Exploring new lines! I've been admiring this terrain since last year when I first visited this area. Thinking (hoping!) the snow could be good in here I decided to give it a go last week.
The far left line avalanches regularly and has a steep, exposed entrance. The next run to the right seemed pretty tight with trees, but the third run looked like a good choice, so I cooked up a plan.
I had two options for reaching the ridge above the chute. One I knew worked, but involved a long traverse before intersecting the ridge. The other was to try to just follow the ridge from the bottom, but it was unclear how difficult that would be. I chose the traverse.
Not easy! The forest was dense and the snow was faceted with plenty of hollows around trees and bushes.
Once I finally reached the ridge the going got a little easier.
It took me nearly two and a half hours to gain 1500', but I at last found myself at the top of the chute.
The upper third held decent snow, but fairly tight trees. The middle third was steep with the middle of the chute holding breakable crust which was avoidable skiers left - until the choke which proved interesting! The bottom third was open and held fun, soft, faceted snow (photo).
For my next tour I wanted to see how the "direct" route up the ridge went, plus I had somehow dropped my hat and was eager to retrieve it, so I skinned in on the traverse - a bit easier, but still laborious, eventually finding my hat, and reaching the top of the chute again.
This time I descended the ridge which proved to be a good route. No steeps and the trees were not too dense. No photos!
For tour #3 of the week I decided to head up the direct route on the ridge and explore my descent options westward.
Light to moderate snow greeted me at the TH, putting down an inch or two of fresh.
More strenuous skinning, but the scenery was nice.
A little higher the trees were slightly rimed. Really pretty.
Views of the South Fork opened up high on the ridge.
From distance I had previously noticed a narrow gully cutting through the forest close to where I was on the ridge, so I traversed in to check it out. Holy Moly! Glad I did!
What an amazing feature!
At first I was skiing on a few inches of new snow over supportable wind board. Fun, if not fantastic skiing, but that quickly changed to all powder about here.
Big smiles! The gully just kept going on and on. The exit was fun and easy too. Best day of the season so far!
