March 25, 2005, Mt Hardy, Open Fly couloir
3/25/05
9449
17
Given the forecasted warm temps for the weekend, I decided I needed to take Good Friday off to go take advantage of the good snow, and I invited alpinedave along (who works 4 day weeks).
He was my partner for the couloir we skied on Mt Hardy last year, and so yesterday we went back up there to sort out some unfinished business.
The weather was cloudy and foggy, but the nice thing is there was no wind. We climbed up the forest from near the Easy Pass trailhead, and in three in a half hours or so, made it up to the ridgeline at 7500ft. Lots of steepish like chutes and ridges to get up there, luckily these southwest-facing slopes had a bit of a suncrust that made walking easier, and made us feel better about the stability. We had to work our way around a wind deposite on a lee slope in one spot. We were now in the fog layer though, and visibility was only a couple hundred feet - a little bit demoralizing. Occasional snow showers were dropping beautiful perfect snow crystals.
We reached the ridge top and peaked over the other side into the couloir - no fog on this side of the mountain! With only photos to remember it by from a recon mission two weeks ago, I remember thinking - wow, it looks a lot steeper than in the photos!
More concerning was how much it narrowed a few hundred feet lower. Would our skis fit through it? Also, we could only see the top six hundred feet, so we had no idea if we would get cliffed out (although the topo map suggested no).
Dave put me on belay so I could check the conditions and stability - I slid in, jumped up and down a bit, cut across the slope, and made a couple of hard jump turns. Nothing budged. So I set about digging a little pit and found about a foot and half of powder with a moderate shear on the ice crust - the powder was not very cohesive though.
It was "a go"! Dave and I proceeded to leap-frog down the couloir, hiding out in "safe" alcoves along the edges. The conditions were perfect! The narrow portion turned out to be about 170cm wide in a few short spots - coincidentally the exact length of me and Dave's skis. It was made for us!
After the upper narrow section, which was over 45 degrees and involved much butt-checking by me, the couloir mellowed to 40 or so as it curved through the orange rock walls - the conditions were such that the skiing was really fun, relaxed and enjoyable, not scary.
After 1800ft of "slot", there remained a 300ft open slope at the bottom, containing beautiful light powder - sweet! Don't know if it's been skied before, but we called in "Open Fly" couloir, due to a certain party member, who shall remain unnamed (other than to say it was not me) who made the descent in this condition. And also it looks like zipper.
Now we just had to climb back over the mountain, and we did this by following the large open basin to the west - a long and tedious ascent ending on 35 degree NE-facing slopes. luckily conditions seemed stable - the one pit I dug showed a really good bond to the ice crust. We were able to ski for about 1000ft down the SW side (finding nice powder on west-facing aspects) before switching to foot-mode for the slog to the highway.
He was my partner for the couloir we skied on Mt Hardy last year, and so yesterday we went back up there to sort out some unfinished business.
The weather was cloudy and foggy, but the nice thing is there was no wind. We climbed up the forest from near the Easy Pass trailhead, and in three in a half hours or so, made it up to the ridgeline at 7500ft. Lots of steepish like chutes and ridges to get up there, luckily these southwest-facing slopes had a bit of a suncrust that made walking easier, and made us feel better about the stability. We had to work our way around a wind deposite on a lee slope in one spot. We were now in the fog layer though, and visibility was only a couple hundred feet - a little bit demoralizing. Occasional snow showers were dropping beautiful perfect snow crystals.
We reached the ridge top and peaked over the other side into the couloir - no fog on this side of the mountain! With only photos to remember it by from a recon mission two weeks ago, I remember thinking - wow, it looks a lot steeper than in the photos!
More concerning was how much it narrowed a few hundred feet lower. Would our skis fit through it? Also, we could only see the top six hundred feet, so we had no idea if we would get cliffed out (although the topo map suggested no).
Dave put me on belay so I could check the conditions and stability - I slid in, jumped up and down a bit, cut across the slope, and made a couple of hard jump turns. Nothing budged. So I set about digging a little pit and found about a foot and half of powder with a moderate shear on the ice crust - the powder was not very cohesive though.
It was "a go"! Dave and I proceeded to leap-frog down the couloir, hiding out in "safe" alcoves along the edges. The conditions were perfect! The narrow portion turned out to be about 170cm wide in a few short spots - coincidentally the exact length of me and Dave's skis. It was made for us!
