The NE Couloir of the Pfieferhorn. An interesting 52 degree face with an 80ft rappel.
The early bird gets the worm and the tardy skier gets the weather. Courtney Phillips and I started hiking with beautiful blue skies and spring temps late this morning. However, stormy weather started coming in as we reached the upper Maybird Basin and traversed underneath the line.
We hunkered down beneath giant granite blocks to grab a snack and escape the increasing ridge-top wind.
Blowing snow blasted us along the final summit ridge.
I like to fancy myself a mountain goat at times, graceful and skilled at mountain travel and impervious to the weather.
The reality today was we were just men a little late to ski our objective
Rising avalanche risk, 40mph gusts and snotty frozen faces convinced us to turn back.
Another lovely day in the mountains!
Courtney with a quick glance back as we got the hell out of there. We'll be back!
Tags: North East Couloir of The Pfiefferhorn
This entry was posted
on Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 at 7:33 pm and is filed under Near Life Experiences, Ski Mountaineering, The Chuting Gallery, Winter 2009.
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.
Facebook
