Monte Cristo Direct 2/5

It had been almost a week since I had last gone skiing. Sickness had me staying on the couch all throughout the weekend and the beginning of this week. I was itching to get out for another adventure and to enjoy all of this fresh new snow. Finally I felt good enough to get out and explore a bit yesterday morning, despite the cold and windy conditions.

With all this built up energy for adventure, Koby and I set our sights on getting after Monte Cristo Dirrectissimo. We pulled all the gear the night before, and then logged a few hours of sleep before setting out early to get on the trail.

The line

It has been pretty interesting seeing all of the traffic heading up Mt Superior these last few days since the snowfall. For this reason I've always called it the Mt Superior Highway, but I really enjoyed another person’s comments on it yesterday, in which you have to go through downtown Los Angeles to get to Superior. None-the-less we were happy to have a well established skin track and booter the entire way up.

We battled through the strong winds throughout the ridge and made it to the summit of Superior in less than 3 hours. Our line drops Southwest, while all the other traffic drops southeast to the classic south face descent. We were very tempted to ski the headwall, where one can get the classic ‘end of the world photograph, but thought that it was best to save that for another day. There was low risk of anything sliding but if anything did go it would be very high consequence.

It was a windy one

As we were getting ready to drop, I heard something funny coming from behind me and looked over to see a slide carrying two members of another party down a north facing slope of Monte Cristo into Mill B South. We had been watching these two ascend the slope for some time now, and were relieved to see the two of them pop to the surface when the slide settled. One had pulled his airbag but still got partially buried. A few yells down to them, and we confirmed they were ok and didn’t need any assistance. Still a bit of a scare to see something like happen so close to you. A further reminder to stay safe out there and always travel at a safe distance from each other in avalanche terrain.

PC: Random dude atop superior, post-slide

We put our sights back on the run in front of us. The psych was high. I dropped first and enjoyed about a thousand feet of thigh deep powder getting to the anchor, howling at every turn. The snow was so light and there was plenty of it. There had been one other to ski this way, and whoever that was cut out the Monte Cristo Gully. More than two-thirds of this decent was untracked..

I inched up and clipped in to the anchor, some old nuts and a peton on the skiers right side of the couloir. I hear that sometimes this first rappel can be avoided with a deeper snowpack but I’ve never seen it that filled in. Koby came in and followed up to the anchor while I got the rope out and started setting it up. The first rappel was only about 15 meters, leading to a snowfield that has a slung tree on the right hand side. I went first since I had done the line before and knew where the next anchor was. The next rappel was about 30 meters and took about the full length of the rope.

We made it through both rappels quickly and found ourselves in front of even more fresh snow. The snow got a bit heavier near the bottom, as expected, but still plenty deep and a lot of fun. As I was cruising to the end of the run I had to make a quick stop, avoiding a 40-50 foot waterfall drop off, blocking us and the road. We had to backtrack a little bit and make our way up the walls of the couloir to exit.

I still can’t get over how much fun this morning was. It was the most snow I’ve skied all season so far, and to do it on such an awesome run just added to the overall experience. Days like this just show me how much fun backcountry skiing is, and reaffirm why I love the activity so much. 

GH

Grivel Condor Pole Review

Last week at the Outdoor Retailer show we had the opportunity to check out some new and old gear from all sorts of companies across the outdoor industry. This place could be called an amusement park for adults, or at least those with the same interests as us. It’s hard to go wrong with an almost endless amount of booths displaying some of the best products around, topped off with free beer..

After walking around for hours and hours, we were psyched to see so many great new products. However, the product we were most impressed by was the Grivel Condor Pole.

Grivel products were brought to the OR show with Liberty Mountain, a distribution company out of Utah. Among the Grivel stand, there were several products that stood out including some ski backpacks I regret not getting, lightweight carabineers, nifty ice screws, and the condor ski pole.

This was the first time I had seen the Condor, although I hear it has been around for several years throughout Europe. After messing around and inspecting the display model at the stand, we were more than curious about how they would hold up in the mountains and jumped on the opportunity to try them out.

Justin making his way up Tanners Gulch

The next morning we were headed up Tanners Gulch; Grivel Condor in one hand and BD Whippet in the other for each of us. After Plan A of ascending some sketchy couloir and skiing the Southeast Face of Sunrise Peak failed, Plan B was a go. This consisted of spending the next hour until the snow got to optimal condition testing out the Condor in steep uphill travel and its self-arrest capabilities. Here is what impressed us throughout the day:

Retractable Blade: One of the greatest advantages of the Grivel Condor is that the blade has the ability to retract into the handle. By unscrewing a knob, the pick will loosen and can be moved inside the device. This can come in handy if the pick is only needed for uphill travel and self-arrest capabilities aren’t necessary for the downhill. No sense in skiing with a metal blade in front of you when you don’t have to.

Hand guard: We were pretty amazed how nice it was having a hand guard for travelling on all fours through steep uphill terrain. Having the hand guard prevents your gloved hands from taking a dive into the snow with every step. We thought it created a much more fluent process for travelling up the steeps, as well as keeping the hands a bit warmer. The larger handle with a hand guard also gives people the option to use it as a cane for more mountaineering-style traversing.

Rotating Basket: This was another aspect that both of us were greatly impressed from. The Condor has a rotating basket that tilts in each direction. This proved to be very helpful when moving through firmer conditions. It was much easier to get solid contact in the snow with the rotating basket, especially when traversing and going up steeper terrain.

Twist Lock vs Flip Lock: The Grivel Condor comes with a twist lock style for adjusting the pole length, while the Whippet comes with a flip lock system. There have been some past issues with a twist lock system and the flip lock was supposed to address this. However, it seems like the lock system in the Condor is pretty solid, and we’re yet to notice any issue with it. We’ll keep you posted!

Blade: Upon first inspection, it looks like the Condor blade is quite a bit smaller than the Whippet, but after measuring, we found that the blade is only about a quarter of an inch shorter. The one thing the Condor blade does lack is the fin section on top of the Whippet. This can be useful in catching more snow when self-arresting in softer snow. However, when we spend some time comparing the self-arrest capabilities of both poles, we noticed very little difference in the two, as both poles were effective in hard and softer snow.

In conclusion, we’re very excited about acquiring the Grivel Condor and getting to use it more and more throughout the rest of the season. The pole makes uphill travel a lot smoother with the addition of a hand guard and rotating basket. Having the option to retract the pick also makes it a lot easier to opt for the pole when you’re not sure whether you’ll end up needing the blade. Although we hear it can be quite difficult acquiring these poles within the states, maybe we’ll start seeing more of them throughout these next few years.

GH & JT