Southern Wind River Winter Adventures: Cinco De Mayo Powder Skiing

Cinco De Mayo Powder Skiing
Jules Bowl
Absaroka Range, Shoshone NF
May 5th, 2007

Jules Bowl

A storm rolled in Friday that looked like it might dump some powder up high. Couldn't resist- had to drag the sleds out one more time. We thought we'd head up into the Brooks Lake area and see what we could find. Turns out, we found some powder, and a few more couloirs- two of which I hadn't skied yet. One of which was pretty tight and loony steep. It was cold and windy up high, more so than in March when I visited Jules Bowl. Hard to complain about powder in May though, even if it comes with a little weather.

The First Couloir of the Day...

The Bottleneck Classic Reverse Couloir

Nearing the top of couloir.

I skied this couloir back in late March. It was okay then , but it had more powder in it today.

Matt looks down the Bottleneck Classic Reverse Coulior.

Super Matt ducks behind a rock to put his cape on. He'd need his super ski powers to ski from the top of this one.

A bird? A plane? No, just Matt getting ready to ski some rocks.

He did too. Couldn't believe it!

Frozen beard and all, I'll stick to the powder.

I'm off!

Good stuff!

Little more powder than last time.

Weehoo!

Rolling up high on the side wall of the couloir for some big steep turns.

Way fun!

Almost out.

Matt starts a sweet powder run back to the machines (the two black dots on the looker's left to the closest row of trees).

The Second Couloir of the Day...

Matt parks at the base of the Next Couloir. Decided to call it that, because "x" pretty much marks the top of it, and it was the "Next" one we skied. Ha!

Matt on his way up the right side of the Next Couloir.

Nearing the ridge where the two legs meet.

Closer to the top, kind of the "X" part.

Matt looks down the other side of the Next Couloir, and spys what might be another good line.

Looking down another coulior from the top of the Next Couloir. We decided to drop into it.

Matt finds great powder!

But only for the first few turns, then it was rocks- a few inches of snow on bare ground. No good. Had to hike back up it. Decided to stick to the north facing stuff.

Face shots in May.

Wooohoo!

Matt shows off the bottom of his skis. Does a little advertising. Ha!

Matt pauses to shake the pow off for the final drop back to the machines.

Matt tears up the apron with the Next Couloir behind him.

The Third Couloir of the Day...

The Iron Jewels Couloir.

Approaching the Iron Jewels couloir. I decided to call it that, because it seemed like Jewels made of Iron is what it would take in order to ski it.

Nearing the entrance. Iron Jewels is longer, much narrower, and much steeper than it's nieghbor the Jules Castle Couloir (which I stormed last year).

Matt enters Iron Jewels.

Up we went.

This is the part that takes "Iron Jewels", especially going down. The snow seemed pretty good. Ice axes came in handy on this stretch.

The look on Matt's face after he looked down.

The scary part behind him, Matt cruises to the top.

Enjoying the view from the top of Iron Jewels couloir, Matt looks for his cape again. I was trying not to think about the scary part we'd have to ski in order to get down it. Couldn't put it off for long though.

A jewel's view down Iron Jewels Couloir.

Matt perched to drop.

Dropping into Iron Jewels, tele-style.

My turn. You can tell be the whites in my eye how steep it was. Yikes!

I managed to get a few turns in though.

Had to keep em tight, my turns that is.

I pulled up behind this rock, after triggering a substantial soft wind slab. That was fun.

Here's a look at the crown. After this I looked up at Matt, and hollered... "I'm safe, your turn now!"

Matt goes for it.

After a couple of turns he kicked off another soft wind slab.

Matt nears the choke, the narrowest, steepest part of the couloir.

After side slipping a few yards or so, he clears it and bombs down the rest of the couloir. Eventually I made it too. My side slipping was a bit slower though- more side stepping. Ha!

Looking back up Iron Jewels Couloir.

Iron Jewels Couloir compared to Jules Castle Couloir (looker's left). Whew! Can't believe we just skied that. Wow.

Our Final Run of the Day...

Matt makes the hike up toward where we'd make our final run of the day. After Iron Jewels Couloir, we were beggining to feel like maybe it was lead, not iron, we were packing. We decided to wrap the day up with what Matt called an nice "Mellow" powder run.