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Called DGREEN on first opportunity of some breaking clouds around here in some time for some couloir hunting in our backyard. Been so used to reading the resort report but only 5" reported overnight. Nobody parked at our trailhead so we get to break trail

Early season pit analysis. DEEP


DGREEN is a trailbreaking machine


Across the valley at Ragged Top


Days are short up here, better keep moving.


Our little valley


Not going to make our objective today, so start poking around for a good POW run.


Time for the down


DGREEN Ripping




White Room




Turned blue the next day and since we laid in the track we figured we would go for our objective with an earlier start. Objective is prominent peak in the middle. Picked up a friend along the way.


Got up quickly thanks to our track from day before, but a storm quickly approaching


Final Push to the top


With the fading light we decided to ditch our objective and go for a couloir off the backside named Backdoor Couloir. The upper section had a lot of exposure, cornice, cliff bands, etc., so finding the entrance with no light proved to be a bit difficult. Here is DGREEN trying to determine if this entrance goes.


I guess so, dropping


Once we got through the exposure and into the couloir it was faceshots for 3000+' to the valley floor where we ended up using a snow bridge to get to the other side of the creek and hike up to our friends backdoor (couloir). Don't have any pictures of the stoke as we ripped the couloir as fast as we could to get back to the road by dark.

This day had a bit of everything, bluebird, storm, exposure, POW bliss, making it a trophy day. XMas eve guiness tasted great.

Yes! Nice action shots!

Nice one fellas,AK winning the TR wars by a long shot!

Thanks, nice to get some action shots up here as it is not always easy to be in position.

No love for jdoneil and his Chugach experience? Guess I'll throw in my two cents.

First, a couple shots of the "backdoor couloir" from across the way

That's the full chute with our friends house in the bottom right corner.

This is the top of the mountain showing the crux's we had to deal with just to get in.


We were planning on riding a completely different couloir, but things change now and again. Anyhow, we did not get a good look at this mountainside before dropping in... never a good idea! The photo above would have helped out a lot. Dropping right down the heart of this beast would have been the way. We dropped lookers right of the cornice and down the shoulder on the right hand side. The sluff was extremely heavy and fast and not a lot of fun trying to control and keep from being washed over any rocks or rock bands. It was also completely white out, or blue maybe because darkness was approaching fast. So white out that I never wore my goggles, too dark. Then there was the "bowling ball" effect going on as well. This means, in effect, that the mountain rolled over in front of you preventing one from seeing any more than a turn or two down the mountain. So it took some time, and shot a lot of nerves, getting past the rocks up high. But once we got past the crux and into the couloir itself, it was game on! High speed blower turns for what seemed like forever. Now for some pic.s

Where's all your snow? Right here b@#$&es!!!


and some sun too

Girdwood valley and Alyeska Resort in the background


and more snow


through rose colored lenses


so delicious (and tireing)


and we ended the day with this little drop (that I missed with the camera)

but did get a huge facefull of snow just after this (thanks Dan)


Day 2: Hike on, with "super couloir"/our objective in the background


hike up


my guides showing me the way through the chocolate chips


Dan coming out of the crux, just to show you the light we were dealing with


and celebrating life and all it has to offer back at the car




Woo Hoo!!!

Thanks for showing us a slice of the good life. The snow in Colorado has been brutal over December. Deep snow has only been in my dreams lately. Thanks for posting!