Triangle Couloir

I needed an outing bad. Not something that was to physically taxing but something out in the woods with a little adventure to it. With high winds and poor visibility up high, I suggested the Triangle Couloir for some mixed climbing and chute skiing. The Samurai was game for anything he could sink an ice tool in.

Not used to being loaded down. We were prepared with a full rock and ice rack because we weren't quit sure what we would find.


Mix of skinning and booting up the 1st 1000ft or so.


The lower ramp of ice was mellow and we were able to side by climb. Kinda fun!


Looking down from the little snow shelf I cut for a belay station. From here up we put in a half dozen ice screws and a couple cams. I did not get any good shots looking up as the spin drift was steady.


Once at the top of the Triangle Wall we skinned and booted the rest of the chute. Topping out required some rock moves up this fun little chimney. The gripitz (patented pending) ripped up it, more on that later...


The skiing was variable with plenty of wind blown. The upper head wall was some steep tree skiing that funneled into the chute proper, kinda felt of like the Y Couloir.


Last few guarded turns before the rappel.


Rapping ski descents in the past I've either never had them with me or never bothered to put my crampons back on. Today I did and it was much nicer. We had 2 ropes tied together and were able to do the rappel in 2 pitches. We found an old rap anchor off the top tied into a couple saplings growing out of the cliffs. Further down we were able to rap off another anchor of webbing around a rock horn.

The lower chute had the best ski turns as it had accumulated a fair bit of sluff. Last foto robbed from Fritzrips.


Fun little adventure right off the road.