Mount Ann - Pipe Dream Couloir

Last weekend Matt and I went out to ski the Pipe Dream couloir on Mount Ann. After a leisurely morning, we left the car at 9 and headed over Austin Pass and down into Swift Creek. These southern aspects had a bit of sun crust, thankfully the more north facing slopes still skied great. We passed another party while making a rising traverse beneath the subsummit of Ann (Annette), then followed a nice easy bench to the east ridge of Mount Ann proper. A bit of fiddly up and down brought us to the base of the final pitch to the summit of Mount Ann, where we made a short rising traverse across a steep slope to access the top of the couloir, which is on the little bump ~200 yards north of the true summit of Mount Ann. We arrived at the top of the couloir at 12:15, and, with no parties on our tail, took our time with a Rutschblock test before dropping into the couloir. The skiing in the couloir was fabulous, with no instability and very little sluff to watch out for. The couloir is pretty steep but not too long, and the skiing was great below it, as well. We rode the fall line straight down, staying on the top of the small rib all the way to the valley floor at ~3850 feet. It was still pretty early in the day, and all three other parties we had seen earlier apparently left after taking a single lap each - chumps! Matt and I took 3 more laps off various points along the ridge between Ann and Annette before heading out via our approach, and even saw what we think were fresh Mountain Lion tracks on the way out! We made it back to the car just before 7pm. Only regret was not reapplying sunscreen.