Related: Grizzly Mountain Skiing: Slush Cup Through Alders

Report from December 14, 2019

During my season in Chamonix, France, I fell in love with couloir (chute) skiing. Rock palisades on both sides, narrow chokes along the way, deep powder and only one way out. Here’s an interesting fact about couloirs: the skier and the snow share the same direction. Down! There’s little to no escape path if you trigger an avalanche. Even mere sluffing (loose snow) can pull the rug under you and send you careening downslope into rocks or cliffs. Needless to say, the stakes are high at all times in avalanche terrain, even more so in couloirs.

After sorting out our mountaineering gear, our adventure began at 8 AM at the Rogers Pass Discovery Center (RPDC for short). Within less than half an hour, we were deep into Teddy Bear Trees on the ridge looker’s left of Grizzly Mountain.

Thankfully, a brave one already had set a clean uptrack wading through the forest, although at a rather steep angle. Nothing a couple of tree belays couldn’t solve. The snow was so light and deep that my powder baskets punched through the surface by at least one meter. That didn’t stop Cedrik from powering up the shoulder. Man’s got a rocket up his ass.

Moments later, the ridge was narrowing. A few more precarious kick-turns got us past the crux into mellower terrain. From there, the ridge morphed into a large alpine bowl with undulating terrain, proof of the crushing burden of extinct glaciers. We stuck to the wind-blown snow on the ridge to minimize our exposure to potential avalanches overhead. At that point, the uptrack had been covered in wind-deposited snow.

The avalanche hazard was at “moderate”, which meant we still had to be very careful about our ascent path. Most accidents happen on the “moderate” hazard rating: people are caught off-guard by the low probability of avalanches. Skiers and riders are still likely to trigger slabs in isolated areas of instability.

As soon as we gained the very top of the ridge, we were blasted by howling winds so strong Cedrik’s nose turned white within minutes. He promptly covered the exposed skin with his trusty buff. Our faces were relentlessly pelted by icy snow crystals carried by the gusts. Frostbite is no joke. The wind chill must have brought the temperature down to easily -20C. The mountains were screaming in anger. Skinning was becoming increasingly difficult on the hard snow. We strapped our skis to our packs and began the long climb up the thinly covered ridge.

In the distance, we could barely make out two skiers climbing ahead. Dense clouds were rolling across the glacial plains, obscuring our visibility. We eventually caught up to them. Since we had similar plans, we joined forces for the final ascent. Thank you, François and Phil, for setting part of the bootpack on our way to Grizzly Couloir. A few words to describe it: post-holing, rock climbing, frozen hands and patience, lots of it.

With frozen fingers and toes, we gained the summit of Grizzly Mountain. Only a short exposed scramble was left between us and the couloir’s entrance. I thought to myself how awesome it is to blend ski touring with mountaineering. Fortunately, the scramble was oriented in a way that sheltered us from the high winds. I felt a relentless pain in my fingers as blood began to surge back into my capillaries. Good! Today was not the day I would become an amputee.

Our luck didn’t run out just yet. The moment we arrived at the entrance of Grizzly Couloir, a plateau sized for barely two skiers side-by-side, the sun pierced the fast-moving clouds, shining the most angelic rays upon the couloir. Looks like we were up for one hell of a run. I discussed with Cedrik the hazards at play. We would avoid the right-sloping wall of the chute where wind slabs would most likely be found after today’s strong SW winds.

François went first, carving a few carefully placed ski-cuts along the way. The stability was all-time. Phil followed once François had exited the narrow lower choke at the bottom of the run. The snow seemed hella appetizing. Cedrik went third as I snapped a few shots that turned out pretty bad. I’ll let my footage tell the story now.

Yew! What a sweet line right from the top of Grizzly Mountain! Deep untracked powder, gnarly chokes, a steep grade, and good snow stability. It’s pretty rare all those elements line up for the perfect descent. The snow was creamy to the extent where leaning back on my skis was pointless. My shovels would effortlessly bulldoze through the very cold smoke. I encountered the exact same outstanding snow conditions over the following two days of my couloir marathon. The universe wanted me to shred those lines.

Photos

Route Info

5-6 h	1450 m	7.5 km	1330-2755 m

The post Grizzly Couloir, Rogers Pass: 3-Day Couloir Marathon appeared first on The Uptrack.

Related: Cheops North Bowl: Great Alpine Skiing Despite Thin Coverage

Report from November 27, 2019

It was a cold November day at Rogers Pass. Our group planned to ski the famous STS Couloir, with Nicci’s Notch as an option if conditions in the chute were unsuitable. A series of good suggestions by Peter and unanimous group decisions led us to ski the Notch instead.

We started our day on skins at 8:30 AM at the Rogers Pass Discovery Center after a long debate on which lines to chase. The initial idea was to ski the Grizzly Couloir, but we decided against it. More than 40 cm of snow had fallen over the last few days over a series of slippery sun crusts and hoar layers. This recent loading, combined with our unfamiliarity with the terrain, discarded our original idea.

We concluded STS couloir, a wide 1000-meter-long chute, might be a great option if and only if the conditions were stable enough. Additionally, ski touring towards the line meant traversing above Nicci’s Notch, a great alternative if things didn’t work out.

On our way up, we succumbed to the freezing alpine temps, high humidity and wind chill. It was frigid. Nothing an abundance of layers and thick gloves couldn’t solve. We headed up the Connaught Drainage carefully, feeling the snow and looking out for signs of recent avalanche activity. In the distance, we soon spotted a fresh crown in the lower half of Grizzly Couloir, which confirmed our earlier suspicions: the alpine snowpack was still rather unstable.

Further up the drainage, we gazed at Nicci’s Notch, a NW-facing chute that fans out into a large alpine slope. To our relief, the untracked snow was definitely tempting us, and the chute looked stable enough from afar, a theory that had to be tested once on site.

A fast, steady climb got us on top of Balu Pass. The howling wind propelled the ridgeline snow through the air with the morning light filtering through the frosty veil. Meanwhile, the sea of peaks emerged as we rounded the pass. We gasped in awe at the stunning scenery beyond our tracks.

We found shelter behind a tight group of evergreens where we scrutinized the ridge to be ascended and rehearsed our day’s plan. We climbed the west ridge of Cheops Mountain, aiming towards Nicci’s Notch. There, Peter and Jay dug a snow pit a little above the entrance of the chute to evaluate the snowpack’s stability. This would provide valuable insight into the conditions in STS couloir. The results were worrying. We found a weak 30cm thick slab, most likely from the recent storm snow as well as wind drift. This meant STS couloir was a definite no-go. However, we judged Nicci’s Notch was still an option.

A few minutes later, we were all bundled up and ready to drop into the line. Jay descended the chute cautiously, feeling the layers under his skis at every turn, followed by Peter, who went all in. He carved wide, bombastic turns from one end of the chute to the other. It was clear this wasn’t his first rodeo.

Inspired by Peter’s fearlessness, I launched off into the chute with my new touring skis, the Scott Cascades. The skis handled the conditions with ease, providing the float I needed to stay atop the deep powder and the stiffness for fast, powerful turns.

Stoked on our perfect run, we finished our day with yet another one. This time, we skied Balu Pass, a moderate descent through terrain we know too well. Having already laid our ideal skin tracks, progress was fast. Like our previous run, we were gifted with a solid 30 cm of light, dry powder from the top of the pass to the bottom of the drainage. We returned to the car at 4 PM with high spirits, ready for another exciting adventure.

Route Info

5-6 h	1015 m	11.6 km	1330-2250m

The post Nicci’s Notch: Deep Pow and Cold Temps appeared first on The Uptrack.