"Backcountry | 5 am wake up. Hiking by 6:37 am. 11ºF when I started climbing. My goal was a rocky chute at the headwall of the drainage. As I approached the headwall, I noticed the line that I'd skied 3 days before. The snow was terrific in that zone. NE-facing, just subalpine, and wind-protected. Conditions ReportMy eye traced the ridgeline, looking for other fun lines with fresh snow. I found a line I liked and decided to save it for later."
"I ascended a ramp to the mini-chute that led to the hanging snowfield. Here I switched to booting and struggled in deep, facted, rotten snow, often bottoming out on the granite slabs beneath. The slabs had no holds whatsoever, so trying to get a grip on them with my rock-hard ski boots was comical. I slipped and struggled and swore and floundered up."
"I was really hoping that just above the mini-chute, I could switch back to skiing and not have to boot up the entire face. The slope looked just low enough angle to skin and with relief, I switched back to skis and skins. I was racing the clock now. The face was drenched in sunlight, but it wouldn't last. I knew that the sun would begin exiting the hanging snowfield around 11 am."
A pre-dawn start led to hiking by 6:37 am in 11°F toward a rocky chute at the drainage headwall. A previously skied NE-facing, subalpine, wind-protected zone offered terrific snow. The chosen line, named "Hanging Snowfield," required navigating two cliffbands with a single skiable path through the middle band. The approach involved ascending a ramp, booting through deep, facted rotten snow that bottomed out on bare granite slabs, then slipping and struggling until skins could be reapplied. The ascent became a race against sunlight, with steep skinning winding around cliff bands to reach the ridgeline.
Read at SnowBrains
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