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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Was UT, AK, now MT
    Posts
    13,499

    NW Couloir Pfeifferhorn Stoke (You'll need your Whippet)

    With all the good stoke lately, here is some more.

    A Wasatch classic. The NW Couloir and SE face of the Pfeifferhorn.
    Skied the NW Couloir a month ago, and a couple times in the '98, also had some fun on the SE face in '98. The following are pictures from four different trips there.

    The approach up the SE Face. Kind of scary avy potential at times. Looking back at the top of Maybird, White Pine, Red Pine, and eventually, the 'Bird.

    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...-face-hike.jpg

    Higher up on the SE Face on a successful NW Couloir trip.
    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...ippet-hike.jpg

    Skiing the SE Face under crusty conditions. On this trip, my friend with a lack of pre-season fitness (early November), crapped out on the approach ridge. He decided to sit on the ridge with my Canon and a 70-200mm lens and shoot photos. I summited and looked down the NW Couloir, drooling to come back. The SE face is still a fun ski. Just below me you can drop off the right side of the photo and ski a huge apron down into Maybird and out to the road.

    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...face-turns.jpg

    This is where you end up when your partners insist on approaching via Maybird and not White/Red Pine. Hans and Mark got screwed again by rolling the dice and climbing up this dead end couloir, having to 4th class it out made it exciting. We booted up another couloir that wasn't too bad. Better have Vibram soles here. Either way, the top of Maybird has some incredibly steep couloirs that you can run laps in. Sort of like Wolverine bowl near Brighton.
    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...ans-climbs.jpg

    A week after skiing the SE face my obsession with the Pfeifferhorn saw me here again, with shaky knees looking down the NW Couloir. First turns at the top of the NW Couloir. The first 30 feet are usually really bony. If it is too bony, you can hike down the N. Ridge for about 100 ft and enter on some steep snow covered ramps with huge exposure.

    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...-turns-top.jpg
    Getting closer to the rappel. The couloir gradually steepens to about 50 degrees right before the rappel. Get's real narrow and runneled the last 10 feet before the rap.

    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...risten-top.jpg

    The scary part is just the last 10 feet slipping up to the rappel. It's fun (and probably stupid) to try to make turns all the way to the anchors, and not side slip the last 30 feet. If you bail, you are going to tumble over a 60 foot cliff. When you arrive, clip the anchors with a long sling, take your skis off without dropping them, put 'em on your pack, and your outta there.

    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...-at-rappel.jpg

    I usually just bring 120 feet of ultra-light 7mm static line. No reason to haul a full on 60m rope for this route. Fun rap down a steep runnel to a reasonable spot to put your skis back on.
    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...isten-raps.jpg

    The lower couloir is quite steep initially, then it mellows to a consistent 40 degrees or so. In November it is about 8 feet wide in places, but later in the year it fills in to a big, wide fun couloir. This is a November shot, entering the narrows of the lower couloir.
    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...al_narrows.jpg

    The late, great, inspiring Hans Saari skiing the lower couloir.
    https://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...hans-turns.jpg

    The rest of the ski out Maybird is excellent. Get to the road and hitch a ride back to the trailhead. If the snowpack is lean, traverse east as soon as you exit the couloir and boot over the ridge and ski across the drainage back to the White/Red pine trail.

    Or, if your not too exhausted and a sucker for punishment, ski across Maybird to the NW and boot up the Lightning Bolt Couloir to the top of Coalpit and rip 5k of vert down Hogum to the road. This is THE day in the Wasatch.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    Aspen, CO
    Posts
    2,133
    wow.
    "When restraint and courtesy are added to strength, the latter becomes irresistible."
    Mohandas Gandhi

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Posts
    1,107
    Nice stoke posts today...getting me excited for Silverton this weekend.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Before
    Posts
    27,910
    Kook, you have asteroid sized 'nads.

    Props.
    Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
    >>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    159
    Holy cow. Way to get after it.
    Are we part of the solution, or are we part of the pollution? -M.F.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2003
    Location
    Mammoth Lakes
    Posts
    3,638
    Hot damn. Not messin around.

    Makes Central on Cody look like sesame street.
    He who has the most fun wins!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Was UT, AK, now MT
    Posts
    13,499
    Good shot from Pawprince.com of the NW couloir.

    Goes down the obvious sun lit ramp, then the rap in the shadows where it pinches off, then down the shady couloir.
    http://www.pawprince.com/2001smry/pffrhrn.jpg

  8. #8
    Join Date
    May 2002
    Location
    Slut Lake City
    Posts
    7,785

    Thumbs up

    Pfft. The backcountry is for booters.



