tags:
Babine Mountains Provincial Park |
smithers bc |smither |silverking cabin |galleon couloir |babine mountains provincial park |angle parking
Beguiling factors for this line include it’s aesthetics, it’s visibility from town, and it’s punishing approach.
Whatever way you look at it, the Galleon Couloir is a tantalizing and difficult box to tick off the list. Located in the Babine Mountains Provincial Park, suitors to this thing of beauty are looking at a 6 to 7-hour approach and a 35 to 40 km round trip. My previous attempts at skiing the Galleon Couloir had left me with a record of 0 for 4.
Spring time is multisport approach time. Biking, hiking, skinning and cursing. Not necessarily in that order. For this attempt I did the first 8km in the evening before pitching my tent for the night. This allowed for an extra early start.
My plan was to begin my descent no later than 10 AM. Heinous post-holing meant I didn’t lay down my first turn until after 11. And this proved to be a little too close for comfort in terms of timing. While the bulk of the feature stayed firm, and in the shade, the sun beaten climbers left wall of the couloir began shedding it’s snow and ice. Ice balls and sundry missiles rained onto me as I completed the climb. Needless to say, super happy I had my climbing helmet.
Conditions were firm and smooth. Not hero snow by any stretch of the imagination, but very skiable. The lengthy cruise out of the basin offered the best skiing. A beauty of a cruise. Blue bird conditions didn’t hurt at all.
1 for 5 isn’t bad I guess.