Cheops Nicci's and STS Couloirs
Looking down Connaught creek towards the Discovery Center/Mt MacDonald
The Swiss peaks emerging from the clouds.
Resuming the Trip Mike and i took back in april. After two long and somewhat challenging days (partially due to conditions on the second day) we opted to do a bit more "Roadside" skiing out behind the Glacier NP Discovery center. Connaught Creek/Mt Cheops was the general goal. This Zone is about as hazard filled from an avalanche standpoint as a zone can be, however most of these paths, similar to the snow in the Wasatch, tend to stabalize relatively quickly. Coming off of a crazy warm spell with a few days of below freezing weather and a few inches of fresh snow, things were pretty well locked up so heading up the drainage was a reasonable option. We had our sights set on some of the couloirs that come off the north face of Cheops, however weather wasnt exactly cooperating with most of the terrain at and above treeline being in and out of the clouds/snow. On the first lap, to test out the snow and see how chunky things were underneath, We dropped into Nicci's Notch, a smaller and lower couloir to the west of the eventual goal, the STS couloir.
Niccis rode ok. The upper bit of Nicci's rode well with a few fresh inches of snow, however we were quickly greeted by lightly covered chunder that a guide who was also skiing on Cheops warned us about. Who doesnt love a little bit of survival skiing?
A brief break in the clouds looking up at the summit of Cheops from the Nicci's bench
Me dropping into Nicci's Notch in flat light, which make finding the underlying chunder difficult.
Heading back up the skin track we had already put in, we decided to go check out the STS and see if it was possible. The guidebook mentioned that there might be a cornice at the top that might need to be "Managed". Understatement of the year... When we got to the top, the cornice seemed to be upwards of 50 feet tall in spots, something that i would say is completely unmanageable. After wandering around for a bit, we found an anchor so i could get on rope and see what a cornice entrance might look like. The first spot was a 50ft overhanging rappel down to the couloir below. Good thing we had maybe 50 feet total of rope! I tried another spot, this time it was only maybe 30 feet of overhaning rappel but the anchor was at least 30 feet back from the edge. A rappel would leave us hanging in space above the chute with a 45 degree or so landing and a small choke in the couloir below.
I finally settled on a small sneak into the couloir on far skiers left that we had both decided was not an option, as it was very steep and had significant exposure above a several hundred foot cliff into Cheops north bowl. Without a rope this was not an option, but, after looking around for a while, we found a third anchor in place that we could use. In an effort to clean up the mountains, i have started to clean up old tat and remove redundant anchors whereever i go- we removed the two distracting anchors that were less bomber and put you in a worse spot for couloir entrance, rigged up the rope (signle strand, we really should have brought more rope but decided not to at the car, and now would have to pass a not mid rappel) and fixed it in place for a rappel.
Mike coming off rope on the shoulder of the STS couloir with the far edge of a monster cornice in view. The right edge of this photo is a farily substantial cliff
Me skiing down the upper snowfield in the STS Coulir
I went first into the couloir. The rope was definitely welcome as the entrance was steep and firm with significant exposure, but once i got to the end of the rope i was on the shoulder of the couloir, a spot of relative safety, and had triggered a small wind pocket that raced off down the chute without issue. Mike followed, and in our brief window of clear weather he sent it halfway down the couloir in mostly good snow conditions! I followed and we continued to leapfrog until we were on the apron and out of overhead danger. Of course, with these steep couloirs, there is often a runnel or ice chute in the middle from snow constantly shedding, and on the way down mike found that runnel a few times, in the end he broke one of his bindings that was not repairable... something we would deal with later. The ski out of Connaught creek was quick and before we knew it we were back at the car, a nice quick hitter day with some solid lines.
