DAY 100! And then some

Well, I wanted to do something huge, epic, remote and wild for my 100th day. Jim Knight had recommended a big line on Cascade, but as a medical student, I am over worked and have so very little time of my own. Such is my plight. That said, today we settled for a guided tour down the Hallway Couloir by the Casey Londer, also known as the powda ganster. There were a fresh 15 inches and so it was going to be fun where ever we went. Since Casey was the guide, we made him break trail all along the ridge until he "thought" we were at the right place to drop off the ridge.

He was right.


The entrance to the Hallway is a devious one and hard to see from above. We picked our way through the upper sections and found the middle entrance. It's chokes down pretty tight and necessitates a mini straight line to enter the main chute. To test the stability, we sent our guide down, who found things pretty solid.

Sam doing what he does

A look back at the Hallway

Then today, Sam and I wanted to go check out the ridge line between the Twins, Sunrise, and Dromedary as a little bit of WURLOS recon. We parked at the Maybird Avy sign, intending to head up the chute to the Sunrise ridge, but were dumbfounded to find ourselves baking in the 60 degree heat heading up the massive Tanner's slide path. Somehow, while bush wacking through the scrub oak, Sam led us into the big gun.

Unsure of whether to push on or not with roller balls cascading down the steep side walls, we continued until a decent wet slide came meandering down the upper chute entraining tons of snow and clearing a safe path to the top. So, we kept skinning till we found ourselves at the saddle between Sunrise and Drom.

Dromedary's East Ridge on the right. We're gonna climb that...in the dark?

The way down was slushy goodness that was a chore on the Hagans. I've been skiing the race skis as practice for the above mentioned traverse. Sam on the other hand

About half way down, we realized we'd overstayed our welcome a bit.

Tanner's wet slide from andy dorais on Vimeo.

In case you missed it in the audio, Sam says, " well, at least we know we can out run them." Good plan.

Sam laughing at his potential tomb.

Up next...an attempt at the big traverse.