Sublette Mountain Couloir: Part 1 South Side

North and South Sublette Mountain Couloirs

Shoshone NF, Absaroka Range, Continental Divide/ Togwotee Pass Area

April, 14th 2006

The South Sublette Mountain Couloir (also called the "Radio Tower Couloir")

I decided to exercise the Polaris a bit. Didn't have to, as this couloir is not far off of the highway. It fun though, plus it scares all the grizzlies away!

SSMC, on approach- was skinning by now, but there were sled tracks I could have followed to the base of it. A guys got get a little exercise though.

Had to stop and put on my cramp-ons. I left way early, it only about 7:00am when I reached this point. With the light clouds, the snow wasn't cooking fast, it was ice hard. Some snowboarders beat me to this couloir. I followed their track in. I did appreciate the boot track they left me going up the couloir. By their tracks it looked like they had much better (little warmer) snow conditions than I did. They missed out on the north side run though.

Some dumb-arse dude climbing and skiing couliors by himself.

Two Ocean Mountain, as from the bottom part of the Couloir.

Looking out at Tetons from the bottom part of the couloir.

In the couloir, towards the top, looking up.

In the couloir about a third of the way up, looking up.

Almost there. Nearing the top of the South Sublette Mt. Couloir.

My skis perched on top of the Coulior in the gap/ saddle area. There's a gap/ saddle in the rock at the top of the couloir. I quickly learned that on the other side of this gap was another couloir. It wasn't as defined, but it was more filled, and the snow looked much tastier. Have a look at part 2 and speck it out.

The view looking down the South Sublette Mt. Couloir. Forgot my parachute. Oh well! Actually I didn't get out my inclometer on this run, but I did when I dug a pit on the other side. My pit was a on 50 degree slope. The first third of this coulior was definitely steeper (somewheres around 55 or 60). Guess I should have measured. Didn't want to look down though- ha!

Bombs away!

Whahoooo!!!

Tallulah May dropin' crib lines!

I reached the top at 9:00am. Despite dropping the North Side Couloir first, climbing back up it and then eating lunch, when I finally mustered courage to drop (around 11:30am)- it was still icey and crusty. Not even good scralping conditions. The old snowboard tracks made it all very inconsistent too. Since I was solo, I played it safe and side stepped/ skiied about a third of the way down.

Check out those lines! Ha! Not exactly turns though. The skiing towards the bottom got better, delicious in fact. It had cooked up enough to provide some tasty corn.

Five hours and two couloirs later, back at the hot rod, taking one last look back the crack I dropped.