[TR] Hardy, open fly couloir + Goldenhorn, south face - 5/24/2009

[danhelmstadter]

Trip: Hardy, open fly couloir + Goldenhorn, south face -

 

Date: 5/24/2009

 

Trip Report:

I was ready to give the Open Fly another look after turning around at the top of the couloir last monday due to avi danger.

 

Pic taken from Golden Horn

 

I left Easy Pass parking area around 430, hiked a little ways south on 20, then entered the woods and shwacked (eastside shwack = easy) up a ridge to the entrance of the open fly - located on a sub peak of Hardy. The Open fly is NNE faceing, but so deeply incut into the rock that sunhit in early morning is questionable. As it was - the snow in the couloir proved to be quite hard when I first found it, so I waited a couple hours for the day to heat up, while the entrance caught some indirect sun. The couloir overhung by large peeling cornices which I stomped through to gain access.

 

 

The upper couloir had some excellant steep turns on proto-corn + mank.

 

 

I unfortunatly found a deep icy runnel through the constriction. This runnel ran most of couloir, requireing mostly survival skiing, but there were good turns to be had in places on the sides of the runnel, and the lower couloir and aprun which were deviod of this nasty feature. The snow in the meat of the couloir was VARIABLE, I even found powder in places, but ice and everything inbetween too.

 

The sun looked high enough to allow a ski of the south face of Goldenhorn, which is across the valley of the Methow River from the north side of Hardy.

 

 

I skinned my way up through a fresh-this-year avi path through obliterated trees.

 

 

The snow began to get manky, allowing for a full pole depth stab fairly easily. My skis kept me on the surface of a weak corn crust - which was easy to bust through to iso-mank below with a stomp. Veiws from the summit were very cool, the north and east sides of Goldenhorn are sheer cliffs. Views of the Open Fly were good.

 

 

The ski off the south side was very good - I did trigger several small wet sluffs, which were predictably cut. Heres a shot of my tracks -

 

 

To get back I climbed back up Hardy -- (the slope is visible to the lookers right of the open fly in both open fly pictures.) Then I skiied down the south side until the snow ran out (quite a ways from the road).

 

I had more ambitious plans for today, but I decided instead to ski 2 laps from Blue Lake Peak to the Hairpin on the pass. Manky Manky snow, but still a lot of fun.

 

 

[JoshK]

 

Very cool, thanks for sharing.

[wayne]

jeez, Dan thats rad!

[G-spotter]

Gnar gnar

[AlpineK]

Right on

 

[img:center]http://www.danbbs.dk/~rep/pictures/animation/skianim.gif[/img]

[goatboy]

How steep is the Open Fly at it's steepest?

[danhelmstadter]

mostly one butt cheek clencher steep, with a section of duel cheeks

[dbb]

Nice job skiing two peaks in the same day! That open fly couloir is so much fun. We did it again earlier in May 09 and had some decent snow (though the icy runnels at the bottom were survival).

 

 

I bet this is in good nic right now!

[Kyle_Flick]

Hello? The man is a machine! Let's chip in for airfare for Dan to fly to the Alps and ski the Haute Rt.in a day.

[Sol]

wow

[Doug_Hutchinson]

(Apologies for highjacking this thread, too lazy to start my own and your overview shot Dan says it all - thanks).

 

At the recommendation of Dave (thanks Dave!), skied the Open Fly with Michael Adams on Saturday. What a killer line! Enters the NW Straight Chuter hall of fame with the Slot/Snot, the Zipper (Lane), Gunsight (Anthony Lakes), etc. Love these lines!!

 

The upper 1,000 feet was windloaded with over two feet of new. Pucker factor was very high jumping in.

 

Looking down the virgin-in-white from the entrance cornice (which required no mandatory air):

 

 

It pinches/rolls to a 15-ft wide, 45-degree constriction where I was absolutely sure I would get see how well my Avalung worked, but it surprisingly did not release. Looking down the crux:

 

 

Michael entering throat:

 

 

Even with lots of new, ice runnels in the gut on the lower third seem to be unavoidable forcing a lot of high lining on the sides:

 

 

It opens near the exit where debris dodging was required:

 

 

If you like steep chutes, add this one to the list. Currently, need to climb nearly 2000 feet from the highway to the snowline but it is way worth it.