Skied three final days on the east side over Memorial Day weekend. Above is the Solstice couloir on Mt. Dana. Had to cut a chunk of cornice out to get in. Under the entrance was a 50ft cliff, so you had to traverse under the cornice after sliding in.
Looking back up the Solstice Couloir, which we skied Saturday. You can see the entrance in-between the cornice blocks
Benson skiing pow in the Soltice Couloir
Mike Vaughan POV – East Side Finals from UnofficialSquaw on Vimeo.
POV from one of the couloirs on Mt. Thompson (Sunday) and a line on Emerson (Monday)
The Second line in this is what I've been calling the "S" chute on Mt. Emerson. I skied the top really conservatively due to the exposure and the warming snow. In reality the top would have been pretty rip-able, but I was scared. I didn't subject the viewer to the whole thing. Climbing the crux was the scariest thing I've climbed. A steep ice bulge for 20 or 30 feet. Definitely wouldn't have made it up without an axe and crampons, had to use some rock on the right for hand-holds too. I wish I had the camera running for that too…
The "S." I've had my eye on this line for a while. Scary, but I was stoked to ski it. Anyone know of another name for this line? Check out the POV above.
I've uploaded a bunch more photos to Flickr…I'll try to add them with captions soon.