  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    amidst 5 mountains
    Posts
    3,854
    Whippet? check
    7mm rope? check
    Bowling ball sized nads? uh, can anyone tell me where they rent these?

    oooooooooooohhhhhh yea. Feel the pull of the Pfeifferhorn. Feel it.

    Thanks for the new addition to my tick list Track. Xover, you ready?
    "In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair." -Emerson

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    1,412
    magnificent.. just as tough/scary/stoke inspiring as the tr's from flingle and tom!!
    what's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    My armchair
    Posts
    4,892
    Originally posted by powstash
    Whippet? check
    7mm rope? check
    Bowling ball sized nads? uh, can anyone tell me where they rent these?

    oooooooooooohhhhhh yea. Feel the pull of the Pfeifferhorn. Feel it.

    Thanks for the new addition to my tick list Track. Xover, you ready?
    Been ready!!

    My new BC "Ticklist" (screw the resort ticklist) - no particular order:

    1. Tolcat Couloir - just cause I look at it every day - to Mt. Oly couloir
    2. Day in Upper Silver Fork
    3. Day in Upper Days Fork - taking the Hallway Coulie outta there
    4. Upper Little Willow to Crows Foot outta there
    5. Upper Big Willow to ??
    6. Coalpit Gulch (possible ice climbing) to Coalpit Headwall
    7. Y
    8. Red Baldy and White Baldy
    9. Weekend camping at base of Peiff ticking off lines

    when tire of Wasatch BC

    10. Ruby's
    11. Oquirrhs

    We best get busy Stash

    Oh ya, almost forgot, thanks for fueling my adventurous stoke TH!!
    "... she'll never need a doctor; 'cause I check her out all day"

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Briancon, France
    Posts
    177
    Sweet. That looks like a wicked line. Did you take any pegs incase those rusty old ones had fallen out?

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Was UT, AK, now MT
    Posts
    13,499
    Originally posted by flingle:
    Sweet. That looks like a wicked line. Did you take any pegs incase those rusty old ones had fallen out?
    Usually bring a few and a half set of stoppers. But the rap anchors are super bomber on the route.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Posts
    616
    That's what I'm talkin' 'bout! I've heard this is a mother without snow. Have you bagged it in the summer? (Not that I wouldn't prefer a winter assult, just curious).

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    Melbourne, Australia
    Posts
    6,595

    Thumbs up

    Great line.

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    Sandy UT
    Posts
    3,405
    OMG that made my knees shake....

    shit dude....who are you?

    you guys are SICK
    Points on their own sitting way up high

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Central Valley
    Posts
    3,050

    Thumbs up

    Damn dude.

    You are a sick, sick man.

    Very cool.

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    the tinfoil aisle
    Posts
    1,528
    hell yeah for the wasatch stoke. t minus 15 hours.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    MiZZZZoula
    Posts
    3,145

    Thumbs up

    ummmm....yah.....SICK! SICK BIRD

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Orangina
    Posts
    9,171
    Sorta related:

    Saw a slideshow including Hans Sari last night...that man was one righteous brotha. RIP, Hans.
    "All God does is watch us and kill us when we get boring. We must never, ever be boring."

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Nov 2003
    Location
    Gaia
    Posts
    1,046
    That's pretty damn cool. Damn good ski-climb, congrats

  22. #22
    Join Date
    Nov 2002
    Location
    A Luxurious Ghetto Trapped Between Times
    Posts
    5,430
    Very cool.

    On a related note...What the hell is a "whippet"? I've heard the term in reference to sucking the air out of whip cream cans for a high, but I doubt this is the same thing.

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Ogden
    Posts
    9,103

  24. #24
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Mitten
    Posts
    516
    Originally posted by Xover
    Been ready!!

    My new BC "Ticklist" (screw the resort ticklist) - no particular order:

    1. Tolcat Couloir - just cause I look at it every day - to Mt. Oly couloir
    2. Day in Upper Silver Fork
    3. Day in Upper Days Fork - taking the Hallway Coulie outta there
    4. Upper Little Willow to Crows Foot outta there
    5. Upper Big Willow to ??
    6. Coalpit Gulch (possible ice climbing) to Coalpit Headwall
    7. Y
    8. Red Baldy and White Baldy
    9. Weekend camping at base of Peiff ticking off lines
    I've got a very, very similar list. Hiked up Coalpit in the summer, it was amazing, and pretty scary at times. Can't wait to ski it sometime. And there is just something about Crows Foot that calls me, even though I know I shouldn't.

    If this works, heres a shot of Coalpit in the summer:

    http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...c/fbe93dd4.jpg

    http://www.imagestation.com/picture/...b/fbe93d84.jpg
    French Fries!

  25. #25
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Posts
    1,383
    I skiied coalpit #4 two years ago, don't know if it's the same one, but it was really, really fun. I would be up for doing it again.

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