The Grunge Couloir (NE Couloir of Mount Timpanogos)

Grunge (sometimes referred to as the Seattle Sound) is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. The word grunge is believed to be a back-formation from the US slang adjective grungy, which originated in about 1965 as a slang term for “dirty” or “filthy”. (Thanks for the above reference from my favorite site on the web, www.wikipedia.com)

Let’s get filthy!
Last Friday I headed an hour south for what might be one of the last ski outings of the season.

I parked at the Timpanooke campground (5:45ish) and took the trail that works through the trees and towards the ascent ridge.

The trail levels off and heads north. I broke off for the ridge here and encountered some road blocks.

It’s always worth the early rise to see how the great big ball of sky fire will present itself.

It’s true the Wasatch is too overcrowded. You can’t go anywhere without running into somebody these days.

First peek into the chute.

Full view of the Grunge. I ditched some gear at this point seeing that I could get into the chute cleanly from the ridge.

Things became spicy at this point! The huge rock butress was waking up with the sun and washing the sleepy (skull crushing rocks) from it’s face. I had been at this exact spot last spring and turned back due to rock fall. Realizing this hazard is just par for the course I decided to carefully proceed.

Utilizing my mad dodgeball skillz I kept thinking to myself “If you can dodge a ball, you can dodge a rock” (really stupid now that I think about it from the safety of home). It was easy to run side to side out on the apron and avoid trouble. Yes, I had a helmet. (See I’m still being safe mom) Joking aside, this is a true hazard on this route and you should get an early start.

The chute was a beautiful place to be. It felt more like something from the Tetons.

Still plenty of singing missles in the chute, but I stuck close to the rock walls and used them as a shield.

A recent comment suggested I use too many pics. For Marit, here is the 250th photo of this chute.

Finally topping out (8:30ish) with a full view of Happy Valley.

Skiing has developed a rating system similar to the climbing world. The Grunge is rated S6, which is quoted as “Slopes continuously steeper than 55 degrees. Painful death from falling is highly likely”. Pretty simple then, don’t fall. I know I have some commitment issues, but it took me a few minutes to sack-up and drop into this one.

The traverse from ridge into the fall line gut was steep and exposed, but the snow was perfect corn.

Chips Ahoy! The rest of the turns were on firm, but edgeable snow packed with chocolate chip rocks.

The apron was moneyballs!

Bushwacking back down the ridge.

Found the trail again and followed it back to the truck.

Kissing farewell to the the best season of my life! I love a climactic finish!

I’m going to borrow my dad’s favorite line that he uses about his profession/obsession “If I knew of something more fun, I would do it”.

Tags: couloir, Grunge couloir, skiing, skiing utah, steep skiing, Timpanogos

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 22nd, 2008 at 11:01 pm and is filed under 2008 WINTER, COULOIRS. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.