Couloir in the Clouds

This past easter weekend, the usual crew of myself, neil, zach, pouch and the addition of Forrest Shearer set out on a tour to hit some little cottonwood classics. We started off with a hike up the usual beaten down sheep trail known as the flagstaff skinner. After some ridge line traversing, we made it to the entrance of our first line of the day known as the "hallway". The hallway is a pretty gnarly couloir that dumps out into "the Tube", a 2000 vertical avalanche path down to the valley floor.

contemplating the exposure of the entrance to The Hallway. photo:pouch

dropping into "the Tube"

After skiing the Hallway/Tube, we traversed down the valley to the next objective of the day, The Benson and Hedges couloir. This is a classic couloir, aesthetic in every way. When we arrived at the base, the chute was enshrouded in thick, milky fog. No worries though. There is only one way to the top, so we started booting right up the center. 1300 vertical, 40+ degree pitch, massive granite walls, and deep snow added to the pucker factor which was already slightly high!

Zach and myself getting ready to bootpack up that chute into the abyss.

Siebert surrounded by granite

Here's Zach, trying not to fathom the idea of an avalanche.

Here, Forrest Shearer makes good use of the couloir we just climbed up, only to climb it again!

Big thanks to forrest for showing us the way! The central wasatch is an epic place to ride mountains and this trip really made me realize how much more I have to explore. On another similar note, another round of winter is slated to impact utah for the rest of the week. The weather station folks are predicting 40inches or more in the mountains. The endless winter continues!