Pagoda Mountain 4/24/09

Pagoda Mountain
"Arabian Ridge Via the Knife Me Couloir"


Wild Basin you say? I’m there! Said Moski
Sleep is overrated I say
I’ll sleep when I’m dead, said Erik
Holy shit…, said Johnny
This after I proposed we go ski a sweet intricate route on Pagoda that through a few pictures had decided would go, especially after the big upslope.
It was 7pm and we planned to leave 3 hours later at 11.
All it took for Dave to come out was a phone call and the words “wild basin”, even with only an hour or two notice. We were like troops that had been called in for a mission.

The sleepwalking went smooth, we couldn’t have asked for a better transition from dry trail to skinnable snow.

Near treeline the wind blew strong and cold.

We struggled to skin up a steep and icy slope without skin crampons.

We had breakfast to a lightening sky apartment sized boulders.

The bootpacking up the steeper slopes was tough with a thick, but still breakable crust with moist and dry snow underneath that would continue to give, like an elipse machine. The crawl method worked a little better, spreading weight over hands, knees, shins and feet in order to stay afloat.

Once on the ridge, more than one of us almost got blown off our feet from the strong and gusty winds. Johnny called it just before the last crux.

There were 3 main cruxes on the route proper. 1: the “Knife me couloir” 2: the wrap around slot thing 3: the hanging couloir.

Once on the ridge, we could skin again, very carefully. This was “no fall” skinning for sure.

The summit rocked with sick views and some shelter from the wind in the sun. Not sure why, but I had an urge to sing a song, so I sang: “Did you ever know that you’re my hero!” to everyone, individually. (Could’ve been the handfuls of chocolate covered espresso beans, lack of sleep, and crack?)

The descent was awesome with soft creamy corn

I was mildly delirious as I skied on in split mode through slop, but made it work.

We napped at the trail before finishing off the 14.5 hr, 5,100 ft push.

“You are the wind beneath my wings!”

Frisco descents

My morning started with a 5:15 wake up. I headed east from Breck up and through the tunnel, and to the Stanley staging area. I was fortunate enough to join Lee, one of the 3 CAIC/CDOT forecasters for the Region 1 area, to shoot the Stanley with a 105mm Howitzer.


Unfortunately, despite 20" new snow in the past few days, nothing moved but a small sluff. The winds were out light and out of the E, which is the opposite of what it needs to build a slab in the SE facing starting zone. Oh well, it was cool to watch the precision of the operation. Look at the size of those shells!

I headed back over and through the tunnel to where the skies were mostly clear. I had a few things in mind, too many actually. Then I decided, why do a long approach when I can ski some great looking lines from the town of Frisco?

Lapped this shot twice, then further up on Tenmile Peak, then over to Royal Mountain to finish it off.

Lines skied 3/27 and 3/28, all names I made up, not sure if locals call them anything else. Pretty sure Stupid is as Stupid Does was a first descent.
A: The C shot
B: Blondie's Folly
C: Stupid is as Stupid Does

Close up of the C shot

View down the C shot. Sick turns right on top of town.

Blondie's Folly
Named after Blondie the dog, because she should've been there. She is a longer haired dog, and I didn't want her to ball up in the moist snow and roll down the steep chute like the cartoons.



Stupid is as Stupid Does

This is a route that I dreamed of since seeing snow on Royal Mountain in Frisco. I was stoked to actually be following through. It required one rappel to get down some big pillows up in the trees, though this might be manageable if you came in from skiers right more. It felt like a big, exposed north face. Then I looked down on the city of Frisco. I had awesome snow in couloirs connected by narrow chokes that I had to negotiate before a handful of turns on the hanging snowfield. I tucked in behind my first anchor, a nice veluptuous pine, and rapped down. The coolest part was going down a 65 degree ice rib. It felt like the Eiger. A full 60m later I pulled the rope, then packed up and made a handful of turns on a rib. All the snow that I thought I could ride on sluffed out to not nice gneiss slab. I then decided to climb back up and made another rap off a tree. At this point, the dogs in town were barking at me, and I didn't look, but I could sense a local sitting on a bench watching me. "Stupid is as stupid does" he thought...
I was briskly deposited on the flat sidewalk after popping some pillow lines in the runout. An older gent walked by and said, "where did you come from?"
"Up there" I said, and pointed.

Chiefs Head: The Royal Ramp Couloir

I spied this line a while back, and hadn’t given too much thought into the details. Thursday night I found myself searching for pictures of the right angle, with a little snow. I found one or two that led me to believe it would go through, likely with a little ice step to get onto the ramp.
All week the temps had be warm up high, a stable atmosphere, and mostly stable snowpack. It was on. The search for partners proved useless. Found out from Jason Mauwer that Phd (Miller) may have ridden the line. The closest I came was getting some interest was from Kroiss. “That looks like a really cool line”, he exclaimed after checking out the shots. “But, I think I’m going to have to decline cuz I have some work to do, and besides, NOAA is forecasting for 70mph gusts and a little snow. Definitley another time though.”
I remember thinking, “he made the right decision”, as I tucked behind a house sized boulder, attempting to hide from the wind on a flat alpine expanse. The wind almost blew me over while I tried to take a leak, and I was on the leeward side. Snow from the sky blended with snow blowing on the ground, it was an official white out.
I switched my caked shades for goggles, put the puffy on, covered the nose, and continued on. I just had to get a look at this thing. I had to find out what that peculiar looking sliver was. Was it 100ft. of WI4 on granite slab? Or was it a nice, hidden ramp?
Deep in the cirque, switching skins for crampons, it started to break up. What the? Is that the sun? Amazing! I was pretty sure this squall wasn’t a squall, it was a full fledged storm that was supposed to go through the night. Lucky me, much more fresh and I would’ve had to retreat. I love visibility too.
My heart pounded with anticipation as I neared the crux. I think it… looks like…yup, it’s a ramp! Stoked, I left the rope, hardness, protection, and other deadweight hanging from a crack in the fine granite. Then a cliffshot was all I needed to cruise to the top and hit the ridge.
I took a moment to check out the snowpack on the hanging snowfield on the traverse up. It hung over a 200ft. cliff. Rough shears, great structure. Snow surface was mostly 3-6” of large crystals. The old surface ranged from firm, carvable windpack to soft NSF. The steepest angle was 50, right below the ramp. The ramp was 45, and the couloir was 35 at lower section to upper 40’s in upper section.
Stoked, I even ran to the summit and back. The riding was excellent, more consistent that I expected, even got handfuls of faceshots. I made it down the ramp and its narrow rocky ledge section with the board on, one foot out. The cloud deck didn’t lower rapidly like I thought it would. Don’t know how or why, it just didn’t. Made it back down the nice frozen slick trail to the TH before dark too.


Coming out of the squall, and into the view of the wall.


Might as well keep the stuff out of the snow

The exit ramp. You can see my gear stashed against the cliff below.

Dark tint? I should've known

The couloir proper

Chiefs Head Peak. Summit: 13579 ft.

Awesome angle of the route below

The infamous "Rabbit Hole Couloir" on Mt. Alice. First skied by Reed, Moskowitz, and Stevens 6/08.

A bony exit

Green Lake and Keyboard of the Winds