yesterday:
for basom, a huge 2000´+ fresh rockstar line down entre rios: the picture earlier is me dropping the cornice. snow was thigh-deep fluff to the bottom. most brutal bootpack i´ve ever done but so worth it.
then we found a curiously neglected snowfield in exocet and lapped it a couple times. anything south facing is still cold smoke.
finally we took down hourglass couloir. 3000´, 40-50 degrees, giant rock walls, runs nearly all the way down to the creek. snow was blower on some aspects, chalk on others, and icy in the second crux - anything with north exposure is getting melt-freezed. an intense ride
today:
sickness down the chutes in the bowl at the far side of cerro martin. top is 55 degrees +. deep blower all the way down. squirrel did a sweet jump entrance to rock ollie. i dropped the cornice and almost washed myself with my own sluff. chuck hit an unexpected icy patch, jumped a rock band, and straightlined the whole thing.
so good we hiked it again. top of banana, around the corner to the chutes on the face. more untouched blower. snow is still perfect.
closed out the day by getting reminded of our own mortality. missed the turnoff to vegas and ended up in a very narrow 1600´ coulour where a snowboarder had scraped the crux down to 30´of icy rockfall. squirrel leads the sketchiest downclimb ever, in view of a steadily accumulating crowd on the piste below. we are both gripped hard but finally make it and get the skis back on. then a little 8-10´drop at the exit into chocolate chips, squirrel ejects and nearly tomahawks a boulder. i acid drop it and we ski out. we are both shaking.
careful of that "last run", friends.
if there were photographers and videographers there we could have made a movie by now. three days of pure bluebird and fluff. but who wants to interrupt their line to set up for action shots?
tonight all the weekend warriors arrive. there will be debauchery at ufo and elsewhere late into the night. saturday we sleep in.
life is good.
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