The Diagonal Couloir

The Diagonal Couloir

Absaroka Range, Pinnacle Butte Area, Shoshone NF

May 6th, 2006

Say "howdy" to the 1500 foot Diagonal Coulior. This picture was taken on a prior trip this year from a snow machine trail to the southwest of the Pinnacle Butte. When I took it, I wondered if I would get a chance to make it up there again this year. The photo is a great view of the whole Diagonal couloir.

Left Lander around 4:30am. Figured it would be a gamble as to whether or not conditions would still allow for snow machine access, but it turned out they did (barely). After saddling up the machines we headed up to the Pinnacle Butte Trailhead. We were skinning by 8:00am, and crested this ridge with a view of the Diagonal probably around 8:30am. I had company for this trip, which is always cool. Matt Lloyd, tele-marker extraordinaire, came along for this hike.

Matt, skinning across the aprons at the base of the Pinnacle Buttes, on his way to the base of the Diagonal.

Stopped here to put on our spikes. It was getting pretty icey.

Matt, makes his way into the Diagonal Couloir. The snow was so hard at this point, we weren't leaving tracks, just crampon scratches. Definitely crampon/ ice axe country.

Getting tired of my shadow? This me, in the gut of the Diagonal. I think my shadows better looking. Ha!

Matt about two thirds of the way up the Diagonal. Finally, got into some snow where we were making tracks, it was still pretty crunchy though. We were both thinking maybe ice skates would have been more appropriate for the ride down- definitely easier to pack.

Almost there. A look at the top of the Diagonal.

Whew! Made it. Shad at the top of the Diagonal, for the second time in two years. I climbed it for the first time in April last year. The snow was better then, but still ice/ crunchy. You can see the Tetons behind me. Outstanding weather!

Matt enjoys a view of half the state of Wyoming from on top of the Pinnacle Butte summit. The Windriver Range is in the background.

Here's what Matt was looking at. The Brooks Lake Pinnacle Butte, Breccia, Two-Ocean and the Tetons all at once. Way cool!!

Time to drop, or skate. Shad puts the first scratches in, as he drops into the Diagonal.

Hmmm. What could I be thinking?

"Holy %$*&!!! This is fun, right?" Ha!

Matt, eases into a steep, crunchy tele-turn.

Nails it too! Pretty impressive given the conditions.

Nothing but ice baby!!

It would be nice to think that Matt was catching air in this picture. He wasn't though, that's as far as the skis would cut into the snow in most places on the Diagonal, though it got a little better lower down.

Scralping got a little better on the sides of the couloir farther down. It was still steep though.

Scrrratttch!!

Actually, to our amazement (and theirs) there were two dudes from Casper beginning the climb up the Diagonal when we were dropping it. You can see two dots towards the bottom- that's the Casper dudes. Only one guy had skis though. Maybe they were gonna share? Pretty interesting, I've never been in a couloir with traffic before. Ha!

Matt demonstrates a tele-hop n' crunch turn. Like I said, the snow did get better. Just not much better.

Turns were hard work. Breaks were necessary to pull yourself back together after surviving a turn or two.

Shad scralps through the gap towards the bottom, on to better snow.

I'm free!!! Whoohooo! Survived scralping the diagaonal, yet a second time.

To put in perspective, here's a view of the Pinnacle Buttes from about a mile up the Brooks Lake road.

What do you do after you finish skating down a 1500 foot couloir and it's not quite 1:00pm yet? Find another one. The Bottleneck Classic had totally different snow conditions- it rocked!! Turns a plenty in that one. Check out the following report for details.