The North Face of Pioneer is roadside big mountain skiing. Step out of your car, walk four or five hundred feet on the road, and then start going straight uphill. I think parking is sometimes possible even closer, but in February the gully had avalanched over the road and the debris that had spilled out through the trees had probably covered up some spots.
We started out on the morning of 3/15/22. My phone slipped out of my pocket and disappeared when changing layers after the initial icy skinning. Amazing how much we rely on those little computers. Thankfully my partners had the necessary info. I was with my wife Paige and our friend Kate Fitz.
Skinning got us to the base of the first ice section. It’s a low angle ice gully in the alder, but it helps to have two tools to get past it. A bit more booting in the couloir and then out below the face where it was possible to put the skins on.
As we pushed the track higher up we noticed a couple more dark shapes popping out of the trees and steadily gaining ground. At the bottom of the steeper rock the skier caught up. We exchanged pleasantries and they headed on up in front of us, breaking trail for the second half of the face. Our legs liked the break.
The upper face has a few options lower down, but all eventually funnel into a steep upper couloir. Our line that started lookers right lead us up into this couloir, which deposited us on the top of the ridge leading up to the summit. The final 30 meters to the top of the ridge was steep and thin enough to feel comfortable using the rope. We left our skis at the ridge and walked the last 150’ to the top. I now regret not taking my skis up the last 150’ to ski the very top 150’, but I didn’t lose any sleep over it.
When we came back down to the ridge the other two skiers used our rope as a hand line for a bit as they went down, then we rigged up the Escaper and rapped down the first 40 meters of the line. Of course the first few turns are always the hardest. The light got flat as we put skis on at the base of the rap, which created interesting conditions for the steepest tightest part of the run. As we pitched it out on the descent the angle eased up a bit and the walls opened up to great skiing. We were still focused on the turns with the exposure below us, but the skiing was fun.
One rap lower on the face saved us from some steep rock skiing. We were all smiles on the lower apron as we started ripping bigger turns in better snow, not worried about falling off a cliff anymore.
All good things must come to an end. The ski conditions deteriorated rapidly as we got down to alder line. It was chunder in an avalanche gully, with one rappel to get past the lowest ice bulge on the line. Amazingly Paige found my phone in the snow as I coiled the rope, and we took our skis off at the road satisfied with the amazing day we had. Even better, our new friends from the face had left us some beers at the car!
Semi-early morning skinning on the lower debris pile.
Easy ice at the start of the constriction.
Paige at the top of the lower ice.
Lots of steep booting on this one.
Paige and Kate climbing together up the last steep roped section to the ridge.
Summit selfies!
Steep enough and thin enough to rap back off the ridge.
Looking back after our first pitch of skiing in the upper couloir.
Still steep but opening up. Fun snow mid face.
Mid face rap through a rock band. Paige happy to see our 40 meter rope is plenty long.
Bottom of the face, about to encounter much less fun conditions lower in the gully.
Final rap over the lower ice band before we put the rope away and scratched our way back to the car.