TR: N East Face, Elevator Shaft, Saddle Chute, Banana Chute, Mt. Fissile –Feb 2, 2013

[Neuro]

Note: AngryBeard had some rough luck on Sunday with a pre-release while skiing in bounds leading to a broken ski. Definitely sucks, but it does mean he can justify buying a new setup! If anyone wanted to jump over to the thread he started in Tech Talk, he’d appreciate some advice: Link

Mt. Fissile is an easy lift assisted daytrip from the back of Flute. Hummus had never skied any Fissile lines, and Splitz’s busy schedule had kept him from touring with us much this year. Hummus, AngryBeard, CrazyHorse, Splitz and I figured an intense day was in order to make up for lost time…

The original goal for the day was to grab 3 laps (the North East Face (1), Elevator Shaft (2) and Psycho Chute(not shown)). Dying light for lap 3 meant that we opted for more familiar lines for lap 3, with AngryBeard and Hummus grabbing Saddle Chute (3a) while Splitz and I grabbed Banana Chute (3b). The TR might feel like it meanders, but the narrative is slightly dictated by the photos I could get, and we were moving fast, so my camera wasn’t always out…


1: North East Face
2: Elevator Shaft
3a: Saddle Chute
3b: Banana Chute


We wasted no time heading out to Fissile, and were on the summit for lap 1 before noon. CrazyHorse was having some boot issues and decided that no fall lines weren’t on the menu, so he down climbed and skied Banana Chute, then exited via the resort.

The rest of us dropped into the North East Face. This line demands respect, with exposure to an ~100m cliff if you were to fall on the upper section. Good stability and skill are required to pull this one off.

As AngryBeard had skied this line before, he dropped in first. Snow condition was a mix of windslab and pockets of light wind deposited snow. Pretty good conditions for getting grip on this sort of line, and the windslab was holding together pretty well. I stopped at some rocks part way down to grab some photos.

Splitz


Definitely some views below you on this line.


Hummus dropping in.






As the guys devastated the regular line, I skied a chute to skiers right (the rightmost branch of the markup at the start of the TR). It skied quite well with about 10 cm of wind deposited light snow. Pretty sweet.

After skiing the line, we cut high above the cliffs to reduce the amount of climbing we’d need to do for lap #2.

AngryBeard, Splitz and Hummus with the sun low on the Horizon, working their way around to the back of Fissile


The bootpack up the back of Fissile.


Booting along the ridge.


The summit of Fissile with the entrance to Saddle Chute in the foreground. Last year there was enough snow to climb the rocks, but at the moment the climb is a bit spicier.




Elevator Shaft (line #2) is the line on lookers left just below the summit.


I’ve also seen this line called wrap around Chute, so I’m not quite sure what the naming convention is… Apparently this line can be accessed at certain times just by wrapping around the top of the NE face, then dropping in, however with current conditions, we did a short bootpack to get into it (the dashed line in the markup). Surprisingly enough, another skier going solo dropped into NE as we were climbing, and joined us for the line.

Hummus dropped in first and skied the left branch of the line. I dropped in, and stopped at the branch to grab some photos.

Splitz dropping in.


Splitz took the skiers left line at the branch.


AngryBeard








Lap 3 was a bit of a sufferfest as we’d already done close to 2000m of climbing by this point. The original plan was to ski Psycho chute (pictured below).



We did a modified version of the bootpack on the back of fissile that had us hitting the ridge at the top of Banana Chute. We poked around looking for the entrance to Psycho, but decided that with only 20 minutes of light remaining we’d hit some more familiar, easy to find terrain. Splitz and I dropped into Banana Chute, while AngryBeard and Hummus hit Saddle Chute.

The sunset just after I finished skiing Banana Chute



A fast and easy ski out Singing Pass trail by headlamp had us back in the village shortly after 7pm. Elevation gain for AngryBeard and Hummus was just under 2600m, with Splitz and I about 150m behind as Banana is a bit lower down. Not bad for a day of touring…

[AngryBeard]

Yeah buddy, sweet day! Thanks for posting another awesome TR.

