautiful rock overhangs, icicles, and when I dare I venture left to the steeper side. Weightless on each turn I dance down and find Tim well protected around a corner. He takes the camera and continues down the next section and I follow.

We exit the couloir and make our way to the valley floor, nearly shaking with excitement. While re-applying the skins, we evaluate options for our exit. Do we take the obvious ramp or try to follow tracks up through the cliffs under the corniced ridge? We start up a line in between the two and head for the cliffs at the last minute. Why cut a skin track on that perfectly good ski slope? Nearing the cliffs we strap the skis to our packs and I kick steps up through a little weakness in the cliffs.

What to do? Should we head back up for another lap? Then we remember the snow on the Phantom. The sun in shining. We head for the car and hope the snow isn't too scary. Sticking to the trees and well away from terrain traps, we make out way back to the top of the waterfall and, based on the heavy sloughs, decide today isn't the day to tackle it head on. We pick out way back through the trees and manage to avoid removing our skis. We duck out into the waterfall/cliff area at about 2/3rds height and pick our way through avalanche debris then zip back to the car.

Pictures are posted here.