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TR: Couloirs Galore - 3 (possible) first descents in the Niut Range of BC
Almost two years ago, I stumbled across a photo taken by Chris Cooper, an older climber who several decades before had been taking yearly trips into the Pantheon and Niut Ranges of BC, near Mt. Waddington (a few hours hours Southeast of heli-ski mecca Bella Coola). The photo immediately struck my fancy and I knew I had to get out and ski the beauty of a couloir in the foreground.
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Look at that beauty!
After a long string of phone calls and Google Earthing, I managed to find the location of the line, nearby Niut Mountain. Neither Chris nor guides nor pilots at the nearby heli op had heard of the line (or even the area) being skied, which made things even more tempting.
After several months of checking weather this year, we finally got a good window two weeks ago, and flew in to try and ski what had become my white whale. The heli flight into basecamp showed us tons of sweet lines all around.
We skied these three. I've got a little writeup and some pics from inside each line on Instagram, links below for anyone who's interested in a little more:
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The White Whale - https://www.instagram.com/p/BiK8vOYgX_Q/ - This was the line we went for. It was as cool as it looked. We only skied the bottom step from just above the choke. From there getting to the top step would've involved a traverse out over a 50+ degree crust over facets over death exposure, and a climb up some more facets under a big cornice. We decided the exposure wasn't worth it. Somebody go claim that first full descent! I took a few measurements on the way up, and the main couloir was in the high 40s and low 50s, with one short bulge getting up to 55 degrees. Fun stuff. The lookers right line also looked like it would go with a bit of negotation at the bottom.
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Stroopie Couloir - https://www.instagram.com/p/BiQLKRKA2Qp/ - We skied the big, wide, double-fall chute from the saddle. I took several slope angle measurements at between 44 and 46 degrees. Great cruisy skiing and some of the only good snow we had on the trip. The far lookers left couloir looked like it went and would've been a really cool descent, but sadly with the warming we never got around to it.
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No Contact - https://www.instagram.com/p/BiSvKYhAyoe/ - This guy was quite short (800ft or so of vertical) but quite striking. Didn't do any slope measurements in here but I'd expect it was somewhere between the White Whale and the Stroopie Couloir, probably in the high 40s or so.
The zone was mindblowing, and it was incredible to get out there after staring at that picture for so long. None of the lines were huge, but the aesthetics were next level. Almost all of the lines were true north or true south, steep, and high walled. You could probably spend two weeks in there skiing new lines every day without running out of good stuff. Not too shabby.
Hopefully some more people are interested in going in and ticking off some of the remaining lines around. Shoot me a PM if anyone wants some beta.
