Chimney Rock - West Face - Selkirks of Idaho

This "fantabulous" adventure marked Kristin's  first multi-pitch alpine climb....what a magical place to tackle your first "trad" climb!  Granite of this quality is usually spattered with climbers.  Not the case with Chimney Rock of northern Idaho's Selkirk mountains.  We had the entire area to are self.

Chimney Rock:  is a unique granite tower that sits atop of a prominent ridge and has adopted the name "lightning rod" of North Idaho. The West Face was first climbed in 1934 by John Carey, Mart Chamberlain, Fred Theime, and Byron Ward.  This "west face direct route" is the easest way to the formations summit and goes at about 5.5.  The formation today features roughly 50 routes on its west and east faces.  

Kristin and I choose to climb the slightly more challenging Rappel Chimney (5.7) route.  What a brilliant little route this was.  Some excellent pitches and movement packed into this classic route.  (For detailed information on the route see my write up posted on Mountain Project...click link above)

First view of Chimney's west face

Rappel Chimney follows the obvious right facing corner system seen near the left edge of the formation

Trying to show her profile here.  The summit was an awesome place...only about 20' wide

Nearing the end of pitch 1

Kristin coming through the perfect pitch 3 corner

1st Alpine route in the books:)....."not the last"

bye chimney....until we come ski you this winter:)

The "Epics" Begin - 7 Summits - Rossland, BC

Qualifier: Seven Summits IMBA EPIC

The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) each year publishes an Epic Rides list.

The 2010 Epic Rides List included Seven Summits, Rossland British Columbia.  A quick perusal of the Epics list last fall resulted in a weekend venture to our neighbors up north.  The Seven Summits Trail of Rossland, British Columbia.  This 35.8km trail, ok ok I know darn kilometers, but I thought I'd stick with the Canadian theme here.  So the 22.25 mile trail tackles rolling singletrack with beautiful mountain vistas, some steep ascents and thrilling descents. The trail follows ridgelines, affording views of the Columbia River Valley and the Southern Selkirk Mountains, and challengesriders with technical sub-alpine terrain.

Trail Logistics:

The Seven Summits trail is designed to be ridden in a North – South direction, and to link with the Dewdney trail. Leave a vehicle at the bottom of the Dewdney trail on Hwy 22, near the US Border in Paterson (12 km South of          Rossland) and arrange a 30km shuttle to Nancy Greene Pass. The trail begins immediately behind the trailhead                  kiosk at the Pass.

K scoping out the trail overview map at the trailhead kiosk

our GPS tracks

just another view

One of the summits in route

Looking back at the trails highpoint

Scree is not the best media for biking

DAY 15: Davis Creek Drainage - Corner Pocket Area

Back on DAY 2 we skied one of the north facing chutes off of Cornbiscuit PK (summit on right side of photo seen below). We liked the looks of the bowl at the termination of the drainage (Davis Creek) when standing on cornbiscuit's summit, it looked steep / deep and shaded from the intense rays. So we decided to check it out on our final day of touring.

Cornbiscuit Pk on right,  point 3600' the saddle at pictures center.  Our goal for the day

Kristin saving the day as I felt like crap, from a head cold! That women can break a mean trail in 30" of freshies!

Black dots represent our line skied from point 3600'

A persistent buried surface hoar (~2-3' down) had our attention so we strapped on the ave lungs for the steep (I measured on average 40-45 degrees) skin/climb up the bowl to its saddle

Kristin waited below for a bit to create some distance between us in case something released. No signs of instability was noted during the steep ascent, I dug a few cat holes every 300' or so all negative for shallower weak layers.

Shows the steep exit onto the ridge. The ridge was very broad limiting wind loading at the bowls lip. A soft slab of 5-6" had formed on top

Our 3100' exit back down Davis creek to the road. The lip of the bowl/ridge is seen at photos bottom, majority of the bowl is not pictured due to its steep nature

View East from pt. 3600' our high point saddle: locals call these 1) in the foreground "Superbowl" - it gets a lot of sun and was sliding, 2) background is Granddaddy couloir, a crown can been seen upon zooming in from a natural slide a few days ago...too bad this one also remains on the todo list.

