Gray Wolf Mountain - March 23, 2007

Gray Wolf Mtn, 13,608'
NE Couloir via Echo Lake TH
11.5 Miles, 4,200' Gain

Riders: Forrest and myself

Start at 6:45 at the Echo Lake Trailhead
Returned in the dark at 19:45 for a roundtrip time of 13 hours.
Man, that was a long day with post holing on the way out, but still some fun turns in the couloir.

Forrest's post on TGR:
http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81216

Picture 1: Route showing ascent and descent (Click to enlarge)


Picture 2: Sunrise at Echo Lake


Picture 3: First View of our goal


Picture 4: Forrest on the Approach


Picture 5: Switching over to bootpack


Picture 6: Looking West from the top (Greys and Torreys)


Picture 7: How it looks at the entrance to the couloir


Picture 8: Working on the cornice


Picture 9: First turns in the couloir


Picture 10: It's variable from hard pack to pretty nice powder on top of hard slab.


Picture 11: Forrest working it




Picture 13: Looking up about 1/3 down


Picture 14: Forrest enhoying it


Picture 15: Myself in the lower half


Picture 16: Another look up


Picture 17: Our tracks


Picture 18: Post holing on the way out. Nice !!!

Cristo Couloir, Quandary Peak 14,265ft - March 17, 2007

Riders: Scott & Oliver

The Colorado folks have been going after the 14ers the last week or so.
Inspired by that Scott suggested to try the Cristo Couloir. Usually I would not go after those lines this early in the season. However it was now a little different due to the warm weather we had recently that helped to stabilize the south facing slopes. (at least went you start early)

After studying the Snotel sites we saw that we had quite some good freezes in that area overnight. So we decided to give it a try. There is always the possibility to drop the East face in case we do not like what we see in the couloir.

We started at 7AM at the trailhead.

Picture 1: The objective (Click to enlarge)


Picture 2: The lower bowl of the east face


Picture 3: Greys and Torreys loom in the background


Picture 4: The upper bowl of the east face


Picture 5: Switch over to hiking mode


Picture 6: The upper ridges were quite windy and made for a relatively slow going.
Finally made it! (after about 4 hours)


Picture 7: Man…. Wasn’t that supposed to be a nice spring outing??
It was pretty cold and windy at the top.


Picture 8: First look down the couli


Picture 9: What the heck is up with that road block?


Picture 10: Dropping in


Picture 11: First Turns


Picture 12: Watch the road block

Picture 13: Lower Part






Picture 16: Scott pointing the Bros straight down






Picture 19: Myself






Picture 22: I guess he enjoyed that run


Picture 23: Last turns


Picture 24: Looking West at the bottom


Picture 25: Looking up


Picture 26: Our babies treated us well today


Picture 27: The Point (not where we are going, but rather where we are coming from)


Thanks Scott to bring up the idea.
It was a great outing!