Apollo Couloir

I’m skipping a TR that I should have written first, but this quick mission is fresh on my mind. Our education morning was cancelled this week so that senior residents could go to a conference, but I’ll be damned if I was going to tell the OB service that and work an extra morning on a sunny day.

After coming in to the hospital after the brutal 4:15 am wakeup necessary for the obstetrics service and making 5:30 am wake-up-new-mothers-to-ask-about-their-sleep rounds, I took off at 7:45 for “conference”.

The Apollo was on my mind. I’d tried to ski it earlier in the season but ran away from wet avalanches. Yesterday, I saw that Jason and Tom, back from a blistering FKT on Mt Rainier, had linked the West Slabs scramble to the Apollo and the couloir was still in fine Spring condition.

Sneaking through a rich man’s neighborhood makes this a fun approach, as does the stream bushwhack. It was better on dry ground and in Aliens than it was previously in punchy snow and F1s, and after a quick hike I hit snow and put on spikes to punch it up the couloir.

The snow was in good condition, with a clean stripe through the melt debris cleared out by the Dorais/Goth/Harder crew. The only other tracks around were a very melted old bootpack and mountain goat tracks that were quite fresh, headed, as I was, straight up the couloir.

I hit the top in a bit under 50 minutes and in perfect time for a fine ski. The snow was soft but not sloppy and made for a quick descent back to the dirt. A scramble jog back down the faint trail/streambed led back to the car in 1:20 round trip. Light gear + the access in the Wasatch = amazing.

Now, I’m headed back to work for the afternoon after driving home and riding my mountain bike in to work. Life is good.