Fools Gold Couloir
Apr 27, 2008
I’m not sure of the name of this line, so I ‘m calling it Fool’s Gold until I find out otherwise. I eyed the couloir my first year in Washington, and wasn’t sure whether it skied all the way through. Over the last four or five winters, it seemed like it rarely filled in enough to warrant a ski (without a rappel that is) and it is impossible to fully see it from a single vantage point. This winter I have scoped it out from a number of different angles and was confident it was skiable.
The usual suspects weren’t around on Sunday, so I made the call to head up there solo and see what conditions permitted. Avi danger looked like it might be bad once the sun came out, so I was moving at 6:30am, trying to beat the heat. With heavy cloud cover, I encountered a mix of crust and mush, but things seemed relatively stable, considering the amount of unconsolidated snow. I made it to the top and decided to enter the the couloir, as it was not very steep and had a number of trees. A couple of hundred feet in, the pitch steepened and the couloir had cleaned itself out from the previous day, with some leftover sludge along the sides. I carefully picked my way down, feeling good about the avi danger, but still nervous that I might run into a cliff or unskiable section.
The bottom section was the steepest, although not nearly as steep as I thought it was going to be, and I was relieved to see the couloir connect to the large snow field below. Upon exiting, I skied through the slush on an open field and triggered a number of very small, slow moving wet slides.
The usual suspects weren’t around on Sunday, so I made the call to head up there solo and see what conditions permitted. Avi danger looked like it might be bad once the sun came out, so I was moving at 6:30am, trying to beat the heat. With heavy cloud cover, I encountered a mix of crust and mush, but things seemed relatively stable, considering the amount of unconsolidated snow. I made it to the top and decided to enter the the couloir, as it was not very steep and had a number of trees. A couple of hundred feet in, the pitch steepened and the couloir had cleaned itself out from the previous day, with some leftover sludge along the sides. I carefully picked my way down, feeling good about the avi danger, but still nervous that I might run into a cliff or unskiable section.
The bottom section was the steepest, although not nearly as steep as I thought it was going to be, and I was relieved to see the couloir connect to the large snow field below. Upon exiting, I skied through the slush on an open field and triggered a number of very small, slow moving wet slides.