Blog Posts for February, 2009

After the huge success of my trip into the Tetons with NOLS in January (check out my last post,) I was super inspired to get up into the higher peaks at the core of the range.  Unfortunately, my next foray wasn’t quite as successful–after leaving the house at 2am, my buddy Jake and I turned back from the East Face of the Middle Teton within 250′ of the summit.  Totally frustrating (especially as this was my third attempt at the East Face) but with deteriorating weather and the trickiest part of the climb right in our faces, we had to call it a day.

As it was, we got some amazing 55-degree turns on chalky powder for ~1200′ down to the glacier below.  And fat powder down the glacier and out Garnet Canyon.

So that was the setup when we decided to tackle the Apocalypse Couloir on Prospector’s Mountain a few days later.  Having just been denied the summit of the Middle, we probably had some extra “human factor” preying on us when we set out across Phelps Lake with the Apocalypse in view.  I like to think that I’m pretty good at staying objective in my decision-making in the mountains.  Perhaps not super conservative, but thoughtful.

In any case, the trip into the base of the couloir took longer than expected–goofy route-finding and unclear directions from a different parking lot than where I’ve started in the past.

We ran into a couple of moose right where we wanted to cross the creek in Death Canyon–cool wildlife encounter, but it definitely took us a bit of time to skirt around them.  After leaving my approach skis tucked under a rock below the couloir, we began the long bootpack that would ultimately place us in the cave at the apex of the couloir.  Nice powder varied from ankles to knee-deep climbing into the couloir proper, and then firmed up as we approached the ice in the narrows.

The Apocalypse is an hourglass-shaped couloir with a ~40′ section of mixed snow and ice in the narrows, requiring mild climbing technique to continue moving up, and a rappel or downclimb for the return trip.  Above the narrows, as the upper funnel opens up, the couloir takes a hard left and continues for another 1000′ to the cave at the top and steep rock continuing to the summit of Prospector’s.  My understanding is that Stephen Koch and Mark Newcomb named it the Apocalypse when they made the first descent because of the unreal amount of ice hanging over the lower half of the route, presenting the very real possibility of being crushed under icefall if things warm up.  Little bits and chunks of ice rain down as you climb; it’s quite a relief to climb past the narrows and into the more standard couloir-skiing hazards of moving snow and rockfall.

We chose a cold day with light snowfall in the hopes that low temps would keep the ice in place.  In that assessment we were correct; nothing much was moving up there, just wispy little spindrifts pouring off the rocks above and blowing apart in the light breeze.  The trailbreaking in the upper couloir was great–firm and fast–with the exception of three pockets of ridiculously deep powder.

As in belly-button-deep.  Brutal, and it should have been a clear sign that conditions weren’t as safe as we’d thought.  My instinct was telling me that something wasn’t right, but we were working so hard to get to the top and we had just turned back from the Middle and all we wanted was to finish this thing, so we kept going.

We took some time in the cave at the top to eat and drink, replenishing ourselves after the 6-hour push to get there.  Then Jake took a couple of pictures and set up to shoot me making the first few turns down our line.

On my tenth turn, I pulled out the first slab.  It pushed me around a bit, but I rode off of it and yelled up for Jake to ski the bed surface down to me.  It turned out those deep pockets were slabs waiting for the right shear force to cause them to fail.  On my sixth turn of the next pitch I pulled out another, deeper slab.  Probably about 40cm deep, it was moving with some serious force and it took me a while to get off the side of it.  I don’t often experience real fear when I’m out, but as the slab carried me downhill and piled up on my shoulders I was scared.  All I could do was try to carry momentum to the side and toss myself into the rock wall bordering the couloir.  Ultimately, I got out of it and watched the debris speed by as it slid down and around the corner.  At that moment, I wanted more than anything to be safe at home with my wife and our dog.

After Jake skied down to me again, we discussed what to do from there, how to manage the last pocket, and then made cautious turns down to the main fork of the couloir.  The last pocket was totally wiped clean by the slab I had just knocked loose, so we actually had pleasant, firm 50-degree turns down to the narrows and then more powder below the downclimb.

It was a pensive, sobering trip out of the mountains.  I hate the feeling that I had so lost perspective of the stability up there, and lost control of my own safety.  We were driven to make it go, had the blinders on, and easily brushed aside obvious changes in the snow conditions.  As Jake put it, it was a cheap lesson: pay attention when things change, keep the drive and ambition and commitment out of my decision-making.  It would have been catastrophic to be carried the full length of the couloir.  Today I got by with a healthy serving of humble pie.

