Big Day On Prospector Mountain

Dina high in the V-Notch CouloirThere's a life time of steep ski lines in the Tetons. Some are easier to get to than others. Many are on every backcountry skier's hit list and see frequent descents while others never come up on the radar for one reason or another. After skiing one of the more obvious gems in the range, the Apocalypse Couloir on the north side of Prospector Mountain, a couple of weeks ago another line in the same area came up in conversation. The V-Notch Couloir is one of those runs I have heard little about over the years. Steve Romeo at TetonAT.com posted a picture of it a few years ago during one of his "Name that Couloir" posts. I hadn't thought of it since.

Recently, someone pointed it out to me lurking just over the north ridge of Prospector. It's easy to miss and nearly hidden from view unless you know what you are looking for. It sits above a beautiful cirque that really can't be seen from anywhere. Skiers opting to hit the Apocalypse from the top down skin the northern flank of this area before dropping into their objective. Without a doubt, the view of the V-Notch Couloir to the south leaves a lasting impression and surely spawns plans to return to ski it.

I still had not seen much of it (only the top 200 feet or so is visible from the valley) when I decided I wanted to ski it. What intrigued me was an idea to link up the V-Notch with the Apocalypse, a natural enchainment of two great lines. Both Christian Beckwith and Steve Romeo had talked about getting this done. My wife, Dina, growing tired of hearing about all these lines I was skiing with other partners wanted to find out first hand what it was all about. With a slight lull in the recent, endless storm cycle, she and I headed out Sunday to have a look.

Heading up to Phelps Lake overlookOne of the difficulties with the V-Notch is that it's simply difficult to get to. There's no beat-in skin track going up to it. The entrance to the cirque is guarded by a 3,000 foot, steep, wooded hill side that you must navigate blindly. Part of the fun of something like this is simply finding your way. We opted to start from the Death Canyon trailhead and were soon traversing the western edge of Phelps Lake  headed for the wooded slope that would take us up into the cirque. Trail breaking was hard as the snow was still deep on this slope. It seemed endless.

Only 3,000' to go.Ascending through the trees, I stayed close to the northern ridge line that forms the top of this side of Prospector. I occasionally made my way to the edge to get my bearings. Higher up the ridge undulates and I had to drop about 200 vertical along the way. Initially, the weather was mostly fine but as the morning went on, low clouds and snow moved in over the range. This did not help my route finding.

While skinning up and skiing the Banana Couloir a week or two ago, Steve and I had spied some other skiers headed for a top-down go of the Apocalypse. I was able to triangulate my current position by looking back to the notch on the ridge from where I saw them and remembering the topography they were traversing. I rounded a corner, came out of the trees and the Vee exploded in front of me. From across the cirque the thing is big and imposing. I was a little intimidated but excited.

The beautiful V-Notch Couloir, Prospector MountainI traversed a long contour to get to the base of the apron. In hindsight, finding the gut of the cirque after ascending the long slope from Phelps Lake might be an easier approach. I don't think I nailed it. I will have to ask around for suggestions. Either way, I was staring up the throat of this thing and was anxious to get the spikes on and start booting. Dina arrived and was equally impressed. She also arrived with her phone which we used for the rest of the outing to document the day since my camera had ceased to work.

It continued to snow and the top third of the route was shrouded in clouds. There was not much spindrift pouring down so up we went. The booting was brilliant and I rarely felt like I was wallowing. Higher up, it was pure booting joy kicking steps in the compacted soft surface. Don't look down. Dina at the rocky crux of the V-Notch.Near the top there is a rocky choke that was not quite covered. It steepens to greater than 60 degrees here for a few feet and I brought out the ice ax for some added security. This is the lowest point I could view from Dornan's. Above I knew there was a feeder bowl that had been on my mind. Luckily, it was firm, as well, and we made great time to the ridge. 

I remembered my ax this time.We were in a whiteout at this point with the wind blowing snow into everything. I couldn't be sure about a cornice so we stopped well short of the edge that I could just barely make out. With skis on we made our way back down our boot pack line, the only indication of the route to follow. Having done little of this kind of skiing, Dina was understandably nervous staring down the gut as it disappeared into the cloudy abyss. I was able to get through the rocks with skis on and coached Dina through the same. The slope eased back slightly as it widened and we both relaxed. 

Soft conditions in the V-Notch.I'm no expert extreme skier but I tried to teach Dina a few of the tricks that have helped me feel more comfortable on this kind of terrain. The soft snow made things manageable and she kept it upright the whole way down. Skiing the slough pile at the bottom was fine way to cap a fun descent. We re-fueled and re-skinned and turned our attention to the next stage.

It took about 20 minutes to skin up the slope to the ridge above the Apocalypse. The next trick was finding the actual entrance. The blowing snow and huge cornices slowed my search. I was holding onto trees and craning my neck trying to get some clue where I was. I knew there was a fixed line leading down to an anchor. Rapping into the Apocalypse CouloirI finally found it and booted down to set up the rappel. I brought along 50 meters of 7 millimeter cord for the task. It's not horribly steep here and it's filled in with most of the rocks covered. Still, I carried the rope so out it came and we were quickly down below the rocks and had our skis on. 

The narrow corridor was soft, untracked and, well, perfect. Once out of the narrows, things got a little more creepy. There was a lot of snow in there, some soft slab in places but mostly deep and loose. The Apocalypse tenderloinWe made our way down slowly, waves of slough chasing and passing us as we went. Turning the corner into the main gut it was obvious that the snow pack had been moving through these cycles. There were huge slough piles to wade through but the walls were scrubbed down to ice in the narrows. I was glad it was snowing, keeping the sun off the upper slopes and probably keeping us from getting crushed.

Looking back up to the entrance of the ApocalypseThe apron skied well until the bottom where a gnarly breakable crust had formed. It seemed like someone had come down the Son of the Apocalypse so there was decent out track to follow down the canyon. A quick skin up to the overlook took us to a fast coast out to the car. If I could figure out how to clean up the approach to the V-Notch Couloir and do it with a few trail breaking partners this link-up maybe one of the coolest outings in the range. Bring some route-finding chops and a big bag of food. - Brian  

Comments

[Jared]

Hmm, I wonder where the other half of that rope is? Nice job in iffy conditions.

[brian]

Ah, no worries, Jared. I've got a pair of 6mm ropes coming. Lighter still!