breakable slot

do i see an epic climb? looking up the slot from the top of the avy fan

after stomping up perfect windbuff approaching new york gully, will travis and i headed back to snoqualmie mountain today... this time for some skiing.

crappy skinning up the phantom brought no surprise as well as the cold wind on the upper half of the mountain. we spent a good amount of time looking for the right place to rap into the snot and finally gave up with the temptation deep preserved pow in the slot looming just a few hundred feet above.

travis demonstrating proper skinning technique

the entrance to the slot was firm wind hammered snow which softened up to some pleasant windbuff for the first 200'. but before we knew it the windbuff was replaced by a breakable rain crust over perfect powder. the next 800' were a treat, the lower we got, the worse the breakable crust became!

travis at the top of slot

shred that crust

or the crust Will shred you!

skinning out of thunder creek drainage was more breakable crust and a short boot back to the phantom. the ski out was breakable crust out of the trees and rain-kissed pow in the trees, icy for the lower 400'.

although the skiing was sub-par, any chance to venture out into the alpine is a welcome change from the sound of freeways (i live next to one). and the nw side of snoqualmie mountains is always humbling to stand under and gawk at all the routes i'm "going to climb next week."

new york gully

will entering the box gully

snoqualmie mountain is a special place for us who ski and climb in washington, especailly those from the seattle area. from seattle, only 3 hours of driving and hiking puts you at the top of a steep couloir or at the base of long mixed climbs. it's rare that one can be on such a high quality alpine climb so close to the bar. yesterday will, chris and i climbed new york gully in amazing conditions. the route was iced up, the sun was shining and spirits were high. 

the nw side of snoqualmie from avalanche peak last march

after packing in the parking lot, we left the car at 6:40 with headlamps on and started trudging up the phantom slidepath. an hour and 20 minutes later we were standing at the notch looking down into the thunder creek drainage. another team was ahead of us so we took our time lounging in the morning sun while we geared up. 

climber approaching in bottom center 

early morning sun added a relaxing feel to the start

the other team took the direct start so we went up and right to the original line. sometime shortly after nine we started climbing. i hadn't been on a climb like this for a long time (too much skiing!) and lucky me, i got the first lead block. from the belay i traversed steep snow around a corner to find more steep snow. eventually i found the other team climbing up and let them pass. not wanting to belay at the same spot, i broke the first pitch into two with a terrible belay stance and scary pro. pitch two went much more smoothy with real ice and fun runnels. arriving at the belay, my block was over and i got all the runout (one solid pin and everything else was poop) loose snow traversing. 

look how sweet my first pitch was!

chris and will following the first pitch

from the dead snag belay, we restacked the rope and chris led off up the box gully. 60 meters out he finds a belay and will and i follow up the corner, marveling at the ice plastered everywhere! this was hands down the most fun pitch i've climbed in the alpine. solid steep alpine ice with a few tricky bulges brought will and i up to the belay where chris led out again. 

chris starting up the box gully

box gully action

looking down at will while climbing in the box

near the top of pitch three

this next pitch started with a wall of alpine ice (much steeper than it looked) that led to meandering ice in a groove up to a broad ledge below the short aid section. 

"can you get a picture of my jacket?"

bottom of pitch four... steep thunker ice

thick enough for the 13cm! 

will belaying chris on pitch 4

the chair peak group

myself just below the A2 section

we'll climb that roof tomorrow

with chris's work done, will took the rack and started up the aid corner. a tricky mantle move put him face to face with the corner and within reach of a fixed aider. putting in a cam and hooking the aider, will tried to french free the pitch and ended up falling onto his ice tool umbilical. frustrated but determined, he got back up there using all sorts of tom foolery and continued up the pitch to the ridgecrest. 

will starting up the corner

deaner sending hard

following the corner was a lot of fun, especially the mixed ground above it that was littered with alpine ice, large rock handholds and trees! 

chris climbing the A2 corner

sweet face

from the ridge, will traversed the snow slope and went up to a notch above the slot couloir. one rappel down into the slot and 100' of booting deposited us at the top of the couloir, just a 10 minute hike from the top of the mountain. a quick stop on the summit right at sunset saw us back at the car 12 hours after we started. 

