TR: Holy Cross Couloir

Last week I headed up Tigwon road with my sights set for Holy Cross. The road is an 8 mile approach. I met some NOVA snow guides, and hitched a ride up 5 miles and began skinning from the Community House.

http://i.imgur.com/ccBfAe7l.jpg

Set camp at halfmoon pass and it began to snow. I recently came off a three day epic ski, so I drank and ate a little and quickly passed out, sleeping for about 16 hours.

An alpine start of 10 a.m. began the following day. I was excited that about 6" of new snow had fallen with minimal wind overnight.

http://i.imgur.com/RNVgFMel.jpg

Skinned/postholed up the North ridge and summited around 2p.m. The cross looking fine:

http://i.imgur.com/U4lzekul.jpg

Dropped in and made a few ski cuts up top. There were some small pockets of windslab, but otherwise the snow was blower on top of a solid spring base. The skiing was great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u34QpelJr-0#t=175

Skied out the exit and enjoyed some spring snow with a little bit of powder on top.

http://i.imgur.com/Vcrylasl.jpg

Picked my way through some narrow rocky chutes back to the creek

http://i.imgur.com/7KYSTDNl.jpg

Climbed up halfmoon and went to sleep satisfied.

http://i.imgur.com/XHIzpGCl.jpg

Skied out the next morning and bought the NOVA guides some beer.

Cheers,
Mrwaffles

Very nicely done!

Great TR, well played.

Thank you sirs. You are both gentleman, and scholars.

Nice! Looked like the skiing was a blast!

Very nice

Well done

Good stuff. Thanks.

enjoyed thanks......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrwaffles989

Climbed up halfmoon and went to sleep satisfied.

http://i.imgur.com/XHIzpGCl.jpg

Skied out the next morning and bought the NOVA guides some beer.

Cheers,
Mrwaffles

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Fan-freaking-tastic...wow. Solo even.

Question though, how in the heck did you get that shot of yourself sleeping in the tent? :fmicon:

Outstanding, I've watched that video many times and I find it oddly relaxing, maybe because it's outside my skill set thus sort of remote.

Stupid, jong, whatever question.. but what set up are you using?.. esp. what binding, clearly you have confidence in it and it paid off

Fucking awesome

Nice work!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daviski

Outstanding, I've watched that video many times and I find it oddly relaxing, maybe because it's outside my skill set thus sort of remote.

Stupid, jong, whatever question.. but what set up are you using?.. esp. what binding, clearly you have confidence in it and it paid off

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So I only have a one ski quiver. My old bindings broke this year in Chamonix, on some real steep terrain, made Cross look like a bunnyslope... Anyways, skis are BD reverts, scarpa maestrale boots(the orange, less stiff ones), and dynafits. The skis were 400 euro, boots 450 euro, and dynas 400 euro. Euro and USD are basically the same now. Shit should last me at least 5 years. I think I got 5 seasons out of my old equipment. I love the boots and bindings, the skis are rockered, which I'm not a fan of. Can't really tell the difference and you don't have as much grip on da steeps. My old traditional cambered BD kilowatts worked just fine, although they were beat to shit.

Unless you're out charging lines like the late Andreas Fransson, you don't need anything more beefy than dynafit. Although, for real steeps, I do lock the dynafits into "tour mode". Don't want those bastards coming off. Didn't do this for the cross, mostly for icy slopes and 45 - 50 deg terrain where I make real jump turns.

Bump because this TR is awesome and I watch the footage every now and again for summer stoke purposes.

on the bucket list for sure

Awesome :smile:

nice!

Dam video doesn't work!

Good work!