Violet Couloir
After being back in Reno for a week or two, I knew the clock was ticking before access to the beautiful Violet Couloir melted out. This couloir is located at the southern end of Northern California in a beautifully aesthetic area called the Sierra Buttes. Sierra City is the town at the base of these peaks and I always get a little PCT nostalgia when I am in this area. Sierra City is the first town that you hit on the PCT after leaving Lake Tahoe and heading north. In my opinion, this is when the trail totally changes, and if you are thru-hiking, once you hit Sierra City, it seems like you have left the world and its trappings behind. However, this time in the Buttes, I was there to ski. Fortunately, even with a minimal snow pack, Erik Schulte and I were able to sneak in late on a low tide year and knock this one off the list.
We left Reno the morning of and popped over to the Buttes as fast as we could. Temperatures were forecasted to be warm, and we were uncertain if a freeze-thaw cycle would actually occur, so we wanted to hit it as early as possible but in daylight. We got to the roadside pull-off just west of Sierra City at a reasonable time and started hiking in ski boots with skis on our backs. Somewhere I had read to stick to the creek as you ascend, but of course, I figured whoever wrote that, didn’t know of the other way..Well, let me assure you, stick to the creek. The forest was way less thick along the creek and made for a much better time on the way down. On the way up however, we thought we had our own grand plan, and definitely stayed too far lookers-right of the creek, and ended up doing a hefty schwack through the manzanita. Not a very forgiving shrub/tree. However, it was short lived.
Once we got on snow, the fun really began and we had the gloriously aesthetic Sierra Buttes right in our face. The snow had seemed to refreeze, but very minimally. We began to skin our way up and it was obvious that this year was a very low snow year. Rocks that would otherwise be hidden were largely exposed, and many shrubs were breaking through the snow at the bottom. We skinned up and up, keeping a pretty tight zig-zagging pattern, hoping to keep our approach time low in order to give us a safer descent. As we started working our way up we noticed a crew in front of us and eventually met the two beneath the couloir. We both shared the same objective so Erik and I transitioned to crampons as fast as possible and began to start our boot-pack up the couloir.
The snow was funky right from the start. If there was a refreeze, it was just a quick zap, so we were already starting to punch into the snow about 3/4 boot depth. We talked about the snow condition and what our thoughts were on stability, and we decided that we would watch the walls for signs of rapid warming and continue on. Luckily, a little more than half of the couloir (lookers left) was in the shadow so the snow remained firm and fast for climbing. With this said, we also realized that the variable conditions would make for a tricky descent. Basically, firm on one side of the couloir, but soft enough to punch through on the other. This makes it hard to really engage any normal turn and you really just have to be very present on your feet.
In this photo: Erik Schulte (@schultefox) on the approach to the apron
We climbed our way to the top of the couloir pretty fast and chose the climbers-right route to top out. The line to climbers left went a little higher but the snow was truly bullet proof and it was very steep. The line we chose was still very steep and had some funky depressions to it, but it was soft enough to get an edge in and make a turn. I led the way to the top, then Erik joined me where we waited for the other party to top out so that we would not drop in on them while they ascended the couloir. We all shared a moment at the top but time was of the essence so I dropped in just seconds after they topped out. It was more or less a hop turn and a skip for the first 3-5 turns, then I was able to make some turns and descend a couple hundred feet before Erik dropped in. Erik eventually met up with me about a third of the way down the couloir and this is where we really started to notice the deteriorating quality of the snow. When you get really warm temperatures, it can sometimes feel like there is a giant under the snow that is reaching through and grabbing your legs as you ski, especially as you try to turn.
Even with the weird snow, the couloir got wide enough at the end to open it up and link some nice turns. I radioed Erik and told him I was going to ski it the whole way and meet him at the bottom. I waited below the apron and watched Erik ski down, it was a fun spring moment to observe as he made some slow and smooth, arching turns, on the corn snow and met up with me. The remainder of the ski was honestly super fun but you had to keep the punchable snow in mind. Altogether, the Violet Couloir was totally rad and even a bit steeper towards the top than I expected. I had wanted to ski this line for years so I was very grateful to knock it off and to share an awesome day in the mountains with my buddy Erik.
In this photo: Zac Barbiasz (@zacbarbiasz) dropping into the Violet Couloir
Keep em’ rollin!