The day on Cheops, STS is the longer descent just left of the main peak, Nicci's Notch is the descent that comes of the left shoulder of the peak
Mt Temple- Not Quite Aemmer and Cobra Couloirs
After a rest day (and of course a resort day checking out Panorama because, well we are all the way up here and we can sleep when we get back to utah) we set sights on a larger objective again. Cheops was an "active recovery" day and we were feeling a bit less gassed. We were looking at a solid weather window with just a bit of new snow and a trend towards stability, so mike and i opted to try a second "50 Classics" line for this trip and one that was high on both of our lists, the Aemmer Couloir on Mt Temple. Mt Temple is striking, there is no other way to put it, a huge sweeping pyramid of cliffs with a large glacier/serac at the top of the north face, it stuck in my mind when lindsay and i skied across highway 93 at Lake louise 5 years earlier.
Looking up at Mt Temple from the approach. Aemmer is just out of view on the far left of the peak, the Cobra goes up the deeply incut gash on the far right of the peak.
Because we were comign from Golden and had about an hour drive, we left the parking lot at the blisteringly early time of 7:30 am... probably a bit later than we would have liked but workable. There were a few other cars in the lot at the time, and we quickly found that everyone that was in the area was trying to go up the Aemmer as well... at least all of the tracks headed up the drainage towards Mt Temple. As the sun started to peak out onto the mountain, we were passing under the north face serac which had clearly seen recent icefall. Mike and i split up and quickly moved through the area. Looking ahead, there were a few... interesting... skin tracks that had been put in, not where i would usually opt to put them but clearly a few others had passet through so we continued on. Cresting onto the ridge.saddle leadign into the Aemmer, we saw a group of 4 below us, watching, with a fifth heading up a south face on little Temple. It looks like they had bailed out of the Couloir. Not wanting to have come all this way for nothing, Mike and i transitioned to booting and headed up the Chute. Within a bout 200 feet or so, we hit a weird windslab layer and, after talking about it, decided to not tempt fate and turn around. The Ski out of the apron on the Aemmer was weird windboard and all too short.
Looking back at the Aemmer from the saddle after bailing a short way up.
Back at the saddle, the group ahead of us was watching us as we went up following and turning around where they did. We chatted for a bit before mentioning we were going to head off towards the Cobra, a very incut chute on the western side of Mt Temple.
Looking down the Cobra from about the midway point, with the Banff group trailing behind in the bootpack.
Mike taking a shift breaking trail up the final few hundred yards to the end of the couloir.
Putting in the track up to the chute, i tried to stay as close to the cliff edge as possible to reduce overhead hazard after seeing what the Aemmer had to offer. I dug a quick pit and found relative stability, and knowing that this couloir dead-ended halfway up the peak, and the fact that it was very incut seemed to indicate stability. Our new friends from the Aemmer decided to follow us up, but didnt have verts. Even though mike and i put in the entire bootpack up what ended up being a 2200ft tall chute, the other group from Banff hardly kept up without them. Mike and i topped out of what would surely be a 5 star line in the wasatch, but here, with such an abundance of amazing peaks around the Cobra is hardly even known. The chute dead ends into an 800 foot cliff with walls that in places seem to be twice that with a slope pitch easily in the 40s, topping into the 50s in spots.
Mike ready to drop into the Cobra, the views from the top were outstanding!
I got the pleasure of skiing blower powder first at the top of the couloir
Our Banff friends stopped a few hundred feet below the top below a rocky choke, so Mike and i transitioned and skied some amazing steep powder down to them, then we leapfrogged the rest of the way down the chute, and what an amazing line it was! Amazingly asthetic and easily in my book miles better than the supposed "Classic" Aemmer.
The slog out was a bit rough with hot and heavy snow and some long flats, but we all headed back in to town to grab some beer and burgers and celebrate failure and success with our new friends who turned out to be from around the globe, Australia, England, Japan, Argentina, and thne us two intermountain boys from Utah!
A successful plan B, honestly a much more striking line than the Aemmer anyway, quite the consolation prize!
The Aemmer is the triangle looking loop on the right, the Cobra is on the left. The Aemmer turned out to be 80% approach for a Couloir that was only about 800ft long, In my book the Cobra was definitely way more classic.
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