June 22, 2011, Bryant Couloir, Solstice night ski

Participated in my first "Freezing Man" last night to celebrate the Solstice at Source Lake.  The evening was complete with fire, booze to share, beautiful star filled skies, a few new friends, and sleeping out on a cold cold night; thanks Eve, Dave and others for allowing us to join your party.  Oh yeah and the celebration finished with a skin and ski of Bryant Couloir in the middle of the night.

Four of us started skinning directly up the Couloir from Source Lake about 2:00am.  A few sections of boot packing were required in the steeper narrow gullies, but mostly we skinned and made about 60 zig zags.  The 4-5" of new snow is super dry, but strangely very well bonded to the crust, which is still breakable, but hard enough for decent boot packing.

The ascent took longer than I care to admit, but climbing Bryant in the dark on the Solstice was pretty special.  We lucked out on snow and weather conditions, and snow conditions remain VERY stable.

Descent (my 2nd on Bryant) was epic - about 1400 feet of steep couloir skiing.  My favorite is the sound light powder makes when it swishes down the hill with each turn.  Pictures in the dark were a challenge, but maybe Bryan can post one of the Freezing Man!  Until next year!