Jeff Schmerker
Rites of passage
I met Carey and Nathan at 5.45 where we ported gear and people to one truck, then set off. My 7 we were geared up and hiking a series of old roads to a decent trail, which led us uphill and into a lot of downfall. At the two-hour mark we encountered continuous snow, which we followed over a prominent ridge and into the basin below the two Riddell lakes. This basin rose and narrowed and steepened. We attached skis to our packs and donned crampons and ice axes for the one-hour push up the main body of the couloir. The summit was airy and exposed, but luckily nearly windless. The west couloir dropped away at a frightening pitch.
A party of two had summited just before us; naturally, Carey knew one of the guys. When it came time to ski the couloir, I choked -- it was steep, steeper than it had seemed on the ascent, and the snow, though soft, was not optimal. I wound up side-slipping the top 200 feet, until the slope lessened enough that I thought I could make a turn. Scary -- but sometimes it's nice to be scared.
Read more
+2