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Thread: The Fifty One?
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02-01-2019, 05:11 PM #1Registered User
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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.
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02-01-2019, 05:25 PM #2
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.
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02-01-2019, 05:27 PM #3
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.
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02-01-2019, 05:31 PM #4Registered User
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02-01-2019, 05:53 PM #5
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02-01-2019, 06:19 PM #6
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02-01-2019, 07:59 PM #7
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02-01-2019, 08:12 PM #8
One of the volcanos in MX
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02-01-2019, 10:04 PM #9
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
god created man. winchester and baseball bats made them equal - evel kenievel
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02-01-2019, 10:21 PM #10Registered User
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02-01-2019, 10:32 PM #11
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:
HM; The north face of Swiss Peak looks suitably epic, but I haven't skied it, so I'll let someone else chime in.
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02-02-2019, 01:23 AM #12
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)
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02-02-2019, 01:32 AM #13
Red Slate Couloir
powdork.com - new and improved, with 20% more dork.
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02-02-2019, 01:59 AM #14
San Joaquin couloir near Telluride seems pretty classic:
(Using sky_shoe’s picture here, ref: Mowich Face 1st descent)
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02-02-2019, 02:24 AM #15
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02-02-2019, 09:10 AM #16
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02-02-2019, 09:18 AM #17
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02-02-2019, 10:44 AM #18
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.
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02-02-2019, 11:31 AM #19
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02-02-2019, 11:55 AM #20
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 opI am not in your hurry
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02-02-2019, 04:49 PM #21
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02-02-2019, 04:56 PM #22
I’ll tell ya what I think in three years or so...
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02-02-2019, 05:06 PM #23Registered User
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02-04-2019, 10:59 AM #24Registered User
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02-06-2019, 05:18 PM #25
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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