May 31, 2015

Pipeline Couloir

This is American Fork Twin Peaks (viewed from the Snowbird tram... a photo I took 5 years ago), and the Pipeline Couloir is the obvious route with the red dots that starts near the summit of the West Twin.

This week has been pretty awesome. We skied Main Chute on Monday, Suicide Chute on Friday, and did a couple laps in Wolverine Cirque on Saturday. Our plan was to head up to Bald Mountain Pass and see what the Uintas had to offer today, but a photo posted on Instagram on Saturday night made us re-evaluate. Snowbird was open to hiking from the Gad Valley side, and Andrea suggested we finally take a stab at skiing the Pipeline Couloir. Game on!

We started from Creekside and covered the first 1200' of uphill in running shoes with skis A-framed on our packs. It should be noted that Andrea was out of the gates QUICK this morning and I could barely keep up for the first 30 minutes. We made the switch to skins and headed up into the bowl below the West Twin. At the base of the couloir skis were strapped back on the packs and it was a direct climb up the gut of the Pipeline. Fortunately, a booter was in place from a group that skied it on Saturday, which made the final climb go quickly.

At the top of the couloir we made a sidetrip to tag the summit of the West Twin before getting set the for ski down. The couloir is ~42 degrees... steep, but the snow was soft so it didn't feel that steep. We had fun on the descent through Pipeline and out on the apron below.

Lots of photos below, but first, my favorite Andrea quotes of the day...

"It's 5:55... YOU SAID WE DIDN'T HAVE TO WAKEUP UNTIL 6!"

"I can eat ice cream as many times as I want today."

"We should ski Coalpit #4 next winter" (this only is funny with context... she was reading The Chuting Gallery while laying by the pool in the afternoon... it's like we have gone back in time 4-5 years)

Starting from Creekside

Light on the West Twin

The bowl below Pipeline

Looking back towards the Cottonwood Ridge

Starting the couloir climb

Perfect steepness

Stunning backdrop

Getting close to the top

Topping out on the West Twin

Timp still has snow

Skiing down

Andrea's view


Andrea skiing the apron below the Pipeline. This gives a good sense of the scale.

Summer-style exit back to the jeep

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