The Y-Not, NW Couloir Pheiff, Gear Failure #3

Here's how the last two days went down.

FRIDAY:

I backed into my garage door after the opener seemingly malfunctioned, destroying the door, my box, and crossbars. That made me late for our run at the Y-Not Couloir. It didn't matter though because we made good time, found our way, and I was able to forget about how pissed I was just hours before.

Here's CC finding his way up the Y-Not

JD turned into a little rage monkey at the top.

...Not sure why since the skiing was pretty good.

We leap frogged our way down to the rappel and found that the anchors are most inconveniently located. Completely exposed to avalanche and rock fall, they've been partially destroyed and are hard to safely access if the conditions are even slightly icy. We slung a large tree about ten feet up that I feel should be the permanent anchor. Adding to the cluster was a fixed rope some party left behind.

Here's a peek.

To gain the lower apron, there's a fun section of mandatory straightlining, crappy snow, and dark granite walls.

Y-Not rappel crotch shot:

While taking pictures from the cave, the rage monkey reappeared:
Untitled from andy dorais on Vimeo.


SATURDAY:

We had big plans to start at 4:00 AM, head up the Pheifferhorn, and then linkup big lines in the area until dark. It was supposed to be glorious. It was, until I had a gear malfunction and was unable to click into my bindings.

Back to the Pheiff...

CA came with us this morning and is an awesome guy. He was so psyched for us to be successful on our planned link up, that he kept jumping to the front to break trail. Happy from the get go (4:15AM), I'll ski with that guy any day.

Scrambling in the dark.

Wake up!

They boys on top of the Pheiff at 6:30 in the morning:

CA, above the rappel, with a few of our intended lines in the background. My binding broke at the spot from where this picture was taken.

CA, with a hip rappel down the surprisingly filled in NW couloir. It was 6-10 feet at the most. For those of you into airing stuff, now would be a good time for a ropeless descent. I was even tempted on the kid skis and broken binding.

So, we found ourselves in Hogum Fork at 7:20 AM with untrustworthy gear, torn as to whether to continue or nor. The voice of reason prevailed and a potentially remarkable day was cut short by six or seven lines. Each line is an adventure in itself, but I'm still interested in using light (if I could find some that didn't break) gear and a wild imagination to create something bigger. Pachinko is the game and it's becoming an addiction.