The day after nailing Little Pine in great conditions Dylan Freed (aka DJ Freed) and I skied Stairs Gulch in good conditions. After that I couldn’t help myself but ski another big, classic line. Coalpit seemed to fit the bill perfectly. So I rounded up a posse and headed out. A crew of 5: Noah, Jonah, Ty, Steve and I. We decided the prefered approach was straight up the Y couloir since Andrew McLean and the backcounrty.com crew had put in a bootpack a few days earlier. A nice 3,000 foot staircase is a great start to the 5,300 vertical feet involved in the getting to the top of Coalpit.
Ty in the bottom of the Y. Ty is attempting to get in the the Guinness book for carrying the all-time heavist setup to the top of Coalpit. Armada ARG with Dukes and Salomon alpine boots! It's all about the down!
Noah and Ty almost to the top of the Y. Little does Ty know but Noah is about to introduce him to ski mountaineering.
At the top of the Y super freeway there are two options: climber right and climbers left. I had always gone climbers left but today with ultra well traveled bootpack right looked a little better for some reason. Everyone followed me except for Noah who, like me, was used to going left. Ty, never having been up the Y just trusts Noah’s experience. Noah has probably hiked the Y as many times as the rest of our group combined. It turns out today left was not so easy. I sadly missed this whole mini-epic but heard things like ropes, multiple pitches and hauling packs! Sounds like himalayan alpine climbing!
Is this heaven... no just LCC.
Coalpit headwall. A classic Wasatch line
Ty and Noah press on less than 500' from the top of Coalpit
Yummy! 5,000 feet of north facing goodness!