March 18, 2018, Clara Adventure skiing
3/18/18
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
2625
5
On Saturday, Jamie and I were admiring what we call "Clara Couloir". We were talking about whether we could see a crown in it. For some reason we both moved our eyes left and started talking about the gully one east of Clara Couloir.
Skiing in Clara on Saturday:
Our plan:
"We should rappel into that and ski it some time"
"Yeah, we should"
"How tall do you think the cliff is?"
"50 feet?"
"Lets do it tomorrow"
"Lets bring two ropes. Just in case"
That's how easy the discussion was, and the execution was just about as smooth. We came back on Sunday morning with two ropes. We rigged one and threw it, but it just barely touched the snow at the bottom of the rocks. We weren't sure we could ski from that high, so we pulled the one, and rigged a two rope rappel and had plenty of extra for ease of mind. By the magic of math, we figured that the actual rock portion of the rappel was 81 feet. We sure mis-estimated it! You'll notice from the pics that we both helmetted up for this adventure. It was a great thrill!
Two ropes are better than one!
Looking back up. A steep entry!
Jamie getting first tracks out the bottom!
We skied out just as we planned between some isolated spires and the main cliffs:
And then we had the most fantastic powder run on terrain not often (or ever) touched by skiers:
On our top secret Clara area map, we decided to call this "Marion Couloir", Clara's big sister. If you have 1minute 12, here is a short video of the fun: youtubeVid
Skiing in Clara on Saturday:
Our plan:
"We should rappel into that and ski it some time"
"Yeah, we should"
"How tall do you think the cliff is?"
"50 feet?"
"Lets do it tomorrow"
"Lets bring two ropes. Just in case"
That's how easy the discussion was, and the execution was just about as smooth. We came back on Sunday morning with two ropes. We rigged one and threw it, but it just barely touched the snow at the bottom of the rocks. We weren't sure we could ski from that high, so we pulled the one, and rigged a two rope rappel and had plenty of extra for ease of mind. By the magic of math, we figured that the actual rock portion of the rappel was 81 feet. We sure mis-estimated it! You'll notice from the pics that we both helmetted up for this adventure. It was a great thrill!
Two ropes are better than one!
Looking back up. A steep entry!
Jamie getting first tracks out the bottom!
We skied out just as we planned between some isolated spires and the main cliffs:
And then we had the most fantastic powder run on terrain not often (or ever) touched by skiers:
On our top secret Clara area map, we decided to call this "Marion Couloir", Clara's big sister. If you have 1minute 12, here is a short video of the fun: youtubeVid
Sure looks fun.....but I've got an alternate soundtrack for you: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RiJsG3GZw
author=markharf link=topic=40282.msg160556#msg160556 date=1521450380]
Sure looks fun.....but I've got an alternate soundtrack for you:Â https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G_RiJsG3GZw
Ha! Perfect!
Adventure skiing! Love it! Way to think outside of the box.
great work
Holy Crap - I had a friend on Facebook tell me, and another buddy confirm, that the Mountain Operations Manager at Mission jumped into this skinny slot in 1996. I remember having a lot of snow that year, but that seems terrifying to me!
Anyway, I guess our claim to first descent is false. (Dammit :) )
Anyway, I guess our claim to first descent is false. (Dammit :) )
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