Backcountry skiing is the game of patience. We spend years staring at lines and waiting for them to come in. There are so many factors: stability, weather, work schedules, partners, motivation, and thin snowpacks to name a few.
For the couloir above Goats Head Soup, its takes something we haven't had in awhile along Turnagain Arm - consistent snow to sea level. But, every time we round the bend at Windy Corner, we crane our necks, try not to swerve into oncoming traffic, and hope for a fleeting glimpse of snow snaking down the 4,000 foot line to the ocean.
In early March, when Andy and Connor figured out that it was in, Tony and I weren't going to miss our chance.
We left work early with bad cases of powder fever, parked at the Windy Corner lot, skinned the Turnagain Arm Trail to the gully, then popped out of the alder tube into the lower chute.
Andy and Lance were ahead of us, and we followed their tracks as they took the subtle left-hand turn into the upper couloir.
Booting upwards, the brown and orange rock walls grew around us.
We left work early with bad cases of powder fever, parked at the Windy Corner lot, skinned the Turnagain Arm Trail to the gully, then popped out of the alder tube into the lower chute.
Andy and Lance were ahead of us, and we followed their tracks as they took the subtle left-hand turn into the upper couloir.
Booting upwards, the brown and orange rock walls grew around us.