On a not overly unrelated note I destroyed a ski on Sunday so I've got a problem to fix - if anyone wants to weight in on a solution please do so here: http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ior-Husume-XTC

I'm leaning towards 181 Prior Husume XTC's with Radical Z12s...

Edit: I skimmed across Neuro's TR and missed that he already linked this for me

[D(C)]

That's a big day! You guys are animals.

[Ottime]

That looks like a fun peak to be out playing around on.

[LeeLau]

Good old fashioned death march well executed. Warms the heart. Psycho entry is just below Banana btw

[Harry Caray]

Damn, that's what I call a day! Thanks for stopping and taking some pictures. Nice TR!

[whitewoodchuck]

Wicked pisser pics and skiing, thanks for the TR!

WWC

[JimLad]

Elevator entrance does look rocky. I've only done it late season and it was possible to ski straight to it. More snow before summit chute is filled too.

Psycho is well worth skiing. Steeper than it looks!

[Slaag Master]

looks like a great mountain and lines!!! sweet pow!!!!

[Shadam]

and just how many calories does one burn on a mission like that ???

epic shit boyz !!!

[point it]

Killin it this year Neuro.... thanks for the TR's

[adimmen]

hell of a day

[_Aaron_]

Killin it this year Neuro.

This. Keep it coming.

[t.odd]

crushing it! nice work guys!

[Clownshoe]

Wow. Big day on one of my favorite peaks.

Love it!!

[AngryBeard]

Good old fashioned death march well executed. Warms the heart. Psycho entry is just below Banana btw

We down climbed the ridge until we were standing at the top of an obvious couloir that felt right but looked wrong. From the bottom it looked clean but from the top it looked super boney. There are those tiny chutes between psycho and banana and we thought we might be at the top of them... low on light we figured that it wasn't the time for route finding. Looking at google earth it does appear that the narrowest portion is the very top, after it rolls over so we were probably were looking at it and it's just that the top isn't as clean as it looks from the bottom.

[goldenboy]

big day on a great mountain, thanks for posting

[LeeLau]

We down climbed the ridge until we were standing at the top of an obvious couloir that felt right but looked wrong. From the bottom it looked clean but from the top it looked super boney. There are those tiny chutes between psycho and banana and we thought we might be at the top of them... low on light we figured that it wasn't the time for route finding. Looking at google earth it does appear that the narrowest portion is the very top, after it rolls over so we were probably were looking at it and it's just that the top isn't as clean as it looks from the bottom.

yah that sounds right. The rock is decomposing sedimentary so there's sharp little flakes all over the place. You have to down climb a bit off the ridge which is windblown and a mess (maybe 10m down or so then you can stomp out a platform to put skis back on). The first few turns are such a base grind but its a blast of a line. Short but so much fun

[gramboh]

Wow, great work guys. I wonder what my body would think about 2600m vert right now.

[strawjack]

giddee up!

[spankthepow]

Damn, i've missed some good TRs recently!

[nortonwhis]

quick question, why did you guys decide to boot the shoulder on the way to Elevator shaft and not the NE face? or did you go that way both times? Do you think this would be faster than heading out and around between whirlwind and fissile?

also back to the top incase people missed this...

[Neuro]

quick question, why did you guys decide to boot the shoulder on the way to Elevator shaft and not the NE face? or did you go that way both times? Do you think this would be faster than heading out and around between whirlwind and fissile?

also back to the top incase people missed this...

We booted up the shoulder for both the NE and the Elevator shaft run. I'm pretty sure the boot pack up the back of the mountain is faster than going around to Fissile-Whirlwind Col, though I've never actually gone to the summit that way, so I could be mistaken. I'd probably consider the Fissile-Whirlwind col. approach if I was going to Fissile like a Missile, but in general if coming from the Russet lake side, I think booting up the back of the mountain is faster.