TR: N East Face, Elevator Shaft, Saddle Chute, Banana Chute, Mt. Fissile –Feb 2, 2013
Note: AngryBeard had some rough luck on Sunday with a pre-release while skiing in bounds leading to a broken ski. Definitely sucks, but it does mean he can justify buying a new setup! If anyone wanted to jump over to the thread he started in Tech Talk, he’d appreciate some advice: Link
Mt. Fissile is an easy lift assisted daytrip from the back of Flute. Hummus had never skied any Fissile lines, and Splitz’s busy schedule had kept him from touring with us much this year. Hummus, AngryBeard, CrazyHorse, Splitz and I figured an intense day was in order to make up for lost time…
The original goal for the day was to grab 3 laps (the North East Face (1), Elevator Shaft (2) and Psycho Chute(not shown)). Dying light for lap 3 meant that we opted for more familiar lines for lap 3, with AngryBeard and Hummus grabbing Saddle Chute (3a) while Splitz and I grabbed Banana Chute (3b). The TR might feel like it meanders, but the narrative is slightly dictated by the photos I could get, and we were moving fast, so my camera wasn’t always out…
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-w...2520Markup.jpg
1: North East Face
2: Elevator Shaft
3a: Saddle Chute
3b: Banana Chute
We wasted no time heading out to Fissile, and were on the summit for lap 1 before noon. CrazyHorse was having some boot issues and decided that no fall lines weren’t on the menu, so he down climbed and skied Banana Chute, then exited via the resort.
The rest of us dropped into the North East Face. This line demands respect, with exposure to an ~100m cliff if you were to fall on the upper section. Good stability and skill are required to pull this one off.
As AngryBeard had skied this line before, he dropped in first. Snow condition was a mix of windslab and pockets of light wind deposited snow. Pretty good conditions for getting grip on this sort of line, and the windslab was holding together pretty well. I stopped at some rocks part way down to grab some photos.
Splitz
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-n...0/IMG_5955.jpg
Definitely some views below you on this line.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-K...0/IMG_5966.jpg
Hummus dropping in.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-g...0/IMG_5975.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k...0/IMG_5978.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-g...0/IMG_5979.jpg
As the guys devastated the regular line, I skied a chute to skiers right (the rightmost branch of the markup at the start of the TR). It skied quite well with about 10 cm of wind deposited light snow. Pretty sweet.
After skiing the line, we cut high above the cliffs to reduce the amount of climbing we’d need to do for lap #2.
AngryBeard, Splitz and Hummus with the sun low on the Horizon, working their way around to the back of Fissile
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6...0/IMG_6009.jpg
The bootpack up the back of Fissile.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0...0/IMG_6026.jpg
Booting along the ridge.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-Y...0/IMG_6072.jpg
The summit of Fissile with the entrance to Saddle Chute in the foreground. Last year there was enough snow to climb the rocks, but at the moment the climb is a bit spicier.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...0/IMG_6078.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-W...0/IMG_6081.jpg
Elevator Shaft (line #2) is the line on lookers left just below the summit.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-S...0/IMG_5986.jpg
I’ve also seen this line called wrap around Chute, so I’m not quite sure what the naming convention is… Apparently this line can be accessed at certain times just by wrapping around the top of the NE face, then dropping in, however with current conditions, we did a short bootpack to get into it (the dashed line in the markup). Surprisingly enough, another skier going solo dropped into NE as we were climbing, and joined us for the line.
Hummus dropped in first and skied the left branch of the line. I dropped in, and stopped at the branch to grab some photos.
Splitz dropping in.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-X...0/IMG_6105.jpg
Splitz took the skiers left line at the branch.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-b...0/IMG_6112.jpg
AngryBeard
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-q...0/IMG_6128.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k...0/IMG_6136.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-6...0/IMG_6145.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-O...0/IMG_6152.jpg
Lap 3 was a bit of a sufferfest as we’d already done close to 2000m of climbing by this point. The original plan was to ski Psycho chute (pictured below).
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s...0/IMG_6021.jpg
We did a modified version of the bootpack on the back of fissile that had us hitting the ridge at the top of Banana Chute. We poked around looking for the entrance to Psycho, but decided that with only 20 minutes of light remaining we’d hit some more familiar, easy to find terrain. Splitz and I dropped into Banana Chute, while AngryBeard and Hummus hit Saddle Chute.
The sunset just after I finished skiing Banana Chute
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-g...0/IMG_6191.jpg
A fast and easy ski out Singing Pass trail by headlamp had us back in the village shortly after 7pm. Elevation gain for AngryBeard and Hummus was just under 2600m, with Splitz and I about 150m behind as Banana is a bit lower down. Not bad for a day of touring…
