Southwest Coulior - Mihai Iancu
South Early Winter Spire- May 13, 2007
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| Wanting to take advantage of the abundant snowpack
still in the mountains, Mihai Iancu of Olympia contacted NCMG
to arrange a climb of the Southwest Coulior of South Early Winter
Spire. This snow climb has a limited season, and has been in
great condition since the highway opened at the end of April. |
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| Mihai realized the advantage of approaching
on skis for easy access and a quick descent. What we hadn't
realized was that it would be snowing with 4" of
new at the trailhead. |
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| With some snow showers on the approach,
we made good time reaching the base of the route in about
90 minutes. |
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| The clouds were clinging to the high
peaks, though we got a glimpse of the lower portion of
the climb as we skinned up from below. |
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| With all of the new snow the climb had
even more of an alpine flavor. The soft snow allowed us
to move quickly through most of the coulior. |
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| Near the top we climbed a few short sections
of snow covered rock in our crampons. |
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| Just below the summit, Mihai makes the
last few moves to the top of the spire. |
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| The beauty of a ski approach is that
once we traded our crampons for skis, we were soon swooshing
back down through the new snow. |
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| As often the case, new snow in May tends
to be a bit on the heavy side. Nonetheless, it was quite
skiable and delivered us back at the car in less than
an hour. Its hard to beat Spring time in the North Cascades.... |
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