Northwest Couloir Climb

By:  Sam
December 7, 2011


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Allen, making some careful turns on the extremely variable snow up high.

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Notice the glaze on the snow, super sharp edges were quite helpful in places.

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We made a few more turns in the sun before crossing back over to the north side of the mountain.

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At this point it was about 2:30 and the sun is fully down by 4, so we boogied down the White Salmon with the goal of crossing the heinous avi debris in the valley while daylight remained.

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The snow was, in all honesty, quite awful. Two or three pow turns would give way to a turn on hard ice followed by a ballance-shaking turn in thick crust. Exhausting.

As we started to climb out of the valley, alpenglow hit Shuksan.
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and as we transitioned at the car, the last bit of light slipped off of Shuksan. We’d managed to used every minute of daylight on our adventure, and not a minute more.
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Read about the author:   Sam
Enjoy this TR? Read another: TR: A week of VT Powder Skiing

Related Stuff:

  1. TR: Nortwest Couloir Climb
  2. Northwest Trend
  3. Siren Couloir
  4. Put this Dish Back in the Couloir! TOO HOT!

6 Comments

  1. Harvey44
    wrote on December 8th, 2011 at 11:11 am  
    1

    Anxious moments? Beautiful photos.

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  2. Greg
    wrote on December 8th, 2011 at 12:06 pm  
    2

    looks like a fun day out! your description of the snow surface during the ski descent reminds me of some misadventrues on mt. washignton ;)

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  3. I'm a crappy skier
    wrote on December 8th, 2011 at 3:56 pm  
    3

    The last two photos are $. Just beautiful

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  4. icelanticskier
    wrote on December 8th, 2011 at 8:00 pm  
    4

    too firm to ski?! yer boot toes were hidden in it! you guys been out west too long;) getting soft, hehe

    nice report

    rog

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  5. powhounddd
    wrote on December 8th, 2011 at 9:21 pm  
    5

    An exhausting adventure on variable conditions sure beat a day in the office! Great photos. Thank you.

    Q: Is it Nortwest or Northwest couloir tho’?

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  6. enjoyed
    wrote on December 13th, 2011 at 1:53 pm  
    6

    thanks for the report fellas – so different than the east and fun to dream of

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
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