HippyTurns: Little Pine Couloir 3/5

Little Pine Couloir

The alarm went off at 2 a.m. Tired and confused I got up, drank some coffee, and pulled all my gear into the car. I met Brett and Carl around 3 outside Brett's house, as we said our good mornings and cruised up towards the mountains. Carl had to be back at 10, hence the nature of our early start, so we took two cars so Brett and I could get some laps in at Alta when he heads back. It's been a while since I've started this early for a ski or line, so I didn't mind getting after the true alpine start this time. Joking on the early hour, our slogan became 'dark n' early'.

Our goal for the morning was Little Pine Couloir. Little Pine is one of the many awesome south-facing LCC slide paths. It stretches right from the road 3200 feet in an uninterrupted 40 degree line to the ridge between Big and Little. We arrived at the White Pine Trailhead sometime around 3:45 and walked briefly down canyon before spotting the line in the dark and crossing through just a bit of brush to the bottom of the apron. I managed to forget my headlamp this morning and ended up learning my lesson from it.

Getting closer

After the first few hundred feet with our skins on, we reached a large amount of debris shortly inside the actual couloir. Convinced that we would be able to throw the skins back on shortly, I had the idea of shouldering the skis for the mean time. Another few hundred feet later we realized it would be much more efficient to throw the skis on the pack and boot the rest of the way. So we did. For a while.

Three thousand feet later we topped out the couloir just as the sun was coming up over the mountains. Our early morning wakeup was rewarded with some magnificent views of sunrise. We traveled a bit on the ridge to a small subpeak where we watched the sun come up above Alta. On this traverse I managed to know off a small wind pocket that was hanging onto some slabby rock. Nothing serious but something to keep our eyes out for.

Enjoying that sunrise

Sun coming up above Alta

After enjoying a delicious bagel I threw on the skis and got ready to drop. Brett went first and slashed a wall on the skiers right side as Carl snapped a picture. I did the same then met up with Brett at a safe spot lower down. The snow was mostly soft for the first hald with a fair amount of powder on top of a firm crust. The lower section was a bit harder but still very enjoyable. We cruised to the bottom, enjoying every turn. From there we parted ways and Brett and I went up to Alta to get some 'cool down' laps. A solid 9 laps latter and that was all our legs could handle for the day.