Terminal Cancer Couloir
Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 12:36AM 
Terminal Cancer CouloirTerminal Cancer Couloir. The first time I saw a picture of this ski line I couldn't look away. It's one of the most striking runs anywhere. I wasted an hour googling it and watching YouTube videos. Terminal Cancer quickly rose to the top of my hit list.
The cool thing about skiing is so many different aspects grab our attention and hold our interest. Most of us started out riding chairlifts, maybe taking some lessons and eventually became proficient skiers. Some of you out there became ripping shredders while others, like me, can get down about anything but it might not be pretty.
For me, riding lifts became boring. Too much hard pack and too many moguls. Not that I had mastered the craft by any stretch, but I wanted a different kind of challenge and, more importantly, adventure. There is little adventure riding the cable all day, save for a few side country areas at select resorts where hucking cliffs is de rigueur. The rest is just monotony. Good for honing the skills but not much enrichment for the adventurous soul. Besides, at nearly 50 years of age, I think it's best I keep my skis on the ground.
Ski mountaineering and backcountry skiing changed all that for me. Not only did ski outings now have the element of unpredictability, there was actually significant risk. For newcomers, most of the risk is in the form of objective danger, mainly avalanches. But eventually, even lapping your favorite backcountry powder stash starts getting stale and some of us look to the high peaks for the next fix.
Up high, danger is amplified several fold. It's trickier to hit the conditions right. It takes more effort to get there. But the reward is often getting to ski a line that sees few descents. After all, for most ski mountaineers, it's the line that defines the experience. Whether it's a sweet couloir dropping like a stone from a ridge line or an intricate link up of discontinuous snow fields through rock bands high on some north face. It's the line that captures our imagination.
In the Ruby Mountains of northern Nevada, Terminal Cancer is a short drive from the casinos of Elko. 
The Ruby Mountains outside Elko, NevadaOf course, Elko isn't close to anything but adventurers often drive through it on their way to points west. A recent trip to San Francisco was my opportunity to slay this dragon.
From Elko, the actual trailhead to access the couloir is found just outside of a small town called Lamoille, a popular starting point for sled necks. 
Heading up Lamoille CanyonThe road up Lamoille Canyon is plowed for the first five or six miles. In a ridiculous twist of backcountry skiing irony, one need only ski a couple of hundred meters up the road before the object of your affection looms into view. The day I skied it, there was one guy already hiking high in the gut. At least there would be a boot pack in.
Short walk, sick lineAfter a little careful boulder hopping across the stream at the base, five minutes of skinning had me on the apron and gaining vertical quickly. Ten minutes after that, my skis were on my pack. Fifty minutes after leaving the car, I stood in the narrow col atop the 2,000 foot elevator shaft that had held my attention for months.
Halfway up TCTruth be told, the shaft-like quality of the line is an illusion. It's deliciously narrow at the top but after only 50 meters, or so, widens to 20 feet and, surprisingly, never gets steep. This day, it was skied out, with large troughs created from multiple skiers in recent days, perhaps, too, finally sending the line of their dreams.
Twelve feet wide at the topIt wasn't great skiing. First tracks in powder would undoubtedly have been better. With its rising popularity, however, getting it in prime conditions would take luck.
After descending the first 1,000 foot walled-in section, I turned around and booted back up. Not that I wanted to beat myself up in the chunder again but there was some tasty looking corn in the bowl on the back side. It was cooked by the mid-morning sun but the creamy goodness was a welcome conclusion to the morning's quest.
Upper Lamoille CanyonFor a ski run that is so striking in pictures, I'd say that actually skiing it was a let down. I expected such a proud line to require a higher price to attain. That said, Terminal Cancer should remain on every ski mountaineer's hit list if only to stand below it and wallow in giddy anticipation.
Reader Comments (8)
I recently enjoyed a deep powder run in Terminal Cancer and found the chute to much less of a dramatic terrain feature--though more rippable in its wide-open, lower-angle state--than I'd anticipated. Back at the car, I spoke to a couple locals, who confirmed my suspicions that in normal conditions, the actual plumb-line, chute-like portion of the run typcally lasts much longer, but that the lower 70 percent of the chute is shallow enough that in big snow years it can more or less fill in completely.
Still a gorgeous line.
That's a good point. I guess I will have to go back when it's thinner and more dramatic. I could probably get it in softer conditions then, too.
I skied it last month in powder. It was fun, but like you said, I wondered about the hype. I skied the Sickle Couloir here in the Sawtooths last month as well, and the line was well worth the hype (in my opinion)! I try to see what makes a "classic" line classic, when I am lucky enough to ski one. I think most lines are strong in aesthetic value that are deemed classic. Maybe not the steepest or most dangerous, but have merit in artistry.
Speaking of classics... how's Middle Teton's East Glacier looking?
Hey Ralph,
I climbed the Sickle a bunch of times back in the day before I was a ski mountaineer. I think about skiing it from time to time. Definitely one of those "classics". Glad you got it. What's crazier is the line on the face to the right. Guess that's been hit at least once. Wow.
Do you mean the Glacier Route? Things are transitioning up high right now but still kinda funky. Never skied that route. Would like to. Very condition dependent, I think, due to exposure issues up high from the summit.
So with the snowpack, do you think the Glacier Route will be skiable this year? My only experience over in your area is with skiing The Skillet last year. So I have pretty much fallen off the turnip truck when it comes to understanding your terrain and snowpack for the other 99.9% of the Tetons that I haven't been to!
If conditions are good, I'll drive over to attempt with short-notice. I watched the weather in the Rubies for about two weeks and then drove from Boise, skied TC, drove home. Although, the Tetons, to be honest, scare the shit out of me. I had a rock in my gut just looking around! But after last year's trip to Moran, I wanted to be back as soon as I left.
Having never skied it you must take my comments with a grain of salt. The big difference between the Glacier route on the Middle and the Skillet is, obviously, the exposure. The Glacier route faces almost due north with a hint of eastern tilt. It is ice in the late fall. Andrew M. skied it on July 4th one year in corn. I'm sure Romeo has skied it so check his site for time. I would guess early summer and you'll be walking on dirt for a ways. A freeze up high but a warming morning and get up there early. Just a guess. Might be on my list too. The one down side of this plan, of course, is that you miss the real prize skiing from the summit.
Terminal is popular because it is easy to get to and cool to look at. There are way more "serious" lines in the Rubies, if you want to scare yourself.
I have no doubt about that, Donny. The Rubies are a real mountain range, for sure. I can remember seeing them featured in a Warren Miller movie in the mid 70's. I was thrilled to finally ski something there after all those years.