Ongoing TR: Neverending winter

[UPGRAYEDD_2505]

Great thread, keep posting.

[angrysasquatch]

So a bit late, yeah. I meant to get back to Observation Peak a few days after this first ski because I saw way better stuff to hit, but the weather went to shit and I molded a couch to my ass and forgot about it.

Observation false summit is the big one in the middle. I think the small bump to the left is true summit, or out that way anyways. The basic plan for the day was to go up and over the backside at about the small peak on the right, down a nice looking couloir, then a nice skinnable (!!!) gently slope back up to the col between the main and right peak. Then gain the false summit and check out a possible long ass couloir that (might) run between true and false summit to the frontside.




False summit. I had anticipated an easy skin along the ridge to gain it. That chute does look sweet though...




From the same place, the nice skinnable slope to col. Yayyy




Cirque Peak and glacier. Want....




I missed the drainage I meant to go down, went too far right and unknowingly crossed a dying glacier alone. Whups. No sense getting worked up, keep moving. About here I realized my mistake and decided to go down anyways. I had some Google Earth stills saved on my phone and it looked more or less good.




Then it turned not so good. I am by no means a climber, but I was able to scurry around and get down the damn waterfall. It made a nice freezing mist for extra sketch snow conditions.




I knew that the couloir I meant to do and the one I ended up doing went away from each other, but I was hoping I would find snow on the scree slopes to get back skiers left to the skin up. Not so much. Where it goes back at the center of the picture is where it let out, it was a brutal bootwrecker of a walk. (2.5 km, 200m extra)




The one I meant to ski




...with nice snow on scree all the way to the skin up (just to the right of the picture). My planning is great, execution not so much




And back up and out




Ran out of juice really bad coming up the col so between my energy levels and the steep chute baking in the sun I'd have to bootpack to reach the long couloir I nixed it. Good corn turns on the way out but I guess I just couldn't be bothered to pull the camera out.

[angrysasquatch]

I came up with an objective a little while ago, to ski all the 2700m peaks in the east part of the Dogtooth Range (everything E and N of Canyon Creek and Grizzly Creek). I have done Holt Peak, Zombie Peak and now Eos Peak. Four left.

Eos Peak has a massive couloir coming down to Gorman Lake (I almost want to call it a cirque, that's how farkin big it is). I've been up to Gorman lake a few times now, fall and spring so unfortunately there isn't much exploration fuck-ups this time. Nice thing is that you can drive up to 1800m, then take a hiking trail to the lake. Tiny bit of scree walking blazing your own trail, and you're at a long lived snow patch. Looking back at the lake:




And up at the couloir




Nice shady couloir. Zombie peak is the snowy one across the lake. It looks skiable but the main chute has melted disproportionately, it's on an angle. You'd have to be really good and really ballsy to get a left turn in on the choke.




After I got to the top of the couloir, I donned my shoes and walked the remaining 100m on scree to summit.
Purty. Holt Peak in the foreground (still skiable!) and the International group int the background.




Artsy fartsy shot. Summit cairn in foreground, then Lang creek spines which look juicy in winter (next winter maybe?). I've been driving myself nuts trying to figure out what the big'un in the background is. Either Arras or Bryce I think




I was chucking rocks off a pinnacle near here, 3s to impact when dropped, 4s when hucked. Then I got scared and moved somewhere else to take pics. Gorman Creek.




Ski time! 475m of continuous descent in July. Wicked! No helmet, gloves, goggles, jacket, or snowpants. A first on all counts. Sure makes hauling skis and boots on your back a lot nicer when you can leave all that shit at home

[angrysasquatch]

I have been racking my brain and putting some serious load on the Google Earth servers for the past few weeks trying to figure out where I would ski for August. My first thought was using the high passes in Alberta for access to a 3000ish m couloir. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized they were all ice couloirs, and quite possibly bare ice in places. And in a couloir there is no space to maneuver and get around a shitty spot. I had it narrowed down to a few options, one 120km away with only GE sat images for beta. One in the Dogtooth range visible from town with a sketchy sounding logging road access and then interesting hike up valley then up steep scree Then one an ice couloir with just a little bit of current beta but would need to book a place on the bus a week in advance, so could be a hot day, a rainy day, not a good situation. I struggled between those three shitty options for a while, when I found the money spot and promptly threw them away.

Light rain was forecasted for the afternoon, so I wanted to get up and out of there before it came. Not a cloud in the sky on the way in:




What I want is on the left

Burned my way up the creek in the valley, then up some steep bushwhacking and finally I emerged in the rolling moraines below. This rock formation looks like the foundation of a house. It's natural, but it still did give me the creeps a bit. The pile of shale in the middle of the "house" was unnerving, I saw no other shale the entire day.




Halfway up the line, time for boots skins and ski cramps




Close to the top, looking south toward the Twin Towers and beyond the Malachite spire of the International group




And north toward the Dogtooth range. Thought the rock failure was pretty neat, the rock that sheets off looks like blackened coals at first glance.




Time for turns






Unfortunately I couldn't air the rock to the second patch so I grudgingly booted down




I was shown just brief glimpses to the west of the Selkirk gnar.




And back to the car for 60km of logging roads

[KansasBoarder]

Holy shit dude! What a ridiculous set of lines and adventures! Thanks for taking the time to share them with us.

[cat in january]

Mmmmmmmmmmmm so good with my Sunday morning Coffee. I really enjoyed my week last year in Golden and Rogers Pass. Most excellent Stoke!!!! Many thanks

[angrysasquatch]

Not sure what to classify the last few months, but we're definitely back to winter so I guess this is it for a while.