North Wheeler Peak, Meshugginah>Sedar Chute

The powder train just keeps on rolling. So far this spring I’ve only had one true corn skiing day. The rest have been powder days or leftover powder ski days. This past weekend marked the 10th month in a row I’ve skied powder snow for the season. It seems like that first 24″ storm that hit the Vail Pass area back in early September was a couple of seasons ago.

Hopefully I’ll be able to ski some corn before summer truly sets in.

Here’s a trip report my friend Aaron Parmet wrote after our fun and exposed adventure up near Wheeler Peak. Enjoy the read and the pics.

Trip Report: Oblivion 13er Double Whammy

5.30.07 - Powder Day

Participants: The Three Musketeers/Photographers (all apologies to Alexandre Dumas)

Summit

Iskibc

Adimmen
Meshugginah Face is visible above Adimmen’s head. Can you see it?

No… not the chute… the face with no out. It is a strange line. It sits on an unnamed, unmarked prominence (~13,640) near Wheeler. I first saw the top of it from Clinton, but when I got into the right drainage another day, I concluded that the line wasn’t skiable. How can you ski it without a BASE jump? It closes out to cliffs. There is no way down!

Or so it would seem… there is only one way to discover that it is skiable. The hidden out is a secret only revealed to those climb a particular line on Wheeler. Suddenly, the face was skiable! AND I WANTED IT.

I believe it is a first descent.

Meshugginah seen from North Star

The time was right and I wanted the line. Adimmen drove up the night before and crashed on my couch. Iskibc was out… and then he called at the last moment and was in! Excellent!
-
It was dark out but the stoke level was high as it had snowed during the night. As we turned into Monte Cristo Creek, it began to snow again! As we began to skin up in the darkness and the snow, it felt like winter. Half way to the goal, the snow suddenly lifted, the sky began to clear, and the sun rose all in a matter of minutes. It was surreal.

Retreating Clouds

Sunrise

The sun bathed us in morning light, but our line stayed in shadow.

Skinlight (by Iskibc)

It was time to switch from skins to crampons.

Adimmen & North Star (by Iskibc)

Our route was to climb up the phantom exit chute and then up the face, but the chute was so well hidden that all three of us walked right by it! We all just walked by it even though we had all studied the line photos just hours before. We took the obvious chute lookers left of the face.

Up and Up

Climb 2 (by Iskibc)

We reached the ridge and discovered our error as we stared at our new route:

The first section

We pulled our crampons and started up a class 4 and class 3 knife climb. Adimmen braved it with plastic soles!

Dave pushed ahead on the third section:

It was a long way down on either side… very exposed, but the rock was very good. We finally reached the ridge:

Summit and Adimmen on the Ridge (by Iskibc)

Approaching the summit (by Iskibc)

The summit luckily had a small flatter patch to sit on, snack, and gear up. We peered over the edge looking for the line we wanted. It was critical to choose the right one. It was critical not to ski too far and miss the exit. It was critical to examine the line because we hadn’t climbed the face as we had intended. The weather taunted us was we inspected.

Clouds 2 (by Iskibc)

We had worried that if we were too early to the line, we would slip, and if too late, we might slide. Our timing was perfect. There was 5″ of fresh powder on the soft bed surface. It held nicely, but the slope was very steep so sluff was obviously a concern to be managed. A fall not immediatly arrested by the skier or by rocks would result in an unwanted world record huck to disaster. To put it in the words of my friend Cris, “Ya, you definately gon’ die!”

I dropped in first.

Rollover to Oblivion (by Iskibc)

I made some turns before finding a shielded spot to shoot from. I don’t know how steep the face was exactly because my BCA slope meter maxes out at 50deg. Dave went next.

Consideration

Meshugginah

He made his way through the choke and then carefully found the exit chute.
Then it was Adimmen’s turn:

May Pow

Peering at Oblivion

He went through the rocky choke as well.

Turning towards salvation (by Iskibc)

My turns were steep, fun, and sluffy.

Summit + Sluff Waterfalling over Rocks (by Iskibc)

Summit Bottom (by Iskibc)

We all joined up at the phantom exit chute, Seder Chute. We looked back and considered one last time the consequences of our line:

Exposure = giant cliff and slough tracks (by Iskibc)

“Hey Summit! DON’T LEAN BACK!” (by Adimmen)

Sedar Chute is not very long but it is steep and quite narrow. It is narrower than it appears because of the rocks you cannot see.

Seder Chute (by Iskibc)

IskiNarrowSteepChutes

Summit (by Adimmen)

Adimmen (by Iskibc)

We made the exit, and enjoyed that last of the powder

Where’d ya come from? Where’d you go? Where’d you come from PowderEyeJoe?

We looked back up at the cliffs hiding our line, very happy with our line and having skied it safely. It was the most exposed line I had ever skied. It was and incredible feeling. __________________

And I say this to you tonight, let us not forget. There is Hope! - GET UP!

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