Home > Trip Reports > April 5, 2016, Argonaut Peak NE Couloir

April 5, 2016, Argonaut Peak NE Couloir

4/5/16
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Posted by tsuyoshi on 4/11/16 4:27am
Video here to avoid words!

Brendan, Pat and I tried to take advantage of the good weather this past week by hunting N(ish) facing slopes in the Stuart Range. I've been wanting to ski the NE Couloir on Argonaut for a while so we figured with an early start, it would be a reasonable objective to beat the heat. We found continuous snow on the 8 mile road about 2 miles in but walked on supportable snow until a quarter mile past the Colchuck Lake turnoff. Right now the couloir is guarded by sagging cornices above the left wall. We were able to climb onto the hanging snowfield without the ropes or rock gear we brought but ended up doing a slightly unnecessary 12m rappel to get back through this section on the way down.

The skiing on the hanging snowfield was soft chalky snow but that soon changed after the short rappel. Super funky and variable snow was the theme of the main couloir which forced us into a cautious, deliberate descent. All sorts of good and bad snow were found on the ski down to the valley bottom and out to the car.

More pictures and story here



Nice work for sure.

Sweet! Liked the viddy, too!

Cool  bet that hanging snowfield was a cool ski!

Nice line guys! Way to get it

Nicely done!  This TR almost makes me want to ski again.  Almost.

Walking that road is the deal breaker.  Way to push through!

Glad you guys enjoyed. I think people walk past this line for "bigger" objectives quite often, I know i did for years. Argonaut might be dwarfed by it's neighbors, but I'd have to say the whole package (couloir, hanging snowfield, summit ridge, possibly a mixed step) add up to be one of my favorite lines in the area.

I hear your on the road walking... for me it's been 27 miles of roads in the area in the past 3 weeks. At least it pretty much guarantees no crowds!   


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april-5-2016-argonaut-peak-ne-couloir
tsuyoshi
2016-04-11 11:27:46