White-room Powder Baby!

A look back at our hard work as we fly back down the drainage

70 miles later in 13 days, and we are still smiling!

DAY 12: Tincan Mtn -Todd's Run

This was one of trips highlights.  The Tincan formation is very long ridge system ending at its summit.  The ridge system offers countless skiing opportunities, one could spend a full season touring on Tincan itself.  Todd's Run as called by the locals was named after Todd who was killed on the line as the entire bowl ripped out.  When conditions are right this is many's favorite line on Tincan.  I can see why, after 2500 vertical feet and 1 mile of perfect turns I was calling it the best run of my life.  Hmmm thinking back...there is a pattern in AK...every run seems to get the "now that was the best run of my life"  designation.  

9 hours, 8.5 miles and 3 amazing lines later

Looking back towards the Turnagain arm and the Breathtaking Chugach Mtns

Tincan Mtn Proper

Sun Balls

Snow Angels (aka Anson)

our tracks from run 1 - "The elevator shaft" on Sunburst Peak, and Pastoral Peak in far background

Exposure - nearing Todd's Run

Pastoral Pk the highpoint on the right, was DAY 1's tour

Todd's Run topout on left,  Kickstep Pk in background

Todd's Run

Todd's Run on left, skinned back up for one last run before sunset on right

Day 5: Girls Mtn

8.5 miles 8 hours:  Sick tour to Girls Mtn, rode 3000' down its north face to Worthington Glacier!  Climbed back up the glacier avoiding crevasses, spooky at times, then rode 3000' back down to the car! This one was one for the books:)

Climbed the blue line to the summit of Girls Mtn (@1) rode 3000' down to Worthington Glacier , Climbed back up the glacier to (2), then rode the yellow line 2500' back down to the car

Leaving the clouded valley floor behind

The Python seen at pictures center we skied back on DAY 3

The summit push, about 45 degrees, took a few. See the road, our car is down there somewhere!

The final push around the summit cornice

Worthington Glacier resides down below, thats 3000' vertical bliss to be had

Part of the glacier field we navigated to climb back out of Worthington Glacier Field

Looking back at the last 1000' or so of out run

Finally done with the glacier field time to breath and enjoy 3000' vert back to the car

Day 1: Pastoral Pk to Sunburst Pk

"The perfect figure 8 tour" Is how I like to think of my first experience touring in the AK.  Defiantly didn't break into it slowly.  As this tour consumed 9 hours over 10 miles and included two peaks.  Well almost, we decided against a summit push to Pastoral Pk due to the previous nights high winds.  Thus we skied off a subpeak to the north.  Then climbed back to Taylor Pass and over to Sunburst Pk.

The figure 8

Kristin and Darcie on the approach up Taylor Creek

If only that Cornice didn't loom over those spines

One of my Fav's:  Kickstep and Tincan Peaks

Kristin adding to the canvas

The Line we wanted to ski off Pastoral's summit

The line we ended up skiing

Kickstep

Kickstep, oh ya and the ladies

 

Santa Fe Baldy - East Chutes

I was once asked if there was good backcountry skiing in New Mexico...Well there is actually, you just have to be willing to work for it.  Santa Fe Baldy, which is located at the southern tip of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range and is the nineteenth highest ranked peak in New Mexico. It has good east and southeast facing slopes with several interesting steep chutes. Our total roundtrip distance was ~11.1 miles with a total elevation climbed/skied of ~3006'. Our car-to-car time was 9 hours.

Although the approach is approx 6 miles via the windsor trail, the first 2 miles are slightly down hill allowing for quick travel. The majority of elevation gain is saved for the final push. Since Baldy is the areas highest peak, you can bet on winds. Favoring the ridge proper can protect you slightly from the W/NW winds. Beware of the significant cornices which develop along most of the approach ridge.

There are 2 prominent east facing chutes prior to reaching Santa Fe Baldy's summit, each providing approx 1000' vertical, and averaging slope angles at approx 38 degrees.

Exiting the basin

is quick with little elevation gain.

ski in blue

We skied the left most line in this pic taken from the approach ridge

the entrance to our line

Another angle taken from near the summit of Santa Fe Baldy