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972 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 10:32 AM
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Here is a link to my video of this trip: https://vimeo.com/41844089
I never thought I would be skiing this couloir this year, but i improved my skiing enough to think that I should give it a shot.
We headed off from mosquito creek and first encountered a small river. I ran across with my boots on and managed to get them nice and wet inside to start my day off right.
We then skinned almost straight up to the couloir.
I was looking forward to getting inside it, so I could get a feel for the actual angle. I knew it was supposed to be a 55-50 degree drop in at the top and 45-40 degree the rest of the way, but I couldn’t remember what 55-40 felt like and I was hoping I would feel comfortable skiing the whole thing.
I also had an eye on the slopes above us on our right hand side. They were heating up in the morning sun and I knew that we would have some sluffs or small avalanches coming into the gully we were climbing up….it was time to hurry.
As we entered the couloir,we heard a loud boom,crash,bang,and a small avalanche came off the cliffs to our right. Luckily this gully to our right was catching most of the stuff before it reached us and filtered it out away from us.
Higher up when the angle started to steepen, I hear my partner ahead yell ’Avalanche!” and I looked up, hoping that it was not too big. It ended up just being a big sluff and we pushed our body into the slope and let it run right over us, completely plastering us with snow outside and inside our clothing.
We continued up and came to the big rock which some people cower behind to stay out of the way of the cornice that sits above you. We climbed a bit higher than this,but the snow didn’t look as good and it was a bit narrower, so we down climbed to back under the rock.
On went our skis and away we went!!
The snow in the gully was powdery with spots of slight hard pack from the constant sluffs coming down,I did better than I thought I would and soon we were back at the car.
What a great day!!
Next up The North Face of Andromeda!!!
 Bow Peak  looking over to dolomite peak and cirque    entering the couloir   neat pinnacle    |
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Calgary
165 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 3:42 PM
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Neat pics and video.
Which day was this? Sunday the 6th? We were in Mosquito park lot but went across the highway and did Quartzite peak and when we came back we could see ski tracks below the couloir. |
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972 Posts |
Posted - 05/09/2012 : 8:10 PM
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it was the same day you were there. i recognized you from your trip report photos.
we were just pulling up as you guys were leaving the truck. |
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877 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2012 : 11:35 AM
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| Sweet couloir, perfect width. Looks like a great ski. |
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High River, (just south of Calgary eh!), Alberta
Canada
1702 Posts |
Posted - 05/10/2012 : 12:35 PM
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| Ah spring! Looks like fun. |
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Grand Daddy Couloir.....Bow Peak
