Jewel's Castle Couloir

Storming the Castle
Jewel's Bowl Area, Shoshone NF
February 22nd, 2009

Jewel's Castle Couloir

After hanging out in Jewels Bowl with my wife for a day, near this couloir, I couldn't resist going back in there to take a stab at it. It's been a few years since I skied it last. Chuck and Karla hadn't ever actually been in Jewels' Bowl, and it'd been a few years since either of them climbed up couloir. With fairly stable snow conditions, seems like the time was right to raid the Castle.

Ode' to the Scrubbies

A few look back the other way, towards our sleds, as we begin the climb. Even though there was more fresh snow, it must have come with more wind. Open slopes were looking and feeling a bit more wind affected.

Chuck and Karla at the base of the Castle Couloir.

Chuck makes his way up.

Pausing for a breather.

A look down at our tracks from the top.

Chuck in the Castle!

I get ready to drop.

Looking back on a few of my turns. Kind of variable scralpy conditions- not ice, but not pow either.

Chuck drops.

Weeehooo! All the wasy down.

One last look back, as we headed of in search of powder.

Maybe I'll get up this one again this year?

As the day went on, we dialed in the pow and scored some classic runs through it.

One of many little powder patches we put the chomp on.

A view of Jewel's Bowl from near the top of our powder shots.

Another great day in the backcountry. The second day this year I've spent in Jewels Bowl when we were the only ones in it all day long. I'll take it!

Vianni's Hole

Vianni's Hole
Absaroka Range, Togwotee Pass Area
February 16th, 2009

I hooked up Matt, his wife Kerry and their dog Lyle, on President's Day. Since there hasn't been gobs of new snow lately, we opted to take the machines a few miles off the road, up near the wilderness boundary where we could access the an area in the wilderness called Vianni's Hole. We figured that was a solid bet for finding an abundance of un-tracked wild snow. Turned out to beautiful day in the backcountry. Got some great video footage. Warning though, the feature motion picture in this TR is my longest yet, 5 minutes. You might get some popcorn before you play it. Ha!

Vianni's Hole

Looking back towards the Tetons from where we parked the sleds.

The forecast called for overcast, cloudy conditions. I expected conditions to very similar to when I skied this area for the first time about two years ago (go back to Feb 2007 on the blog to see that TR). It turned out to be bluebird conditions for most of the day. I'll take it!

Looking down a Matt and Kerry as they pop over the saddle and look into Vianni's Hole.

Looking up towards Matt as he reaches a high point and scopes for lines.

On our way up this ridge line a cornice collapsed underneath me, which sent me sailing down the slope a few feet. We go to looking around and noticed it was actually the crown of an old avalanche that had collapsed. After looking around more, we realized it was a huge avalanche- probably released around the same time as the Lava Mt slide. It slide to the ground pretty much, or the November rain crust layer. At the time though, since we were right on top of it, we really didn't realize how big it was, or realize it had slide to the ground. Thus, we decided to try dropping down it for our first run.

I eased onto the bed surface of the old slide (you can make out the old crown).

As soon as I slid on to the bed surface I start scraping rock, nearly like try to ski gravel. My first two turns initiated a large sluff slide (all new snow) but it stepped down a couple of inches and pulled out all of the snow that was on the bed surface. When that happened it was pretty obvious the bed surface was the ground. Pretty much a steep scree field. Rocks were rolling everywhere. I wanted off the slope.

Watching all the snow fall down the mountain.

I stopped here, turned around and climbed back up to the top. We went back down to Kerry and decided to drop from there. It was a slightly different aspect that hadn't slid. It turned out to be good stuff.

Kerry tears it up.

Looking back on our first run of the day. Beautiful!

The bigger picture.

The photo highlights the old slide. It was big.
(click on photo to enlarge)

The blue outline indicates what slid (to the ground). The blue crisscross indicates the old debri field. The green arrow is where I tried a couple of turns. The red arrow is where the undercut crown line collapsed on me. The slope is mostly north facing. Angles vary between 30 to near 40 degree in some places. Most of the bed surface was scree- small rocks. The snow that was left in places looked like the November rain crust layer. We're guessing the avalanche was at least a few weeks old- probably occuring during the last major cycle.

Matt plows a staircase up a couloir.

After dropping into Vianni's hole we spotted a nice, big, fat couloir that needed some wiggly lines pasted on it. We went to work.

Matt nears the top.

Looking down on me as I near the top. You can see our skin track below.

Posing near the top with the Tetons in full bloom behind me.

Looking back up at our lines and the couloir we just dropped.

Another look from a different angle a little later in the day.

My thoughts on the run.

Lyle soaks up some rays.

Matt paves the way to another run.

Looking back on at where we came from.

Looking up at my tracks from the third run of the day.

Matt and Kerry skin and saddle up for another.

Matt pokes his way across a slope, looking for a gourmet line.

I drop into one that suited me just fine...

Actually initiated a bit of a harder suncrust wind slab on the first turn, but it didn't go too far. After that is was really nice powder. All about face shots!

Looking up at a variety of nifty runs. We only hit a couple.

The view from my last high perch of the day, back out of the wilderness up above the sleds.

Last turns of the day.

Matt throws in some final tele-turns.

The end of another fine day in the backcountry on Togwotee Pass. We could really use another big dose of snow though.

Me and my monkies after a long day of playing.