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Thread: The Fifty One?

  1. #1
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    The Fifty One?

    List books are always controversial, and everybody has an opinion on where the authors missed the mark. In the Alka thread, lots of folks were questioning why certain lines made the cut. Personally, I think the Silver is a blast and super classic - albeit probably not top 5 in CO...

    So, this thread is a chance to come up with the 51st through 60th classics, and/or bitch about ones that should have been scratched.

    I'd add for consideration (only contributing for places I've lived):
    1) The Dragons Tail in RMNP. Strikingly visible from the most popular TH in one of the nation's most popular national parks. Outstanding skiing and aesthetics. CO's front range deserves a classic, and no routes match DT for that criteria (that said, it isnt my favorite couloir in RMNP, just the most classic)

    2) I think Long's, as CO's most famous mountain (arguably) deserves a shout out. It's hard to give Cables classic status for 800' of skiing, but it's a damn fine 800'. Position is incredible. You get to ski a historical climbing route with a 5th class crux. Classic.

    3) Liberty Ridge on Rainier. I haven't skied the Finger, but from a pure aesthetics standpoint, I wouldn't have given that top 5 on Rainier, let alone all of WA. The finger looks like somebody stuck a 2k' Colorado couloir in the middle of Rainier. I thought Lib Ridge was the finest quality ski descent I've seen or skied in the lower 48. Plainly visible from the Puget Sound metro. Long, continuous, exposed. Deserves to be in both 50 classics books.

    I'd love to hear what folks would add to WY, CA, MT, BC and AB. I thought the Mendenhall in CA was damn cool and historic. I'm not well traveled in CA, so I'm sure there are many others more deserving than that.

  2. #2
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    Dragons Tail is an extremely cool line, and obviously belongs in there since I have skied it

    Here in UT, the NE Couloir on Lone Peak has got to be up there.

  3. #3
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    Best line in the Northeast isn't in the book:



    17 miles approach and a couple ice bulges mean it is rarely skied top to bottom. Over 2000 vert.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds! View Post
    Best line in the Northeast isn't in the book:



    17 miles approach and a couple ice bulges mean it is rarely skied top to bottom. Over 2000 vert.
    I would not have guessed that was the NE. Looks great!

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds! View Post
    Best line in the Northeast isn't in the book:



    17 miles approach and a couple ice bulges mean it is rarely skied top to bottom. Over 2000 vert.
    Katahdin?

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by total_immortal View Post
    Katahdin?
    Yeah. Wasn't trying to be secretive. Chimney Couloir.

    Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

  7. #7
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    Snow Creek on San Jacinto.
    Mendenhall
    Mountaineers Route
    SW Chutes on Adams

    Some that come to mind.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ernest_Hemingway View Post
    I realize there is not much hope for a bullfighting forum. I understand that most of you would prefer to discuss the ingredients of jacket fabrics than the ingredients of a brave man. I know nothing of the former. But the latter is made of courage, and skill, and grace in the presence of the possibility of death. If someone could make a jacket of those three things it would no doubt be the most popular and prized item in all of your closets.

  8. #8
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    One of the volcanos in MX

  9. #9
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    liberty ridge isn't the line on rainier. it usually looks like shit by the time corn season rolls around. mowich face is where its at if you have the balls. fortunately i don't. props to long time lurker and part time poster for the first descent. cmf on the picture. good linky for rainier routes. http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history...t-rainier.html

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    god created man. winchester and baseball bats made them equal - evel kenievel

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zeedashbo View Post
    liberty ridge isn't the line on rainier. it usually looks like shit by the time corn season rolls around. mowich face is where its at if you have the balls. fortunately i don't. props to long time lurker and part time poster for the first descent. cmf on the picture. good linky for rainier routes. http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history...t-rainier.html

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    I think CMF is super striking. Definitely on my list of lines that look more classic than Finger. To me, LR is still more aesthetic. Fickle conditions arent necessarily disqualifying for the right line.

  11. #11
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    You could probably add 10 lines in Rogers Pass alone. These are probably the three I'd add. These aren't the biggest or gnarliest lines in the Pass, but they're all classsics:
    1. Forever Young couloir. It's long, steep and incredibly aesthetic. The tour to get there via the Illecillewaet is stunning.
    2. The Lily Traverse. Skin up one glacier-filled valley and cross into another one, finishing with a 5,000-foot alpine descent.
    3. 8812 Bowl. It's nothing special but it is a great tour and a really nice bowl to ski on a sunny day early season.

    Bonus: Mount Green, because:
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    HM; The north face of Swiss Peak looks suitably epic, but I haven't skied it, so I'll let someone else chime in.

