This mornings destination was the West Couloir of Kessler Peak. With the warm temps we've had all this week, I opted for the early start to avoid messing around on the slopes during midday. I got to the trailhead before 7:30 and started up Argenta Slide Path. About 3 hours later I was at the top of Kessler. While it's hard to notice that theres any sort of couloir, the route starts right from the summit and drops west down the bowl on the opposing side of Argenta. Theres a band of exposed rocks that may make skiing right into it from the summit difficult, but it is easy to go skiers right to avoid them. It starts as a treed-in bowl, then a gully, then a chute, then an open bowl, another chute, a winding gully, and then a drop off... I had read in Andrew Mclean's guidebook "Chuting Gallery", that there's a cliff you avoid to skiers right, but didn't expect to have to take off the skis and do some downclimbing to get through. Makes it more adventurous though. The route then follows the gully into Mineral Fork where you can cruise out the canyon easily. According to my odometer, the parking for Argenta is about 1.3 miles up from Mineral Fork Trailhead. During the descent, I found fresh snow in the open and tree-proceted sections of the couloir. The tighter parts were full of icey debris but not steep enough to make it a problem. I could imagine that with better conditions this line would be almost equal to all the other great lines down Kessler Peak.
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| Beautiful day up in the Wasatch |
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| First tight section of the couloir |
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| Second tight section |
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| If the snow was a bit softer this would make a fun drop. Icy landings makes a fun down climb skiers right |
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| Enchanted forest of aspens on the way into Mineral Fork |
GH
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