Home > Trip Reports > Sherpa peak NW Couloir 1-20-21-15

Sherpa peak NW Couloir 1-20-21-15

1/20/15
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Posted by powhound on 1/26/15 12:01pm
https://vimeo.com/117761397


Scott, Leyland and I decided to head up mountaineers creek on 1-20-15. Leyland had to be back that night, while Scott and I were going to stay overnight and bag a few lines. I picked up Scott and his sled to avoid an extra 4 miles of approach (and exit) and we reached the trailhead around 7:30am. Leyland thought he would be back to his car by dark....Moutaineers creek had other plans....

We made good time up the summer trail until it came time to cross the creek. Then it became evident that the lack of low elevation snow was going to make for a challenging approach. We found our way across the creek after many bridge scoutings, and Leyland used the Stewart Stilt technique, while Scott was utilizing the Cascade Crawl across another bridge simultaneously. When it was my turn, I fell in while throwing Scotts board across to him, but I wasn't too wet so we continued on.

After crossing the creek, we battled fallen trees, slide alder, boulder fields, and about every other challenge that make the Cascades a special place to tour. We reached our camp around 3pm and decided to try and ride Sherpas North West couloir with Leyland that afternnon before dark.

We made it up the apron to the base of the couloir and it got dark. So we rode the apron back to camp, and Leyland began his long journey home. The snow was soft, but had a crust underneath from the rain event, that got deeper as we got higher. Scott and I in the meantime set up a superb camp under a boulder, dried our gear, cooked and got toasty by the fire.

In the morning we awoke and started another fire, cooked breakfast, and had grand plans of riding the NW couloir, (the approach already had a skintrack and boot pack) then coming for an early lunch, and picking off another couloir or two....the mountain had other plans.

It was a little windy overnight and our skintrack was mostly filled in, and it had formed pockets of thin windslab in the couloir. This was made for a long and deep ascent. The couloir is a sustained 45 to 50+ degrees the whole way and at points we were waist deep and climbed above the rain crust. Even with me leading with verts, we didn't top out until 2pm.

We decided to try and summit Sherpa peak, since we were only 400' -from the summit, but neither of us had crampons, and it got a little too icy for comfort in the last 100". So we down climbed and rode the couloir we had come for.

It was a cautious decent with the pockets of windslab, but mostly soft and manageable. The choke was sluffed to the bed surface so it got a little dicey for a minute, but all in all a very fun run.

We broke camp, and started on our exit, following Leylands skintrack from the night before, just to make sure he made it out OK. It was just as bad as our route on the way in....and he was wandering around in circles for a bit. We got to the creek and decided to use Leylands Stewart Stilt technique.

Only one problem, one of Scott's poles had frozen shut, and wouldn't extend all the way. On his way across the log, he punched through the snow, and dropped a pole in the creek! It started to float away, and in his haste to recover it, he fell in head first! We still had around 4 or so miles back to the sled and another 4 miles to the car! He changed into some dry clothes but his boots were full of water.

We made our way down and back to the car by 9pm to fulfill a wonderful Cascadian adventure!
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It actually worked! I'm completely frozen on firefox. Can't post, log out or anything so I tried safari and it worked...

So a little extra data for the snow nerds.

There was a rain crust all the way till around 7000', then it disappeared and found varying pockets of windslab about 4-6" max, and blower pow to waist deep. Down in the valley in the meadows or mashes there was a ton of new surface hoar when we left, and we felt some sudden collapsing on a buried layer of hoar in the same places on the way in.

Nice job snagging a steep line in the Enchantments during this strange bony winter

Awesome Vid! Thanks for following my unbearable skin track out making sure i made it. I'm going to have to rebate it though. Somehow going in and out there in a day for half a run(in terrible light) doesn't seem... complete.

A few photos!

Many a adventure crosses those marshes/meadow viewpoints. A place of past and future memories.

Rad pictures Leyland. We definitely felt bad for you while we were sitting by the fire.

Don't feel too bad though, you were the only one who didn't take a dip in the creek

Awesome video! I'll freely admit I was hoping it ended in an icy plunge, and was not disappointed!

