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twodogdad Member
Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 846 | TRs | Pics Location: seattle |
Conditions at Whistler don’t get any better in April (thanks, La Nina). Last weekend I enjoyed fabulous powder and had to go back to capture something that had eluded me: Husume Couloir (named after the first letters of the first people who skied it). It’s the most prominent couloir on the right-hand side of Blackcomb Glacier, right after the Spearhead.
01TheTargetHusumeCouloirFrom RubySpearheadRightCoronaBowlLeft
Getting there involves a pleasant hike: from the top of the Showcase Tbar make a high traverse of the Blackcomb Glacier aiming for the Eastern Gate; from the gate skin S then E to the East shoulder of the Sperhead; from there drop toward the Spearhead Glacier but half-way to the glacier start traversing left to a couple of prominent notches: the first is Husume; the second the entry to Corona Bowl; getting to Husume involves climbing a 100+ snow ladder. It’s a leisurely one hour from E gate (too many photo temptations) with a gain of 800+ feet. The couloir is steep and long: it’s famous because it’s a bit out of the beaten track but not quite as steep or narrow as some of the inbounds double blacks (Pakalolo or the bowls off Spanky). I skied it twice--perfect powder, almost untracked—and considered a third run but the weather deteriorated so I stayed inbounds the rest of the day.
03DeckerRightTroreyLeftFromSpearheadShoulder 04BeyondTrorey 06EntriesToHusumeCoronaBowlAndPhalanxMtn 07TraverseUnderSpearhead 08ChuteToEntryOfHusume 11TopOfHusume 12HusumeAndToeOfBlackcombGlacierBelow
On Monday I wanted to ski it one more time, then ski the Corona but en route to the Spearhead I hooked up with a young Canadian solo rider who proposed skiing Phalanx Mountain and being solo myself I jumped at the offer. The route is the same up to Spearhead shoulder but then you drop to the Spearhead glacier and make a long high traverse along the N side, contouring Phalanx Mountain up to an unmistakable chute of some 300+ feet leading up to a notch just NE from Phalanx Summit. Climbing the chute is something of a challenge even though we found a pretty good snow ladder. As we were taking a breather at the top I spotted two other skiers coming up and decided to wait for them. When the joined us and one of them spoke with an accent that sounded to me Polish (there are a lot of Poles at Whistler) I sang to him the first line of Poland’s national anthem (it’s an especially uplifting line if you’ve just finished climbing a 40-45-degree chute), to which the man protested—to my dismay and delight—that they were Bulgarians (from Vancouver). Fancy this: three Bulgars meeting on top of nowhere with nary a soul around for miles except for my New Brunswick friend Phil. Phil then led us on a tour down the Phalanx glacier and eventually back to the so-called Poop Chutes and the toe of the Blackcomb glacier. From East Gate to the top of Phalanx (8440) is about 2000 vertical feet; the vertical drop is about 3000 ft.
13BlackcombBackcountry1 14BlacombBackcountry2 15BlackcombBackcountry3 16BlackcombBackcountry4 17WedgeMtn 18PhilAboutToDropToSpearheadGlacier 19StairmasterChuteLeadingToPhalanxSummitAndPoopChutes 20StairmasterPhilNearingTop 21PhilOnTopOfStairmaster 22MyselfOnTopOfStairmaster 23StairmasterSpearheadGlacierBelowMtnXXBehind 24StairmasterSpearheadGlacierBelow 26ThreeBulgarsOnTopOfNowhere 25WedgeMtnFromStairmaster 27SkiMeFranklin 28Marcus 29Andrei 30Andrei 31RubyDiamondBowlsFromPoopChutes 32PhalanxMtnCenter 33BlackcombGlacierSpearheadSuhumePhalanxLeftGarnettBowlRight
Fantastic terrain, pristine powder, unexpected good company: ski touring doesn’t get any better. Thanks, Phil; merci, sunarodnitsi Marcus and Andrei. I’ll be back—before the end of this season.
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TrailPair Member
Joined: 17 Apr 2005 Posts: 1699 | TRs | Pics
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My, it sure likes like Winter there! Beautiful scenery!
This thing called work is interfering with my play
This thing called work is interfering with my play
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puzzlr Mid Fork Rocks
Joined: 13 Feb 2007 Posts: 7220 | TRs | Pics Location: Stuck in the middle |
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puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
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Tue Apr 19, 2011 9:02 pm
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Way to get to where it's working for you! If the "Bulgar Connection" became a movie, who would you like to play your part?
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twodogdad Member
Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 846 | TRs | Pics Location: seattle |
It's a puzzle: I need another dog, to teach him Bulgarian (Boon & Docs are getting too old to learn a new language). N
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Tangeman ride the storm
Joined: 24 Oct 2010 Posts: 485 | TRs | Pics Location: Cascadia |
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Tangeman
ride the storm
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Wed Apr 20, 2011 5:29 pm
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Beautiful! We have a big photo my mom took from Seventh Heaven in our house.
The skiing there looks great! In the meantime, I'll enjoy the quality crap thats still lingering here!
"Civilization is a nice place to visit, although I wouldn't want to live there."
My photos
"Civilization is a nice place to visit, although I wouldn't want to live there."
My photos
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twodogdad Member
Joined: 21 Nov 2006 Posts: 846 | TRs | Pics Location: seattle |
Yes, they got only the benefits of La Nina this time--but things are getting very pricey there, what with the US dollar in the crapper and gas at $4... tdd
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joker seeker
Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Posts: 7953 | TRs | Pics Location: state of confusion |
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joker
seeker
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Wed Apr 20, 2011 9:49 pm
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Nice. And party time in the village to boot.
We looked up at Husume last weekend as we skied fresh powder on the blackcomb glacier - looked like a nice line. We went over to Decker Saturday, nearly getting to the summit and needing to navigate by braille to return as the cloud deck really closed in, wind picked up, and graupel started falling hard, and ski tracks were filling in quickly.
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Stefan-K Member
Joined: 10 Aug 2009 Posts: 522 | TRs | Pics Location: seattle |
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Stefan-K
Member
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Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:59 am
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I_CanTotallyVisualizeYouLaunchingIntoThePolishNationalAnthem!
looks like some fun lines!
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