United States Mountain, SE Couloir, Mod. Snow

Couloir mode continues with this obscure gem of a line I started looking at last season. The crux was committing to walk up the Camp Bird/Imogene roads, adding 5 miles and 1,200' gain to the round trip. Originally I was going to bike from the closure to lower Imogene but realized I'd probably be pushing my bike up most of the hills and lose time on the approach, so I decided to just walk it.

I left Montrose at 4, parked at 5, and was switching to boots and crampons at the bottom of the east slopes at 6:30. It turns out all those little evergreen saplings wash out in the glare of the snow from space, so my imagined romp up the snow-covered lower east slope was rather less rompy, but it still went pretty quick due to a barely-good-enough radiative freeze.

Just above the timber I contoured south and met the couloir, which I started up at 7. Conditions were nailed; perfectly bulletproof, featured snow with hardly a soft spot led upwards 1,200 feet to a shallow saddle in the east ridge, the apex of both the southeast and north couloirs. At 8 o'clock I turned a corner above the south wall of the couloir and was greeted by a steep headwall to gain the upper east ridge, upon which, due to its orientation, the accumulated snow formed a sharp crest rather than overhanging the north face. Still, I avoided the edge as I made my way to the summit.

I fled the panoramic views back down-ridge in order to descend the headwall, which was undergoing rapid enslushification, as soon as possible. It then dawned on me that the quickest descent was probably via the chill-looking north couloir rather than the furnace of the east ridge. This I did, cramponing down the shaded, punchy snow of the couloir to the sunny lower north face, which glissaded reasonably.

Much to my surprise I shortly encountered a skier traveling up the north bowl for the couloir. I then picked the wrong margin of the horrendous lower rock glacier and disaster-styled the remainder of the descent, alternating ball-bearing hardpan surfing and bottomless slush wallowing as I backtracked to my stashed shoes.

Route notes: The SE couloir is moderate (max 40 deg. or so). The upper E ridge headwall is steep and fairly exposed, but depending on snow levels there may be rock available to scramble instead. The N couloir is moderate and short, and lasts into July. The SE couloir should be good for another week or more, probably late May to mid June is the window most years.