July 13, 2008, Triad Couloir

On Sunday Tim, Dave, Sky and I set out to repeat what Sky has called one of his favorite lines in Washington: the Kumshot couloir on the north side of the Triad. He and others spent much effort figuring out how best to get to this while it's in condition, and to them I say "Thanks". This route is full on beautiful. It has everything that makes Washington such a wonderful place to ski: views, remoteness, aesthetics, rock work, rope work, and did I say views?







I don't remember what time we left the Eldorado trailhead, or what time we returned. Everything about the trip was so great that I pretty much rolled from one transition to the next without too much concern: tennies to boots to skis to boots to tennies to beer. Trips with flow are great. The short version of the trip is that we traversed towards the Triad with Eldo looming above, and dropped down from a col before gaining a second one that hid the jewel:



Sky's enthusiasm at the conditions we found were infectious (as always). The ski was superb: stable corn on a steep aspect with a (until then) hidden valley yawning over 4500' below:







After the ski we had a healthy 2500' climb to a col where we downclimbed and rapped back onto the snowfields beneath Eldorado and our highway home.

Climbing up from the Marble Creek Cirque:



We rapped from the obvious col in the photo below:



Thanks Tim, Dave, and Sky for the great trip, and to all you out there (you know who you are) who had a part in giving this route shape over the years.

For better pics see Dave's TR: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127776

And for the complete history check out: http://skisickness.com/CascadePass/Kumquat/#Kumquat