TELLURIDE FREERIDE WORLD TOUR QUALIFIER

The energy begins to build days before the event. Skiers with backpacks and fat skis begin to examine terrain, and lines that rarely ever have tracks in them become highways. By Friday morning around 140 skiers have converged on the prospect ridge for a final inspection of the rocky rib and surrounding terrain. Tents are set up, judges are in place, and the Freeskiing World Tour Qualifier in Telluride is underway.

DAY 1:
With snow in the forecast and a run order selected at random, one can only hope to get a window of visibility during a run that is sure to last less than a minute.  Running 84th in a long list of great skiers there is a lot on the line for this one run. Only 40% of the field will advance to the next day’s venue and this year, event officials have big plans for the finals.

Variable conditions including rotten snow and cheese grader rocks plague the venue. Line selection is key. Choosing a line within ones ability that stands out enough to impress the judges is the name of the game. As the day goes on, the lines become increasingly skied out. By the time I get to drop in for my run, I have changed my flight plan several times, but the crux of my run remains the same. Fortunately no one has put tracks on the small, shallow patch of snow that my run depends on.

Standing on top of the venue, I struggle to visualize my run several times amidst the distraction of the huge lines and couloirs staring down from Palmyra peak and Silver Mountain. It seems surreal when the starter gives the countdown, and my Wagner skis find the fall line.  Any thoughts give way to focus and I’m skiing on autopilot. Recognizing a few key landmarks I soon find myself on top of a rocky outcropping that hardly looks skiable. Believing in my skis and line I have chosen, I commit to the fall line and within seconds ski into the finish, welcomed by the cheers from hardy spectators. I can only hope it was enough to qualify me for the finals which are set to take place off the summit of Palmyra peak the next day.

DAY 2:
Waking up to clear skies, it dawns on me that we are getting the weather window we need to be flown with Helitracks to the top of Palmyra peak. Loading chair 4 at 7:30am, the surrounding peaks are glowing with rich morning light that reflects the glowing vibe in all the competitors. Hard to believe event officials and Helitracks will be able to fly 15 female and 35 male competitors along with all the staff to the peak of Palmyra, but as we near the top of lift 4 the unmistakable sound of the heli fills the air, seems we’re going for it!

Arriving with several other competitors to the LZ on top of prospect ridge the heli has already made several trips to the peak. Organizers helped assemble groups by weight, secure skis and poles with duct tape and send waves of groups toward the helicopter. The closer our group gets to the LZ the harder the wind seems to gust. With incredible precision the pilot places the skids within inches of our kneeling group. In seconds we are loaded and airborne toward the peak. Gaining altitude we all seem to recognize when the wind is pushing the chopper around. Approaching the summit we hovered for a few seconds just feet above the snow before the pilot decided the conditions were not ideal to touch down.  The incredible sensation of thrust, power, and gravity, takeover as we peal down the west face of Palmyra with incredible speed. Seems we were only inches from the snow when we pulled off the summit for a second time. This time we pattern around the east face of the peak getting a close look at the spires of Palmyra. As we approach the summit for a third time it feels like the winds had subsided a little. Only seconds passed before we were crawling on the summit of Palmyra shielding our faces from the rotor wash created by the heli as it took to the skies again.

We would be the last group of skiers to be flown to the top because of the high winds. Fortunately the remaining competitors decided the hour long, steep hike would be worth keeping the competition on Palmyra. From the summit we all made our way down the shoulder of the peak to scope lines, it didn’t seem long before the athletes who had to hike began arriving on ridge. With more camaraderie than competitiveness athletes discussed line choice and snow conditions and before long the first female competitors began navigating their way down the hard pack snow on the north face of Palmyra peak.

Without an inspection run it seemed many competitors didn’t know what to expect. After watching only a few runs it was apparent that technical controlled skiing would prove beneficial.

Michael Gardner was the third male skier to drop in, at age 17 and a member of the Telluride Big Mountain Team he laid down a run that would set a precedent for the remaining field of competitors. Pacing up and down the ridge finalizing my line, trying to stay warm, I remained entertained by watching competitors and spectators find their way to the finish area. By the time I was standing in the start zone, the light had gone flat and there were more ski patrol and event staff than competitors standing on the top. Visualizing all the components of my run one more time, I soon found myself making my first real turns of the day.

Excited to finally be skiing I worked my way through a technical section into a short one-ski strait line, over a small air, then over to one last air near the finish. Though relatively mellow it was a line I have wanted to ski for some time.  Not convinced that my run would be enough to put me in the top five, friends, spectators, and judges seemed to think otherwise. Next stop on the Freeskiing World Tour takes place in Crested Butte, Colorado.

