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Skiing

Skiing The Chester Lake Couloir

By April 20, 20114 Comments
Half way down the 800 meter Chester Lake Couloir. Gery Unterasinger Photo
About one year back, I tried to ski the Chester Lake Couloir with Ryan C and Ross M. We got to within 200 meters of the top before turning around. Two days ago, I went back to this beautiful K-Country line with Gery U. It was my first time skiing in the area this winter and I didn’t have too many expectations one way or another. The couloir is a short drive from Canmore and the minimal approach was perfect for a lazy Monday morning session.
Funny how things often turn out when you’re not expecting much.
The Chester Lake Couloir is the obvious lookers’ right-most line tucked up against the rocks. The shot was taken after we skied it and you can see Gery skiing down just below the sun-shadow line. The line immediately lookers’ left would have been awesome too, but the big cliff at the bottom kept us away. In a big snow year like this, it would not be too hard to traverse back to the main line near the bottom and avoid the big drop.
800 meters of boot-packing above Chester Lake.
A perfect bench about half-way up.
The snow got better and better as we climbed higher.
Nearing the top of the couloir.
I forgot the memory stick for my camera so I got to play ski-model for the descent. Not even Gery’s photographic prowess could make me look like a good skier. Gery U Photo.
This was my first run on a new pair of Scarpa T2 Eco’s and I really liked them. Super similar to the T2X which I’ve been using for years. I also used a newer pair of BD Drift which are super light and a ton of fun to ski. Gery U photo.

Face shot country. Gery U Photo.

4 Comments

  • Edgepath says:

    Impressive stuff as usual Andrew! Couldn't see how that line was possible earlier in the year, but looks pretty cool now.

  • Anonymous says:

    actually the line usually fills in quite early, my first time up there was very early in the season. you just get some narrow pinches.

    kyle

  • Anonymous says:

    Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your blog posts. In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

  • Anonymous says:

    Dang, That looks sick.

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