TR:North Coulior Red Slate Mountain, Mammoth Lakes CA

[huckster989]

Red Slate Mountain:
Summit: 13,163 feet
Trailhead: 7,580 feet
Approach: 8 miles
North Coulior: about 2,00 vertical feet and 40-50 degree slope

The players:

-Huckster989 (Adam) on skis
-epicwednesday (Ian) on splitboard

The north coulior on Red Slate has been on our hit list since moving to mammoth in November and we have been waiting for snow conditions, weather, and time off to all line up and they finally did March 16th and 17th.

Here is a view of Red Slate from Bloody Mountain taken about 3 weeks prior to our trip. The red line shows a basic route up and the green our ride down from the summit back to our camp site



We headed out 3/16/10 from the convict lake trailhead with overnight gear planning to camp at the base of Red Slate and make our final push the morning of the 17th.

The start of the approach, low snow coverage and variable snow made the approach a little long but pretty.



Our first view of the beast on the trip, some serious motivation



Continuing up the valley we were treated with more tempting and breath taking views of our objective



As the day heated up and the valley steepened up towards our campsite for the night glop became a serious problem with the skins and slowed us way down. We had hoped to set a skin track up for the morning but this slog took it out of us.



We made camp at the edge of the trees in front of the Ian in this picture.



With a high pressure system in the area we were treated to sunny weather and warm temps, the down side was a extreme temp shift at night. We woke to temps near 0 degree, this was taken after touching the thermometer. This provided us some motivation to get up and get moving in the morning.



Starting out at dawn heading up for the final section on skins



Heading up the slope



After the skin we reached the ridge on the back side of red slate and headed up by foot



Soon the summit was achieved and a well deserved break was taken, we came across the summit log book and left our short note:





Once at the summit we scouted out the route down to the north coulior, this involved dropping onto the face and traversing left as soon as possible and staying high enough to enter the coulior. Although this route was pretty straight forward knowing that you are making turns and traversing above 100+ foot cliffs in most likely fall you die terrain really added some tension to the trip.

Dropping in from the summit




Part of the traverse towards the coulior, with the exposed clifs below



Ian following on the traverse



Finally we made it the entrance of the coulior itself, it was a great relief to be past the exposure and look down a perfect chute of snow.



After a quick session of rock paper scissor, Ian won and was the first to drop. We took the first few turns carefully and felt out the snowpack and slough. Everything felt bomber and had been setting up for almost 4 days so we were pretty confident in the snowpack. Ian opened it up and ripped the thing top to bottom. I took a few pics from the top



After I saw Ian emerge at the bottom I gave him a couple minutes to set up and dropped in. A little bit of crust had formed from some sun exposure but not much. This caused things to be a little rough but an amazing ride non the less.

Kind of puts things into perspective



After finishing this the adrenaline was pumping, high fives were shared and insane amounts of stoke were shared



We made it back to our base camp at 1pm, cracked into a tall boy of rainier that we have been saving since December (you can't buy this stuff in CA) packed up camp and began the trip back out.



The trip back to the trailhead was interesting, warm temps made for some great spring corn up top but heavy mash potatos lower in the valley and some long painful traverses down the valley with skins on. We made it back to the car around 5:30 pm about 11 hours after setting out that morning from the tent. Thanks to some foresight and planning we celebrated a job well done and St. Patrick's day by cracking an ice cold Guinness in the parking lot.

A mighty fine action shot if I do say so



Over all this has to be the most thrilling line and mountain that we have ever skied / climbed. Having this one in the bag just makes this season in Mammoth feel complete and left us with the hanging question of whats next...I'm sure we will find something

[goldenboy]

One of North America's most classic lines, that's for sure!

[Ottime]

Nice work gentlemen. That one if definitely on my list.

[mtnbikerskierchick]

Serious commitment getting to that line. Nice work!

[Sierra Cement]

Well done, the great slate is an incredible line. Were you able to find the summer trail around Convict Lake? That made the dry slog much easier.

[wrathofcorn]

nice, better than my St. Patrick's Day!

[tone capone]

Absolutely beautiful. Thanks so much for sharing that. Well played gentlemen, I'm really stoked.

[powdork]

very nice!! kind of committing at the top it seems.

[splitter]

full of stoke...

awfully nice ski descent

[hutash]

FKNA, way to get after it!

I made part way up that hill in high school 30 years ago, and always wanted to
go and summit. It was in April or May, and I wished I had skis.

[guermo]

Great TR Huckster! Great detail of the summit traverse with those photos, thanks for that!

[uglymoney]

Full of win. Made it to Convict lake last year for the first time, need to get into them there mountains.

Let the spring skiing season begin!

(too bad I'll be stuck here with my new baby - already turned down a trip)

[comish]

This is the friendly Mammoth bus driver team, right? Pretty sure we met earlier in the year before Canyon opened. I think I had my kid (1.5yr old) with me at the time heading to Main.

Yeah, the approach on this can really suck. We tried the surf and skin in to base camp in the same day method which meant we ended up camping in woods in the canyon between Convict and your campsite. Then a fricken cold north wind came in the next day killing it for us. Jealous, its an insanely beautiful line that I will like to get another go at.

[Eastside]

Good job.

[Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer]

Awesome! This has been on my tick list for a while.

Note: I am not remotely kidding - I was just lying on my couch flipping Nate's and Dave's guidebook, and re-reading the entire section of the Convict area. I log on, and this is the top non-sticky thread! Sweet!

[AKbruin]

*sigh*

Nice work.

[Lostinthetrees]

nice piece of work there!!!

[Shogun]

Thanks for sharing, I'm sure those cold ones at the end tasted amazing.

[SchralphMacchio]

well played, great trip, nice TR. Three thumbs up!

[bcrider]

E-P-I-C!!!

The death traverse doesn't look so bad either.

[Mike Pow]

Perfect way to start a pissing down morning in Wales. Thanks

[highanxiety]

I was just up in Convict Canyon yesterday for the first time checking out the pinner chutes and I saw that bad boy in the distance, so i am super stoked to see this TR today. Nice work guys. I am in Mammoth for the another few weeks with a lot of free time, send me a pm if you want to make some turns..

[Meadow Skipper]

Excellent, most excellent.

[Dhelihiker]

Hell yes, and from the summit too. Good fucking job!!

If you listen really close you can hear AKBruin sobbing.

[406]

sick line, nice work.