2/6/12, Black Hole Couloir, Bandit Peak
2/6/12
11330
17
After a failed overnight attempt a few days prior due to ghosts haunting the Napeequah valley, we returned (last) Monday for a day trip. Left Tall Timbers at 5 am and cruised through the now-familiar creek and debris pile crossings to the base of the couloir in about 4.5 hours. It's a beautiful valley so it wasn't too sad to have to go back. The mountains are big and remote and there is wildlife everywhere.
Fortified with caffeine and sugar we started up the chute. About 800 feet up you get a straight-on view of the next 2500' or so and it is mind-blowing. Two big hallways separated by an open slope about halfway up. It reminded me of pictures I've seen of Baffin Island. Booting went fairly quickly and we reached the top in 3.5 hours. The top is quite steep and made for some exciting first turns of the day. The first 2k' was good powder and the second 2k' was wind chunk and debris.
One of our group tragically broke a binding about 500' into the descent and had to mono-ski and shovel-ride the remaining 3500'. Luckily, we were able to repair it enough to ski out the 6.5 mostly flat miles to the car.
A ton of fun. Crossed one off the list but added several more in the process. How others have done this in deep snow conditions without continually wetting their pants, I cannot understand.
2
video hijinks click 720p
Fortified with caffeine and sugar we started up the chute. About 800 feet up you get a straight-on view of the next 2500' or so and it is mind-blowing. Two big hallways separated by an open slope about halfway up. It reminded me of pictures I've seen of Baffin Island. Booting went fairly quickly and we reached the top in 3.5 hours. The top is quite steep and made for some exciting first turns of the day. The first 2k' was good powder and the second 2k' was wind chunk and debris.
One of our group tragically broke a binding about 500' into the descent and had to mono-ski and shovel-ride the remaining 3500'. Luckily, we were able to repair it enough to ski out the 6.5 mostly flat miles to the car.
A ton of fun. Crossed one off the list but added several more in the process. How others have done this in deep snow conditions without continually wetting their pants, I cannot understand.
2
video hijinks click 720p
Fantastic! Love it...
What kind of binding broke?
What kind of binding broke?
BD 01 tele binding...likely due to movement in the tele inserts in the ski. Probably not the binding's fault.
Sweet! That's getting to be a Cascade classic!
Doesn't look as filled in as in previous TRs. Any problems with choke points or thin coverage?
Doesn't look as filled in as in previous TRs. Any problems with choke points or thin coverage?
no coverage problems really. the approach went pretty smoothly and the narrowest choke in the couloir was near the top and was about ten feet wide. the rest was plenty wide
Awesome!!!
Nice job guys!
Thanks for the bootpack, we rode it on Tuesday the 7th. I think we were the 3rd party that week.
Impressive to shovel-ski that last couloir! Yikes.
Our crux for the trip was figuring out which tracks to follow to the couloir, as they seemed to go all over the valley...
Beautiful zone, amazing line, can't wait to do it again.
Thanks for the bootpack, we rode it on Tuesday the 7th. I think we were the 3rd party that week.
Impressive to shovel-ski that last couloir! Yikes.
Our crux for the trip was figuring out which tracks to follow to the couloir, as they seemed to go all over the valley...
Beautiful zone, amazing line, can't wait to do it again.
uh oh! bring on the crowds!
Nice work gorp and crew, and sol!
Funny, I was wondering how that would have road this weekend.
Thanks for the report!
Funny, I was wondering how that would have road this weekend.
Thanks for the report!
I like the last 3 minutes of your movie - suffer fest
Just watched the video... nice work making that binding remotely "skiable".
I like the *headshake*... "telemarkers"...
I like the *headshake*... "telemarkers"...
Marcus, I suppose that slight should be updated to:
"Tsk,tsk, 75mm telemark norm-ers."
(It's a telemark joke. Don't even try to understand.) 8)
"Tsk,tsk, 75mm telemark norm-ers."
(It's a telemark joke. Don't even try to understand.) 8)
I don't understand telemark... jokes. ;-)
Adversity does build character so I'm told. Great job guys!
Strong work and nice video!
Some of those confusing tracks were ours from Saturday - we skied those closer couloirs on Crook Mtn.
Any advice on the best way through the Tall Timbers/private development (behind TT) complex? The Twin Lakes trail seems out of the way. We went up the private road immediately before (downstream) the bridge just before the TT lot and through the housing development but that means the river needs to forded at least one more time. Did you just go through Tall Timbers and kept the river on your right? Thanks
Some of those confusing tracks were ours from Saturday - we skied those closer couloirs on Crook Mtn.
Any advice on the best way through the Tall Timbers/private development (behind TT) complex? The Twin Lakes trail seems out of the way. We went up the private road immediately before (downstream) the bridge just before the TT lot and through the housing development but that means the river needs to forded at least one more time. Did you just go through Tall Timbers and kept the river on your right? Thanks
we took the same route on the private road through the private development. that seems like the most viable option. gotta cross the river at some point, regardless...
VERY COOL...WHERE IS THAT LOCATED?..ISOLATED IN OREGON
For broken tele binders like that, you can also just tape or lash the boot directly to the top of the ski for a makeshift alpine binding. You can actually ski on it. My ski buddy did ~3000ft of vert like so. Just had to unweight the ski that had the straps running underneath it in the icier stuff.
Reply to this TR
Please login first: