The Cascade Chronicles

Pole Couloir

stefans ski cut at the top of the pole

shreddy livin up to his name

Early start for the Southwest couloir

dog leg # 1

stefan "I refuse to take of my skins" Beattie

Conditions were all right


taking a little air

the walls



The teared rock was fun to play on

Squaw peak rd looking up at the
southwest

Wrapped up the two couloirs on the southwest face of Cascade Ridge a little project that started back at the end of January with a forced retreat with high winds and big sloughs. I went on

january 28th with my friend Joe from Taos the winds were gusting almost to 70 mph on the ridge tops a fresh 30-40 inches was basically shower down on us with no vis in new terrain we turned around, our decision validated by the huge sloughs that had poured in from other forks off the main couloir. Not the day to be up there, but the couloirs looked awesome from what little I could see. I was back the next day january 29th with little to no wind, and bluebird. Got Shreddy and Stefan to come along when the couloirs came into view after skinning up Rock Canyon we noticed a huge couloir lookers left of the couloir I was in the day before, since it didn't have a huge snowfield funnel above it we opted for that one it ran directly into a rock ridge. I believe this couloir is named the Pole Couloir it was sunny and we skinned the whole thing great soft turns on the way down 2800 vert to squaw Peak Rd never steeper than 40 degrees. The walls where huge, and teared like provo canyon and it was wide. I still couldn't get the Southwest couloir out of my mind i wondered if the whole thing went since it isn't visible from any where it had even bigger rock walls and dog legged in a couple different sections. So stefan and I were back on feb 13th early to take another crack at the southwest. It was cool to be able to see in it this time and we skinned the whole thing (not my choice) conditions were well you know deep, once again the walls were the best part beside the face shots this couloir was more narrow and had a lot of turns in it the southwest was a solid 3000 vertical down to the road it didn't get steeper than 40 degrees. Overall the couloirs are wastach classics like none I have skied and aren't in any guide books I thought at first that we could be sneaking in an FD but after skiing them I knew it was to good to be true, and not technical enjoy ski like a boy.