Wedge Combo, Runnel Mania
Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 10:57 pm
North Ridge Wedge, Wedge NW Couloir, Parkhurst NW Couloir
Took a little break from skiing to race some endurance mountain bike events and do some scrambles in the Canadian Rockies. But arriving back on the coast to an amazing snow depth, got me motivated to get some skiing in. The plan was to get up to the Wedge area and asses the conditions. The intended route was the NW couloir of Wedge. A wicked line you can see from the highway on the drive up to Pemberton.
For once I got going for an alpine start. I was pretty motivated this day and feeling some peak fitness. It’s funny I don’t really like running but I found myself jogging up the trail with skis on my back. I made quick time up to the lake and started skinning right from the lake. I saw a group of 9 climbers ascending the North ridge and decided to take that route, which was a quicker option. Once on the ridge proper, I joined a Czech climber who left his partner who wasn’t feeling to good on the ridge. The route was dialed and was basically a boot pack. We did an interval up to the ridge and up to the summit.
The climbers on the summit kind of gave me a funny look as I skied off the top in icy conditions. I had arrived too early on the summit at about 9:30am.I descended the ridge on firm ice. I stopped on the ridge and took a rest and fell as sleep for a couple hours.
The hot snow warmed me up. I felt the snow and the corn was set up for the line. I climbed back up to the entrance of the NW couloir. The top was steep and a little firm but was fine once in the chute. I put the skins on and skinned up to Parkhurst.
I had been up there in January with Sky and Naomi only to be turned around by wind slab in -20C conditions in an 8 hour push in knee deep snow, so I was motivated to ski theNW couloir. It was runneled right from the top but it was a real cool setting, hugging the rocks and turning beside the rock wall to my right. It opened up to runnel mania, up to 5 runnels, skiing from one to another. Kind of like an Alaskan spine feature only on corn snow. I completed the ski down to Wedge lake.
An epic winter snow pack for a fun link-up in July.
July 10/11
Dur 11:51 2 hour nap
8820 asc
Skier: Andy Traslin
Climbing the North Ridge of Wedge
Wedge NW couloir
Parkhurst NW couloir
Took a little break from skiing to race some endurance mountain bike events and do some scrambles in the Canadian Rockies. But arriving back on the coast to an amazing snow depth, got me motivated to get some skiing in. The plan was to get up to the Wedge area and asses the conditions. The intended route was the NW couloir of Wedge. A wicked line you can see from the highway on the drive up to Pemberton.
For once I got going for an alpine start. I was pretty motivated this day and feeling some peak fitness. It’s funny I don’t really like running but I found myself jogging up the trail with skis on my back. I made quick time up to the lake and started skinning right from the lake. I saw a group of 9 climbers ascending the North ridge and decided to take that route, which was a quicker option. Once on the ridge proper, I joined a Czech climber who left his partner who wasn’t feeling to good on the ridge. The route was dialed and was basically a boot pack. We did an interval up to the ridge and up to the summit.
The climbers on the summit kind of gave me a funny look as I skied off the top in icy conditions. I had arrived too early on the summit at about 9:30am.I descended the ridge on firm ice. I stopped on the ridge and took a rest and fell as sleep for a couple hours.
The hot snow warmed me up. I felt the snow and the corn was set up for the line. I climbed back up to the entrance of the NW couloir. The top was steep and a little firm but was fine once in the chute. I put the skins on and skinned up to Parkhurst.
I had been up there in January with Sky and Naomi only to be turned around by wind slab in -20C conditions in an 8 hour push in knee deep snow, so I was motivated to ski theNW couloir. It was runneled right from the top but it was a real cool setting, hugging the rocks and turning beside the rock wall to my right. It opened up to runnel mania, up to 5 runnels, skiing from one to another. Kind of like an Alaskan spine feature only on corn snow. I completed the ski down to Wedge lake.
An epic winter snow pack for a fun link-up in July.
July 10/11
Dur 11:51 2 hour nap
8820 asc
Skier: Andy Traslin
Climbing the North Ridge of Wedge
Wedge NW couloir
Parkhurst NW couloir