I just spent 10 days in the Tetons teaching an instructor training seminar for NOLS, doing some really amazing riding while training a new generation of backcountry snowboarding instructors. With all the time we spent skinning and riding, my trainees were pretty impressed at the performance of my Wagner Custom approach skis, and how easy my transitions were compared to their splitboards. 50cm of new snow graced us over the first few days, and after seeing the start to our season’s snowpack it was really nice to see stability improve around here, opening up the big lines that were too dangerous before. On our last tour day I went down the far north ridge of Treasure Mountain with five of our riders to explore an avalanche path up there.

We made our way along the heavily corniced ridgeline under overcast skies, cutting one HUGE cornice to test the slope below–no reaction under hundreds of pounds of impact made us feel pretty good about the situation. Test pits near the starting zone of our intended path confirmed good stability, so we punched the gut in fast powder, riding one-at-a-time from safe zone to safe zone. (Practicing good down-guiding technique.) Big rooster tails ripping through little trees in steep terrain had everybody grinning and whooping, and the turns just kept coming. We finally reached the bench at the “bottom” of our run when I realized that we were standing at the top of a shot that I had been eyeing for a couple of years from the skateski track below. It was pure luck that we ended up right on top of it, with perfect conditions and a group of strong riders. Awesome.

The Boy Scout Couloir is so named because it is the only clean line through the 400′ limestone cliff above the Treasure Mountain boy scout camp. Steep, narrow, and perfectly plumb, the couloir is a deep and beautiful cleft through towering rock walls. Ultimately, the reason that I hadn’t ridden it before was because of the long access and the difficulty of finding it from above. But with us camped on the summit of Treasure Mountain, we were perfectly set up for a descent and didn’t even know it. It would mean a long skin back to camp, but what better way to wrap up this trip?

After describing the couloir to my tour group they jumped at the chance to ride it, so I took over the down-guiding and we rode up to the lip to scout the entrance. We found a little sneak above some rocks to access a dozen 50-degree turns into the meat of the couloir–beautiful. Once everybody was grouped up inside the couloir, I rode firm, fun powder to a good spotting zone just above the rock portal at the exit and gave the team the thumbs-up to ride it out one-at-a-time. They made fast, controlled turns, leaving cold crystal rooster tails, opening it up once they hit the fan at the exit. Once they were safely through and into the forest below, I aired off my perch and rode out to join them. Big smiles, lots of high-fives and general giddyness ensued.

We rode down through a bit more forested terrain to the bottom of the canyon and transitioned for the skin back up. After 8 days of winter camping, everybody was a bit fatigued and really hungry, but super stoked to finish the trip with a line like that. The 5-hour skin back up (splitboard skins can be a nightmare) took a circuitous route up Eddington Canyon and past the Eddington Chutes. (We had ridden those a couple of days earlier.) We watched the sun set over the Big Holes just as we climbed a bootpack through the rock band at the top of the Treasure Mountain massif, the sky turning lava red. Dusk fell into dark as we rolled back into camp, spent but happy, ready for a huge dinner feed and looking forward to going home to family and friends.

Skinning out of the mountains with our camp in the sled behind me, I became acutely aware of the caliber of the backcountry snowboarding program that we’ve created at NOLS. If you’re a snowboarder and you want to take your riding to the next level in the backcountry, I would definitely consider taking a course–you’d be amazed at the experience.

Wagner Custom Factory Team Rider, Chason Russell, took third place at the 2009 Subaru Telluride Freeskiing World Tour Qualifier. Some of the best freeskiers in the world faced hardpack and boney conditions at the Telluride event. I was relieved that no one was seriously injured given the challenging nature of the course and snowpack.

The competitors and audience were stoked to see the finals take place on Telluride’s 13,300″ Palmyra Peak. Mark Welgos of Aspen impressively won the event with Arne Backstrom of Squaw Valley taking second place. Chason’s protege, 17 year old Michael Gardner of Ridgway Colorado, finished in fifth place. Claudia Bouvier of Vail won the women’s event. Results and more information regarding the event can be found here.

Placing third in the competition earns Russell a spot in all 2009 Freeskiing World Tour events, as well as the honor of recognition as one of the top freeskiers on the big mountain circuit.

Congratulations Chason!

The next Freeskiing World Tour event takes place in Crested Butte February 19-22. For more information, check out www.FreeSkiingWorldTour.com.

For more info on Chason’s skiing, check out his summer of 2008 trip report from Lanin Volcano in Argentia