(Roadside) Katahdin Coolers?

By:  Greg
March 21, 2010


At this point two questions began to pervade my thoughts: Will this cooler ever run out of beer–I mean will this couloir ever end? And where the heck are all the other people?! We only saw one other party during our entire trip, and they were off in the distance skiing what sounded like loud powder in the shade. Regardless of the answers to these questions we were happy to be in one of the most aesthetic lines in the north country, with the entire mountain to ourselves.

As we came to the valley floor, I noticed that rather than re-ascending by foot, we could easily set a skin track through the widely spaced krumholz. In no time we found ourselves back at the summit. I then set my sights on the right (skier’s left) cooler. With an audience of snowshoers collectively realizing they chose the wrong sport, I dropped in. If at all possible, it was even more glorious than the first descent.

At the bottom of the gully I looked up and heard someone else coming down. It was my friend Zach who was up schussing around. He decided to join our party for the rest of the day.

As terrain mellowed and Zach and I got about three quarters of the way through the well stocked cooler, the beer–I mean snow went from smooth supportable peel-away corn to rotten sludge that hadn’t frozen the night before. We decided to call the run short, do a quick changeover and head back up. After navigating through some tough rock-solid avalanche debris in the shade we took the ridge.

At this point KC and I were getting pretty tired, and were ready to go back the way we came in, but Zach insisted he knew an incredible ski line that would get us back to the car. I was glad we had some implements of dee-struck-shun for this one.

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Read about the author:   Greg
Enjoy this TR? Read another: TR: Ughhh! YET ANOTHER East Coast TR?!

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26 Comments

  1. Jamie B
    wrote on March 21st, 2010 at 5:42 pm  
    1

    Guy…
    Cool TR!
    Cheers, to keeping sacred places…sacred.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Zach
      wrote on March 21st, 2010 at 8:16 pm  
      2

      Jamie,
      Nice running into you up there. I was the guy chilling below, watching you absolutely rip the left side. Way to get it man. Keep on keeping on.

    • Greg
      wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:04 am  
      3

      Good to meet you. See you in the mountains.

  2. powhounddd
    wrote on March 21st, 2010 at 8:20 pm  
    4

    Impressive lines and great pics as always. The bald eagle bit made me laugh out loud, because that’s a running joke with the kids, Look there’s an eagle! Works like a charm.

    I appreciate the disclaimer at the bottom. If you run into a bearded splitboarder who’s slowly plodding along behind in the skintrack, say hi. ;)

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  3. Chris
    wrote on March 21st, 2010 at 10:20 pm  
    5

    Looks like a fun day, nice work….

    The Author’s Note was a good addition.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  4. Porter Haney
    wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 12:13 am  
    6

    Classic ice visor.

    Will this cooler ever run out of beer?!?!

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  5. Jack
    wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 8:57 am  
    7

    Nice. How long was the hike from the parking lot?

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:01 am  
      8

      hey jack i actually made a mistake in my calculations originally. I fixed it now.. should have been (and now appears in the TR as) (60/(25)1/2)1/2 times 2 divided by the square root of 3 miles

      took us about 2 hours…

  6. Adrian
    wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 11:08 am  
    9

    Wow, Katahdin’s lookin sweet these days! Hope it stays around for another few weeks so that I can get a chance at it this season.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 11:23 am  
      10

      have faith. pour a libation to ULLR

  7. Anonymous
    wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 5:29 pm  
    11

    they must have paved the parking lot since i was there in september…

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 6:58 pm  
      12

      I think we were in a different lot than you.

  8. christian
    wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 7:15 pm  
    13

    jealous!!!! katahdin looks super rad, i gotta get up there one of these days. you can thank me for the weather though since i was down at wachusett all weekend fighting the crowds.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  9. NordSki
    wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:11 pm  
    14

    Those are fun lines over there on abe’s buddy. But I don’t see the point in hyping one sacred spot to keep another one quiet. Let the pictures speak for themselves. Watch out for that ice axe strapped close to the head, too, if you were to go head over heals. I would strap it to outside of pack securely, and consider a shorter axe for ski climbing.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • skimohr
      wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:24 pm  
      15

      Good thoughts… Ice axes can be super dangerous on the pack. I had one dig into the back of my neck pretty bad once. The shorter, titanium axes are where it’s at for non-technical (unroped) ski mountaineering. Longer axes are nice, though, for anchors and rope work.

    • Greg
      wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:26 pm  
      16

      Thanks for the tips. We always stow our “pointy stuff” carefully. As to one hype vs. another: I’m just trying to have some fun. Look at elevations for “the Buddy” and “the Katahdin.” Kinda spooky, huh? What’s more is “the Buddy” is just estimated… might be = ! Anyway, I don’t think any hoards are going to the REAL Katahdin which is guarded by a 13 mile approach any time soon because of this TR…

    • Greg
      wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:34 pm  
      17

      Brian’s got it right… we both carry 50cm axes. Mine is the superlight Camp titanium mtn axe–perfect for ski mountaineering. KC has the more traditional BD Raven, but I think she’ll be upgrading to the Raven pro soon.

  10. skimohr
    wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:19 pm  
    18

    Cool pics. That’s a great zone over there. You might have seen us there that day had the nice lady at the grocery store in Millinocket not pointed out that we had been looking at our map upside down. Thanks for sharing…
    -Brian

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on March 22nd, 2010 at 10:35 pm  
      19

      I lost cell phone service somewhere crossing the barren waste land of NH, and without google earth on my iPhone we were lost instantly. Just glad to be back safely ;)

  11. jumpin jimmy
    wrote on March 23rd, 2010 at 6:31 am  
    20

    Was up there last summer chasing moose on South twin lake–cool peaks! Not only are the pictures amazing, but the writing just keeps getting better and better. Love the humor angle! Keep at em.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on March 23rd, 2010 at 10:24 pm  
      21

      thanks JJ. we’re doing our best

  12. StuckinJersey
    wrote on March 25th, 2010 at 4:00 pm  
    22

    So how do I get to that parking lot? haha Man you cats busted some sweet turns up there. I have slid Katahdin before but it was end of January with 2 feet of fresh, so we stayed on more lower angle stuff. Next year I’m heading up for some spring time turns. Glad you two got the goods. Thanks for the stoke.

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on March 25th, 2010 at 11:26 pm  
      23

      just turn right and then turn left and then right again… you’re there!

  13. Micky O
    wrote on March 28th, 2010 at 9:34 pm  
    24

    Awesome TR, cool Author’s note at the end too haha

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  14. Not-a-snob
    wrote on January 26th, 2011 at 10:51 am  
    25

    don’t look now but there’s a video of 2 chubby rednecks skiing this line on youtube for all to see…….

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2BLihn6myA

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • Greg
      wrote on January 26th, 2011 at 6:22 pm  
      26

      cool vid!

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