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by AlexC View Post
    You could probably add 10 lines in Rogers Pass alone. These are probably the three I'd add. These aren't the biggest or gnarliest lines in the Pass, but they're all classsics:
    1. Forever Young couloir. It's long, steep and incredibly aesthetic. The tour to get there via the Illecillewaet is stunning.
    2. The Lily Traverse. Skin up one glacier-filled valley and cross into another one, finishing with a 5,000-foot alpine descent.
    3. 8812 Bowl. It's nothing special but it is a great tour and a really nice bowl to ski on a sunny day early season.

    Bonus: Mount Green, because:
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    HM; The north face of Swiss Peak looks suitably epic, but I haven't skied it, so I'll let someone else chime in.
    N face of Swiss is very steep at the top. I measured it at 52 deg but it quickly dropped off steepness wise. The exit really does kind of get a bit long and you end up messing around on logging rd exits so I'm not sure if it qualifies just because if the trudge? I dunno...there's so much in the Pass or the Monashees side or the Golden side I'd rate along it I'm hard pressed to pick it - which is what you alluded.

    I'd actually pick the Swiss Peak couloir then the Swiss Glacier then the Lone Pine exit as more classic than Swiss N just because you're speaking about big aesthetic tours


    In the SW coast

    - NE Fissile
    - SW Atwell
    - Super Couloir in the Spires
    - Sun God N face
    - FASP E face
    - Phillistine NE face
    - Whitecap N face ( never done it so relying on 2nd hand gushing)

  13. #13
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    Red Slate Couloir
    powdork.com - new and improved, with 20% more dork.

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    San Joaquin couloir near Telluride seems pretty classic:


    (Using sky_shoe’s picture here, ref: Mowich Face 1st descent)

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    Quote Originally Posted by powdork View Post
    Red Slate Couloir
    Was totally thinking it was in there. Forgot it wasn't (and what was in the back of my mind was the memory from when I got the book that it wasn't). Should've walked the 20 feet to check before posting.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ernest_Hemingway View Post
    I realize there is not much hope for a bullfighting forum. I understand that most of you would prefer to discuss the ingredients of jacket fabrics than the ingredients of a brave man. I know nothing of the former. But the latter is made of courage, and skill, and grace in the presence of the possibility of death. If someone could make a jacket of those three things it would no doubt be the most popular and prized item in all of your closets.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by powdork View Post
    Red Slate Couloir
    Good call.

    For the Telluride area, Heaven's Elevens.

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper View Post
    San Joaquin couloir near Telluride seems pretty classic:


    (Using sky_shoe’s picture here, ref: Mowich Face 1st descent)
    Such a sick, aesthetic line. Same with Shit For Brains above ABasin.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by The SnowShow View Post
    Such a sick, aesthetic line. Same with Shit For Brains above ABasin.
    SFB is a nice, aesthetic line for sure, but I wouldn't put it as a classic. I skied it once and I'm not in a great hurry to do it again. It's more like a roadside attraction.

    Silver couloir, for summit county comparison, I've done multiple times and it's classic from the hike up to the 3k' ski down.

  19. #19
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    Whitetail?

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  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper View Post
    San Joaquin couloir near Telluride seems pretty classic:


    (Using sky_shoe’s picture here, ref: Mowich Face 1st descent)
    coulee visually stands taller than it's 40% - in person and picture. Very inviting aesthetic

    Tribute location too
    Andy Sawyer
    https://www.skimag.com/uncategorized...nd-immortality

    nice thread op
    ​I am not in your hurry

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by trogdortheburninator View Post
    I think CMF is super striking. Definitely on my list of lines that look more classic than Finger. To me, LR is still more aesthetic. Fickle conditions arent necessarily disqualifying for the right line.

    i understand what your saying via information gathered from pictures. that's cool.
    god created man. winchester and baseball bats made them equal - evel kenievel

  22. #22
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    I’ll tell ya what I think in three years or so...

  23. #23
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    Quote Originally Posted by Whiteroom_Guardian View Post
    Whitetail?

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    Whitetail is pretty awesome. Need to get back and ski it(and like 4 other things castle etc) in non spring conditions.

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by Zeedashbo View Post
    i understand what your saying via information gathered from pictures. that's cool.
    I'm sure you'll have some great feedback. Good luck! Hopefully you get to ski plenty of other stuff in the locales you visit.

  25. #25
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    Re: Liberty Ridge. When Chris Landry finished the first descent in 1980, he told a local newspaper "It's a classic. Definitely the finest descent I've ever done." Considering that would include what's now known as the Landry line on Pyramid the previous year and a number of other high quality descents included in the 50 book, seems like Liberty may have been worth the nod.

    Source: Wildsnow (the book)

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