After a few night shifts, I was tired of seeing everyone gloat across the internet about the ski conditions. Sleep or lack thereof be damned, I was determined to get in a few turns.
Snow levels had dropped to the valley floor, laying down a coat of low density fluff atop a solid base, so though I couldn’t find a partner for the morning, I felt good about wandering off alone. I intended the Zeus Couloir, a chuting gallery non-classic adjacent to the West Slabs on Mt Olympus.
With too little sleep, I didn’t bother to read the guidebook and ended up passing the base of the couloir proper in a quest to ski from a visible col. In retrospect, the couloir was a shallow corner in the slabs that while filled in was actively stuffing as I passed– a project for another day.
Still, the corner that I skied delivered. The main slabs had stuffed into the couloir, reducing the overhead hazard and filling the couloir with waist-deep cold smoke. While a wallow, particularly alone, the work paid off.