rainier sunset time

rainier with alpental's lights

cumbre! 

beers in the bar at alpental and being pulled over for no running lights put a great end to the day. 

all in all, new york gully is a high quality mixed alpine climb that deserves all the attention it has been getting lately. right now it's in fat ice conditions, go get it! 

bandit peak black hole couloir

glacier peak and clark mountain from deep in the black hole

click here for john scurlock's view of the entire couloir. it runs from between the two highest tiny summits down the obvious line. and here is a better view of the upper half. for a video of the trip click here.

after a "recon" trip last week, jeff and i met travis and carson at the twin lakes trailhead sometime around 1:00 am. a quick sleep in the car saw us skinning toward our destination around 5:00. having the approach dialed put us across all the river and stream crossings before the headlamps were turned off. refrozen snow conditions allowed for quick skinning and before we knew it, we were skinning under the w ridge of bandit peak toward the huge debris pile under the black hole.

early morning avy debris

before heading up the couloir, travis and carson downed a starbucks double shot and off we went. the first 800' of the couloir was booting through avy debris and alpine ice runnels before it turned to the right and became soft piles of sluff. another 800' of wind packed punchy snow brought us to the open snow slope between the two main sections of the two couloirs.

double shot

double shot

endless traverse to the couloir

avy debris for the first 800'

lunch? break

a break at the open snow slope for some food and water revealed our one route finding error. we had booted up the right side of the snow slope where the snow was deep, punchy and a little spooky. jeff punched a bootpack across the slope finding better snow on the other side. now on the left side of the slope, i started booting up toward the upper couloir.

the upper couloir

the view just before we get boxed in by the couloir walls

high east winds the past few days gave me pause as i entered the upper couloir. all the drifted snow from the east side of the mountain falls directly in the narrow slot we plan to ski. but conditions prove to be excellent, shin to thigh deep wind packed powder with no layers and an excellent bond to debris deep in the snowpack.

about 1300' of steep windy snow climbing brought us to the last bend in the couloir where the notch came into view. the last 50' to the top kicked back to just over 55 degrees and before we knew it we were down climbing or side slipping the top 30 feet.

bluebird mega couloir skiing day

i think we were actually in the sun for 5 min on the approach

steep topout

steep sideslip

dropping into the main part of the couloir i found deep wind packed snow turn after turn. sluff would run with each turn but we quickly realized it was benign and were able to link as many turns as we wanted (read as many as we could).

travis resting after linking as many turns as his body could handle

jeff slaying the upper couloir

travis's turn 

carson draggin the hand...

a few turns before the binding incident 

after about 500' travis and jeff skied through to the open snow slope while i waited for carson. as carson was skiing down to me he took a turn and almost fell over coming to a stop. "shit, i broke my binding!" as carson side slipped down to me thought deep snow with one ski i could tell he wasn't joking. the back half of his tele binding had snapped off (as in the metal broke) and was dangling by a mangled cable.

fatty broke his binding

quickly we realized we were over 3000' up the couloir and about seven and a half miles away from the car with a broken binding. getting out of the couloir would be easy, but 7 miles of flat skinning would be another story. it looked like carson was going to be booting and that we'd all be getting home a little later than planned.

travis and i skied out of the couloir and began to take inventory of what we could use to make a broken binding skinnable. before we knew it jeff came ripping out of the couloir with carson's broken ski on his back. a few minutes after that carson popped out of the chute sliding on his shovel. i pretty sure he got the first shovel descent of the black hole couloir.

travis just above the lower section of the couloir

breakable windcrust looks better than it skis

breakable bindings look better than they ski too

with little daylight to spare we put carson's left ski on his right foot so he could traverse as far down the valley as possible. a mile of traversing later, headlamps were on and more traversing ensued. eventually the traverse ended and the only option was skinning. we remounted the back half of carson's binding with two screws, two zip ties and a ski strap.

somehow, it worked

long story short, the binding worked for the 6 miles back to the car and we only had to stop to tighten it once. the river crossing went smoothly again and before we knew it we had skis on our shoulders and were walking on pavement back to the car.

over 16 miles, 6500' of vert, just over 16 hours and one broken ski binding. add to that skiing (or shoveling) a big line way back in there... good times.