April 21-22, 2011, N Face Fortress/SW Face Chiwawa
4/21/11
10864
10
Scott and I approached Trinity with the use of snowmobile Thursday morning to take advantage of the good weather that was forecasted for Friday to ski Fortress and Chiwawa. We reached Trinity and headed up the Chiwawa drainage towards Massie Ridge following my skin track from the week before. Brian and I attempted this trip last week but were shut down due to bad weather and no visibility, at least a good recon mission.
Reaching the basin at about 5K the weather was worse than the week before high winds and poor visibility (does the sun ever shine up here??). After setting up camp and we decided to go for a short ski and climbed up about 1.5K, the ski down was great and we were excited for the next day.
Waking up the next morning the stars were out and the winds were calm, heading out at 6am. Triggering a slide on the SE Face of Fortress while climbing that propagated about 300' we decided we didn't want to take the risk of trying to summit as we still needed to cross another large slope of same aspect before gaining the ridge towards the summit. We traversed the slide path till it ended and then booted up the to the ridge which put us on top of the right side of the N Face, which was the most protected aspect from the morning sun.
The skiing was great, with stable wind packed powder. The first 1K was pretty steep then mellowed out for the next 1K before exiting to the right above the cliffs at the bottom. The ski down to the lake had great wind protected powder.
After climbing up to the col at 7K we had enough time and energy to try and summit Chiwawa and ski the SW Face. The climb up was fun with a mix of skinning and booting while hugging the ridge line. The ski down was great with spring like conditions all the way to camp.
The ski out to Trinity is much easier heading out only requiring skins for about 20 minutes. The sled ride out on the other hand is not so easy with over 20+ miles to the truck and half the road in rough shape, but well worth it for sure!
Photo of the N Face of Fortress taken John Scurlock.
http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/57355093
Reaching the basin at about 5K the weather was worse than the week before high winds and poor visibility (does the sun ever shine up here??). After setting up camp and we decided to go for a short ski and climbed up about 1.5K, the ski down was great and we were excited for the next day.
Waking up the next morning the stars were out and the winds were calm, heading out at 6am. Triggering a slide on the SE Face of Fortress while climbing that propagated about 300' we decided we didn't want to take the risk of trying to summit as we still needed to cross another large slope of same aspect before gaining the ridge towards the summit. We traversed the slide path till it ended and then booted up the to the ridge which put us on top of the right side of the N Face, which was the most protected aspect from the morning sun.
The skiing was great, with stable wind packed powder. The first 1K was pretty steep then mellowed out for the next 1K before exiting to the right above the cliffs at the bottom. The ski down to the lake had great wind protected powder.
After climbing up to the col at 7K we had enough time and energy to try and summit Chiwawa and ski the SW Face. The climb up was fun with a mix of skinning and booting while hugging the ridge line. The ski down was great with spring like conditions all the way to camp.
The ski out to Trinity is much easier heading out only requiring skins for about 20 minutes. The sled ride out on the other hand is not so easy with over 20+ miles to the truck and half the road in rough shape, but well worth it for sure!
Photo of the N Face of Fortress taken John Scurlock.
http://www.pbase.com/nolock/image/57355093
Great work guys SUCH a epic area!!!
Another drool worthy line for sure.
Another drool worthy line for sure.
Hell yeah! Remote, committing, inspiring! Congratulations you guys!
That second picture is spectacular. Nice trip boys
Wow, nice work guys.
author=ryanl link=topic=20627.msg87913#msg87913 date=1303673482]
That second picture is spectacular. Nice trip boys
x2
awesome .. spectacular scenery too ... great photos!
Wow!!! that looks soooo good! nice work!
sweet!
I like how in the third photo you can look back to see where you were in the first one, a sweeping revolution of a view. But where's the descent tracks?! I wanna see...
I like how in the third photo you can look back to see where you were in the first one, a sweeping revolution of a view. But where's the descent tracks?! I wanna see...
author=cumulus link=topic=20627.msg88044#msg88044 date=1303839651]
sweet!
I like how in the third photo you can look back to see where you were in the first one, a sweeping revolution of a view. But where's the descent tracks?! I wanna see...
Thanks! We had a great time out there. Here are a couple of photos, one you can make out our tracks from the bottom of the run. Scott may have some better photos he can add...
Sorry so slow, I have been a bit disposed the past several days...
It was a great time, and I was very fortunate to be invited along by Eric. Very memorable experiance that won't be forgotten. Sadly, I am a crap photog and mostly have pics of the sky, and some actions shots of Erics ski tips in the corner of the pics. Everything good is very simular to what has already been posted.
It was a great time, and I was very fortunate to be invited along by Eric. Very memorable experiance that won't be forgotten. Sadly, I am a crap photog and mostly have pics of the sky, and some actions shots of Erics ski tips in the corner of the pics. Everything good is very simular to what has already been posted.
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