The Apollo Couloir/Apollo Burger Linkup

Over the past week I've skied with old friends, poked around Lamb's Canyon (very nice) as part of my commute home from work, and have been shut down a few times by weather/conditions.  Patience has been the name of the game.

                  

                        JD looking for snow on Timp

River crossing fun

Today we skied the Apollo Couloir on Mount Olympus.  Although not very difficult, it's a nice aesthetic line that I've been eyeing for a long time.  The natural linkup is to ski the couloir and then go eat a burger at Apollo Burger.  We did just that.  

The approach is war

Through the brush it didn't get much better

The debris continued for a while and then we broke through to find untracked, soft, goodness.

Looking up the Apollo

Plenty more kick turns to come

JD trying not to fall off the knife edge

 At the top of the Apollo, a right upward trending traverse over some slabs gains a saddle from which one can look down toward Tolcat(?) Canyon and I-215.  A short scramble north gains the ridge line from where the the West Slabs are visible.  We contemplated skiing the Zeus Chute (shallow corner on the east end of the Medusa's Face) but the snow pack looked shady and after reading Jared's report, we felt ill equipped to handle any necessary raps or climbing.  Now I have a couple more lines on the tick list.

                      

Tempting, but no thanks.

                     

                              Small, manageable slabs

 We down climbed back to the saddle and having booted the upper section of the chute because the snow had become noticeably slabby, we made a couple cuts with good result.  Once down the top section and into the chute proper, we were treated to brilliant powder as we took turns busting up our skin track.

                      

                             JD on his new Nanga Parbats

Part II was trying to find an Apollo Burger to go eat an Apollo burger.  Iphones are amazing and we quickly pulled into this joint:

Murry Holiday Blvd location

How disgusting.  Como se dice piglet?

Linkup complete.