Nevermind that though... the rest of the story: Jason and I took about 7 hours to reach the summit, moving slowly so as to let the snow soften. There was a strong wind starting at the Colfax/Baker col.
At the summit plateau, Jason's stoke was very high, so we began the descent right away w/o waiting for the snow to soften any further. It could have been softer, but that might have been worse in the spots where there was an icy base.
Anyway, the headwall was a really fun, serious route. Long pitches of steep continuous turns. Great atmosphere. Probably an audience down at the flats below the glacier. I don't think you could ask for better conditions... the face was minimally crevassed and the snow surface was smooth. We took the "easy" start, down the ridge (the direct start looked icy, and w/o having climbed it first, was not worth the risk). After traversing in, the rest of the route was very direct, taking the skier's right of the rock protrusion at the bottom center of the face.
Somehow, we managed to find a good line across the lower Coleman and back to the cowpath (after I took over route-finding).
6 comments:
Stop being such a tease, Phil, and tell us what the Coleman HW was all about. How'd it go?
It went great doughboy (Paul?). Except for the bobbles at the bottom for both of us. We skied the top third of Ben's first line, and the last two thirds of his second line. There was an icy base under the snow in some spots, so it was fairly spicy.
Ja, that's me.
Sounds awesome; good job. MORE PICS!
COOL but a picture like that and a mention of bobbles without more? Tease.
Faq! I need to stop mountain biking and get back on my skis...
Well done, looks like a fun line! Wish I was there (Thanks for the invite btw). Bad travel karma got in the way. Stuck at FSD airport until Sat morning. Rib Fest was in full swing while I was in town! Maybe next weekend?
Post a Comment