TR: Birkenstock Couloir - March 29, 2013
Edit: Video stoke by Andy Traslin here:
http://youtu.be/h6OnQzf9tF8
It's been unseasonably warm in South Western BC the last few days. With temperatures in Pemberton forecasted to break records, Hummus and I decided a north facing line and an early start would be in order. With that in mind, Hummus, Andy Traslin and I found ourselves drifting to sleep on the roadside around midnight last Thursday with alarms set for 5am.
We were on the move before 6am, skinning up a logging road towards Birkenhead. After about two hours first on the road then following a creek through trees our objective came into sight.
The Birkenstock Couloir, approximately 450m, 45-55°.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3...kenstock-8.jpg
On the approach there were plenty of signs of point releases in the previous days due to the warm temperatures.
Another hour of skinning had us approaching the base of the couloir and starting to get a good look at things.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-5...enstock-11.jpg
After a quick transition and throwing on some crampons, we started up the couloir.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-y...enstock-13.jpg
Hummus on the climb.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-O...enstock-14.jpg
The walls of the couloir were stained orange, making for some nice colour.
Andy on the climb
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-o...enstock-17.jpg
About 2/3 of the way up the couloir, we hit a short ~2.5m vertical/overhanging section of snow. We think this was probably where a small section of snow let go. We decided it would be possible to negotiate this section on skis or with a downclimb.
Hummus climbing vertical snow. Photo by Andy Traslin
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...64415608_o.jpg
Nearly at the top, the ski down does look pretty damn steep.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-7...enstock-22.jpg
Negotiating the cornice at the top involved another near vertical section. Hummus and I each gave it a go at getting through before before Andy finally pulled himself up using two ice axes.
Hummus near the top
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q...enstock-21.jpg
Hummus topping out. Photo by Andy Traslin
https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.n...07944369_o.jpg
We topped out a little before noon and enjoyed the views for a while before contemplating the descent. We hacked away at the cornice enough to sideslip in a bit, before a short drop into the slope. Hummus volunteered to drop in first.
We didn't bring a rope, so the entrance involved a bit of a sketchy drop in/hip check/self arrest. Looking back on it, if we'd had a rope we probably would have used some of the rock at the top to set up an anchor and done the first few meters on a rope. Live and learn.
Hummus dropping in.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...enstock-29.jpg
And successfully coming to a stop.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-h...enstock-33.jpg
It was kind of steep
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-m...enstock-36.jpg
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-_...enstock-40.jpg
After a bit of thought, Andy and I decided to do some more work to the cornice while Hummus waited in a safe spot below. We were eventually able to sideslip in and use an ice axe as a handhold to lower ourselves over the vertical section.
I dropped in second and got a few turns at the top before regrouping with Hummus. Andy came last and showed us how it's done with some super confident steep skiing. The upper section had grippy consolidated snow.
Negotiating the second vertical section involved some more plunged ice axe hand hold lowering. Once we cleared the lower crux, it was still fairly steep, but without any hazards below us, we could finally open up a bit.
Andy ripping it.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-C...enstock-50.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-g...enstock-51.jpg
Hummus
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-s...enstock-54.jpg
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0...enstock-55.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p...enstock-57.jpg
About 40 minutes of skiing with a bit of sidehilling had us back at the car after around 2:30.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J...enstock-59.jpg
Overall it was a pretty awesome ski. Definitely one of the more aesthetic lines in the area.
Another visit, April 14th
Been eyeing up this one myself for a while -- my buddy and I had a chance this last weekend, though due to schedules we had to do it in a 1-day mission from Vancouver: 4:30am departure, hiking by 7:30am, summit at 1pm (with 2+ hours of bootpacking up the couloir), back down by 3:30, home by 7pm.
Found this TR the day before we did it and it gave us some good beta, thanks for posting it!
For the approach we took a route up that went to the very end of the road and through a cutblock (there's a flagged route along the ridge as we discovered on the way down) to avoid traversing through the icy trees, although it added another couple hundred meters of skin ascent to the day (Google Earth says it was 2100m ascent + 21km total).
There'd been a bunch of snow since you guys had been through, and we were keeping close tabs on snow and avy conditions on the way up, but luckily the bulk of that new snow had slid naturally already, and we felt pretty good about things as we kept on going up. Being almost perfectly North-facing, it had been spared from the super-variable sun crusts found on almost everything else nearby.
Couloir descent was super fun, but the mandatory cornice hop definitely kicks the whole experience up a notch-- not for the weak-kneed (literally?). Transitioning to skiing while on the top face isn't really an option either (or at least, I think it'd be scarier than just doing the cornice hop), so it's a bit of an all-or-nothing affair. Rope wouldn't be a bad idea either, but it's still doable if you have the nerves. There was a nice layer of newer mostly-consolidated snow to help keep the descent from getting too edge-punishing on the way down, and the lower couloir was actually really nice snow, although I probably would have enjoyed it even more if my legs weren't suffering from the 2.5hr stairmaster session and 150m vert of hop turns that preceded it...
Here's a shot from my buddy showing the steep upper face from a different angle (never did get an actual slope reading, pretty clearly at or above 50 degrees though):
http://i.imgur.com/ZUSaScy.jpg
Here's the lower couloir with surprisingly good snow for mid-April (the total vert of the couloir is about 500m, for scale):
http://i.minus.com/iGSkKwSskXorF.jpg
Not sure what people are on about with all this end-of-winter talk... :biggrin:
