<\/a><\/p>\nBefore long we got to a more open area, and ontop of that the couloir that continued on was protected by a 20 ft ribbon of ice on the right, and 10ft of the same on the left. Ian wasn’t feeling like unprotected ice climbing (we didn’t bring a rope) so I stole one of my more technical axes back from him and had at ‘er. It would’ve been nice to take the plates off for the quite narrow chimney of ice, but I was on it before I even thought of that. It didn’t take long to get up in any case. After that was a short snow couloir. I knew this left branch went nowhere, and I would have to get back into the right branch ontop of the 20ft icefall. The first snow slope I attempted over the little ridge separating the couloirs felt a bit too sketchy, a 60-odd degree unsupported snow slope only 50 feet from the little ice climb. I gave up on it and went up some more, to a nearly identical slope. It was a bit further from the ice though, with I thought enough decent snow in the couloir below to have a half decent chance of arresting a fall. I crushed and kicked the crap out of every step on the traverse before committing to it, and after some of that I was on the other side.<\/p>\n
The rest of the couloir to the top was easier climbing, but there were quite a few rock steps that I knew would be interesting on the way down. At the top I was treated to some views of Swiss and Columbia, but it was friggin cold as the wind blew through the crack in Tupper’s ridge so I didn’t enjoy it for long before heading down. Descending the top pitch was chock full of memorable turns, from steep and crusty snow to pow, from sidesteps on smooth rock to mini sends over spiky rocks, I got to use the whole bag of tricks. Before long I was back at the ice. The snow quality below was too poor, the landing too flat, and the take off too committing with 5 or 10 feet of\u00a0 ice too narrow for skis leading up to the lip. So I downclimbed without plates, and it was substantially less sketchy than I expected, I guess I’m getting better at downclimbing.<\/p>\n
Then I met up with Ian and we skied down. What a great ski, super direct down to the highway, pow and soft sluff piles, a frisky shallow slab here and there to keep you honest, great fun. Once we got out of the side branches and into the main chute where all the couloirs above combine, Ian was off and sent the whole thing I think without stopping all the way to the highway. Another great day in the mountains.<\/p>\n