Great video - Scotts head first plunge really was the perfect cap to what looked like an awesome trip!

nice work!  very envious of the snow that you scored up there. 

Fun video Saign, way to have the camera rolling for the log crossing!

What's with promoting illegal fires in the Enchantments?  Are you totally clueless? 

Thanks guys. It was good times, and Scott was able to change base layers and laugh it off.


author=Good2Go link=topic=33496.msg138706#msg138706 date=1422403088]
What's with promoting illegal fires in the Enchantments?  Are you totally clueless?   


Who says we're promoting anything illegal? This is quote from the forest service site


    "Fires are prohibited throughout the vast majority of the Enchantment Permit Area; no fires anywhere above 5,000 feet or within 1/2 mile of any lakes."

We weren't above 5000 or a half mile from a lake.

So who's the totally clueless one? :'(  Go troll on someone else's thread
   

"We made it up the apron to the base of the couloir and it got dark. So we rode the apron back to camp, and Leyland began his long journey home. The snow was soft, but had a crust underneath from the rain event, that got deeper as we got higher. Scott and I in the meantime set up a superb camp under a boulder, dried our gear, cooked and got toasty by the fire.

In the morning we awoke and started another fire, cooked breakfast, and had grand plans of riding the NW couloir, (the approach already had a skintrack and boot pack) then coming for an early lunch, and picking off another couloir or two....the mountain had other plans."

Your own words above suggest a very different story.  Topo shows the apron of that couloir to be above 6k' and the flats at the bottom of that drainage are at 5,500'.  You're saying your camp was down in the lower Mountaineers Creek basin?  And you planned to lap back down to that spot for lunch and hit multiple lines in-a-day?  Something doesn't add up.  Maybe you're just way badder than everybody else I know.  I'll try to leave room in my mind for that possibility.

We had to find an ample supply of firewood from somewhere didn't we? Or are you so rad, you can find it at the base of an alpine apron in a boulder field.

Again, go troll on someone else's thread....

Building a fire in the heart of winter on a weeknight sounds like a wilderness experience to me. Probably a better experience than huddling together near the top of stuart.

I can see making a fire if you're unprepared or if you epic.  But, planning to make a fire up there as your warmth strategy is a terrible example.  I know a lot of climbers and skiers and I've never heard of anybody advocating such a high impact practice.  You guys are truly special.

Fires in the dead of winter under a rock. What's next?!!? Probably going to tell us your granola bars weren't even ORGANIC.

author=Good2Go link=topic=33496.msg138720#msg138720 date=1422413095]
  Maybe you're just way badder than everybody else I know.  I'll try to leave room in my mind for that possibility.


Well, they just adventure skinned through many long miles of poorly covered difficult terrain, braved  numerous creek crossings, then rode a steep aesthetic line in powder conditions - which has not been easy to do this winter.  These dudes seem pretty badass to me!

With how little traffic this area sees mid-winter, I don't see any harm in it. Besides, there is something sacred about huddling around a fire, deep in the woods, in winter.


Awesome! You guys are pretty bad. But the TR was really good.


Great vid.  Great trip.  Great place for a fire.

Awesome you caught the dunk in the water.

It adds to future stories!


Awesome. Really well done edit. Nice line and serious "get". I laughed out loud at your misery in the outro. AND he got his pole!

Bruce

Let's try posting again.  Gentlemen, my  hat is off to you this winter.  You win all the awards.  Thanks for posting.

I had to laugh, the performance was Mr. Bean worthy. I hope by that time you were super close to your car. Great trip, that is a good looking couloir.

Great trip report! I started shivering just watching that pitch in the creek, what an adventure.  As good as the snow looked, not really feeling that tempted to taste it!

ha. More like bumbling dumb asses.
Yeah, it  was a little brisk, but not so bad once the initial shock wore off. I was laughing it off before Saign even crossed the creek. The comedy relief took the edge off the long slog out. 

Super fun trip. Thanks Saign and Leyland!

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