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April 18 Columbia Pk, Montecristo

4/15/10
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Posted by eduardo blanchard on 4/26/10 3:16pm
Thought it was time to go beyond reading and contribute a little...

Skied the main couloir on the NW face of Columbia peak a week ago on Sunday in the Montecristo area.
I'd been wanting to investigate this area for a bit, and in pictures in Beckey's guide and John Scurlock it looked like it had a nice couloir coming off the summit. Unfortunately, this is now above a rock band, it seems 76 glacier has thinned considerably, so we ended up skiing the more open couloir to its north.

Parked at the gate on Barlow Pass, we had bikes hoping there wouldn't be much snow but we dumped them just pass the river crossing. Mostly continuous but not deep snow on the road to Montecristo so it's probably rideable by now. Went up the eastside of 76 creek towards the head of the valley and eventually turned eastwards towards the 76 glacier. Apart from a short crappy section where we postholed up steep hollow tree ridden snow, skinned all the way to the foot of the NW face. There, short moderately steep climb up the main couloir to the ridge line. Snow was pretty awful (saturated glop) but the terrain was really fun, in a remote place with a not-so-bad access... really fun day out.
Welcome and wow!  Awesome pics!  Please, sir, can I have some more?

Nice!  Keep it coming.  Love the shot with the bike/log/ski crossing.

Cool. Thanks for the report. Sounds like you stopped at the ridge and didn't make the summit?

Yes, it is an awesome area. way to get in there!




Nice work!  Looks like I should've skipped the hw for Greg's class and gone with you...

Nice work. I've been drooling over that picture all winter too. Unfortunately I had a mishap that will keep me from skiing this spring. Guess it will have to wait till next year.
From what you saw of the NW coulior, how steep would you say it is? I assume snowmobiles would not help much with the approach, given the creek crossing. Is that correct?


Nice work Eduardo. Also, decent turns in the Blackcomb backcountry last weekend!

Damn - we skinned right under that Couloir a few yrs back, but were opting for a different route.  Now in hindsight, wish I would've skied that.  Looks sick.  I'll have to go back.

Yep we stopped at the top of the couloir on the ridge... No way to make the summit with no climbing gear

Here's what it looked like.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_QTpLSI1hTj8/S9t0O6KoSTI/AAAAAAAAATM/4aqLB7smFcs/s1600/_MG_0017_edit_small.jpg

Here's also a picture of our original plan, the coulie that comes off the main summit. I think it would have been possible to negotiate the rock barrier on the ski down, but i'd want some gear to climb it
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_QTpLSI1hTj8/S9t2iHsgzOI/AAAAAAAAATk/Lcc5umSFImg/s1600/_MG_0014_edit_small.jpg

Way cool,  excellent pictures! :D

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april-18-columbia-pk-montecristo
eduardo blanchard
2010-04-26 22:16:48