March 25, 2012, Cannon Mountain Couloir

My buddy Dylan and I skied the Cannon Mnt Couloir on Sunday.  Our plan was to go up on Saturday to ski it, camp at 8-mile TH, and then explore up around the Sherpa Glacier Sunday.  We were slowed Sat with a low snowpack below 4000, difficulty crossing Mountaineer's Creek, icy snow in the morning that turned quickly to schmoo around noon, and then a sliced open finger.  We decided to cut Saturday short and regroup for Sunday.  After 7 stitches and a couple beers at the Munchen Haus in the sun, our moods were better and we headed back up to camp.
Sunday we awoke to bluebird skies and left camp at 8:30am.  We crossed the two bridges at 8-mile TH and then pushed up the hill-side to the abandoned road.  We followed this past a major gulley to about 4000ft and just headed up.  Skinning was great, the weather was nice, and around 2pm we were at the top of the couloir at 7800ft.  Not a track to be seen and we were stoked to have a go!!  First few turns were slow as we assessed stability, but everything felt good.  Dylan made his way down passed me and we both gained confidence that things were solid.  So we were leap-frogging down awesome snow in an beautiful setting!!  At 5600ft, the snow turned to sticky crap and we persevered back down to camp by 4:30 and some cold PBRs.  Great day out!