After the upper narrow section, which was over 45 degrees and involved much butt-checking by me, the couloir mellowed to 40 or so as it curved through the orange rock walls - the conditions were such that the skiing was really fun, relaxed and enjoyable, not scary.
After 1800ft of "slot", there remained a 300ft open slope at the bottom, containing beautiful light powder - sweet! Don't know if it's been skied before, but we called in "Open Fly" couloir, due to a certain party member, who shall remain unnamed (other than to say it was not me) who made the descent in this condition. And also it looks like zipper.
Now we just had to climb back over the mountain, and we did this by following the large open basin to the west - a long and tedious ascent ending on 35 degree NE-facing slopes. luckily conditions seemed stable - the one pit I dug showed a really good bond to the ice crust. We were able to ski for about 1000ft down the SW side (finding nice powder on west-facing aspects) before switching to foot-mode for the slog to the highway.
Nice one, Phil. That's gotta be way up there on the Hot Slot scale.
Great line, Phil. How did your Volkls perform in the tight slot and also in the open powder below?
I'm used to flakey light skis, since my previous skis were Hydrogens. My opinion so far is that the Volkl's are over-rated, and perform more poorly than the Hydrogens in general. However, they're fine in non-bottomless powder, which is what we had. And they were fine in tight spots too.
We should have a "amislotornot" website, where people could submit photos of couloirs and they could be rated. ;)
Some more pics
Me
Dave
That's gotta be way up there on the Hot Slot scale.
We should have a "amislotornot" website, where people could submit photos of couloirs and they could be rated. ;)
Some more pics
Me
Dave
Nice work phil!
How long were the really tight sections? How would it have been with skis 15 cm longer? ;)
I agree on idea of having a website listing all known couloirs in the area, would be a great resource...
How long were the really tight sections? How would it have been with skis 15 cm longer? ;)
I agree on idea of having a website listing all known couloirs in the area, would be a great resource...
Nice work as usual, Phil. As for skis, might I suggest some nice shiny R:EXs? :D
How long were the really tight sections? How would it have been with skis 15 cm longer? ;)
170cm-tight for only two spots of 10 feet or so. Then maybe 300ft of 10-ft wide. So slightly longer skis would have been ok :-)
I might be changing my opinion of the Volkl's. I skied lift-served today at Baker in the heavy deep chopped-up glop, and they performed pretty well. Maybe I just needed to get some mileage on them.
That looks sweet. It would be cool to see some area shots of that side of Hardy and your couloirs. Got any?
That looks sweet.
Maybe it's a generational thing...
In various TR's over time, I've been struck by how many folks seem to think tight gullies are good skiing. Phil's picture suggests to me a rope length of side stepping or maybe tip-and-tail-scratching hop turns. It's an interesting setting, and I'm sure it was a fun exploratory adventure, but do you really think this is good skiing? I mean, to each his own, and more power to you if you like it, but does this gully really look sweet to you?
Yours for improved inter-generational dialog... ;)
Interesting point :)
I'm not sure if maybe you're trying to allude to the larger point of "I'm glad I did that and I don't have to do it again but hey aren't I cool" skiing, versus "I want to go back because those turns were blissful" skiing.
Or maybe this just has to do with tight turns. I'll admit the 30 odd feet of side-stepping wasn't exactly "good skiing" - I wouldn't go back for that. In fact, I probably wouldn't go back just for the rope-length of "tip-and-tail-scratching" jump turns either, although those were quite thrilling for me. Part of the fun of skiing for me, is being in a beautiful spot, and having a bit of challenge and adrenaline. That satisfied those needs.
However, it was the other 90% of it that looked like this - truly sweet turns - that will make me want to come back again ;D
I'm not sure if maybe you're trying to allude to the larger point of "I'm glad I did that and I don't have to do it again but hey aren't I cool" skiing, versus "I want to go back because those turns were blissful" skiing.
Or maybe this just has to do with tight turns. I'll admit the 30 odd feet of side-stepping wasn't exactly "good skiing" - I wouldn't go back for that. In fact, I probably wouldn't go back just for the rope-length of "tip-and-tail-scratching" jump turns either, although those were quite thrilling for me. Part of the fun of skiing for me, is being in a beautiful spot, and having a bit of challenge and adrenaline. That satisfied those needs.
However, it was the other 90% of it that looked like this - truly sweet turns - that will make me want to come back again ;D
But still, Lowell, there is a fine aesthetic to the experience of being in a dramatic couloir with cool looking rock walls. And a certain enviable adrenilene rush experienced by the bold adventurers who explore new shots. Both of those, I think, are port of why we paparazzi ooh and aah at reports such as this one.
Don't get me wrong. I'd be lying if I said I'm not sucked into the appeal of the trip at issue. A choke point and a few hop turns in an otherwise sweet 2100 foot run, well I'll take that anytime. I'm all tele (yes I can ride parallel but that's not my preference) so I'm even more challenged than the AT crew in tight slots. Yes, I'd mirror Phil's nervousness about such crux points while feeling humbled as I inartfully made it through, but the rest of it all seemed like great adventure and skiing.
Besides, I could see myself doing this trip, unlike some of the wilder eco-challenges we occasionally see here.
Nice job, fellers!
Jimmy O
Don't get me wrong. I'd be lying if I said I'm not sucked into the appeal of the trip at issue. A choke point and a few hop turns in an otherwise sweet 2100 foot run, well I'll take that anytime. I'm all tele (yes I can ride parallel but that's not my preference) so I'm even more challenged than the AT crew in tight slots. Yes, I'd mirror Phil's nervousness about such crux points while feeling humbled as I inartfully made it through, but the rest of it all seemed like great adventure and skiing.
Besides, I could see myself doing this trip, unlike some of the wilder eco-challenges we occasionally see here.
Nice job, fellers!
Jimmy O
I'd like to add a few more points.
There is a certain attraction to the improbable. It's more appealing to do something the less likely it seems. Less-than-ski-width skiing certainly falls into this category. That seems to be pretty much how people into hard alpine mixed climbing pick their lines. I don't think that couloir Colin and Dave climbed on Chiwawa helped them move fluidly over rock and ice. But they got up the thing, and they seemed pretty elated.
I'd also like to make an analogy. There is no sense in which the tight couloir adds to the fluid mechanics of an ordinary ski turn. It is also true that large breasts on females don't have any practical function. Yet many people are inexplicably, incurably attracted to them. And then there are the guys who pretend to be so rational...
"Ah, those are too big for my taste anyway."
-Just another moth who likes the flame
There is a certain attraction to the improbable. It's more appealing to do something the less likely it seems. Less-than-ski-width skiing certainly falls into this category. That seems to be pretty much how people into hard alpine mixed climbing pick their lines. I don't think that couloir Colin and Dave climbed on Chiwawa helped them move fluidly over rock and ice. But they got up the thing, and they seemed pretty elated.
I'd also like to make an analogy. There is no sense in which the tight couloir adds to the fluid mechanics of an ordinary ski turn. It is also true that large breasts on females don't have any practical function. Yet many people are inexplicably, incurably attracted to them. And then there are the guys who pretend to be so rational...
"Ah, those are too big for my taste anyway."
-Just another moth who likes the flame
Ha! Great analogy
Good points. I like Sky's analogy. Maybe it's not generational as much as hormonal. Younger skiers may fixate on the most obvious, showy features of the mountain anatomy--cleavage in this case. While older skiers may appreciate more subtle features and roam more widely. ;)
I've never been satisfied by comparisons between skiing and climbing. I think a better analogy is between skiing and mountain biking. Picking your way through marginal terrain seems a lot like "trials" riding on a bike (I think that's the term). You've probably seen it. That's where riders maneuver over obstacles like beams, barrels, picnic tables, and so on. It's a far cry from what mountain bikes were originally developed for, but it's an equally valid way of spending your time, if you're into it.
I've never been satisfied by comparisons between skiing and climbing. I think a better analogy is between skiing and mountain biking. Picking your way through marginal terrain seems a lot like "trials" riding on a bike (I think that's the term). You've probably seen it. That's where riders maneuver over obstacles like beams, barrels, picnic tables, and so on. It's a far cry from what mountain bikes were originally developed for, but it's an equally valid way of spending your time, if you're into it.
I'll put my vote in for -that is a kickass line! I love super tight technical skiing. Now you got me googling around to try and find that place! I gotta ski that line.
Thanx for the inspiration!
Thanx for the inspiration!
Any chance we could get a location on this one? I take it, it is in the N. Cascades.
Thanks
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