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| West Wolf! |
After weeks of waiting for perfect conditions in the West couloir of Grey Wolf, it seemed like the next forecast warm spell might put the line out of good condition for the year. Without any excuses to procrastinate, I rested up for a couple of days, packed carefully, and headed out mid morning on a warm mid week day do make a concerted effort from Saint Mary reservoir. Soon enough, I was walking briskly up the Saint Mary climber's trail at a "this hurts a bit, but it isn't too hard. Right?" pace. Ski boot transition was at about 6,500 feet, and another push at a "this hurts more. Moving fine, but glad I'm not racing anyone" pace had me ready to traverse into the No Fish lake basin well under two hours. The ski down was sticky, but I managed to zip down and across the lake upright.
The couloir looked fairly runnelled and shiny, but with a sliver of sun on the north edge, I was optimistic that it would be safe enough on the ski down. Considering there was no boot pack, the climb went fast. I skinned quickly to the mouth, made the time consuming but ultimately very wise choice to transition to crampons early, and started efficiently pied a platting my way up. The snow was supportable, and while I stayed vigilant to move with purpose, the ascent was fast. Next up was a slow crampons-off, skins-off, calories-in, safe ski brain-check transition.
The ski was pretty icy, but it was never really scary. I put speed aside and stayed laser focused on carefull skiing. There may have been a lot of sideslipping. Soon enough, I was down to soft snow in the lower couloir, and skating across the lake shortly after.
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| Shiny but edgeable. |
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| Done and psyching up to give my all on the climb out. Insert siren song here. |
Even though ski conditions were a bit shiny, the skiing was great! I felt like I had good energy left, and pushed hard back to the sneak traverse just below the shoulder. The exit was fine. Skiing was fast, but snow line was high enough that changing to approach shoes was mandatory. So I did it, then ran as fast as "I definitely haven't been running much this year" legs would allow back to the car. I emerged at 4 hours, 20 minutes, and 20 seconds. Pretty tired, very thirsty, and over the moon happy with the day. What a great outing.
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| Done. Cooked. Happy. |
Thoughts: I feel good about going light and fast with just enough reserve to be very solid for the entire outing. Fitness is kind of average, and a combination of a lower snow line, a more reliable bootpack not requiring crampons, and faster skiing could yield a better time. I also probably could have pushed harder, but I feel OK about the effort. And conditions were not bad. They weren't perfect, but it's such a fickle ski line that finding fast and safe conditions is really tricky. That said, my time is soft - I have no doubt that sub-4 is possible for a wide array of people. Not sure I have sub-4 in me, or the desire to do it again fast, at least for now. I am really excited for someone to push the time way down.
My previous fast time from the East was faster and a stronger physical effort, but I'm more excited about this as a FKT route.
Gear: All the safety stuff but not a lot more: Crampons, race pole/whippet combo, helmet, bear spray. Plenty of calories, but only 0.5 L water (yes, that was dumb), no puffy, warm gloves, or ice axe.
Approximate splits for future reference: Leaving Saint Mary shoulder outbound: 1.35. Starting Grey Wolf climb: 1.50. Start skiing: 2.45. Leaving Saint Mary shoulder inbound 3.45. 7,650 vertical feet. 4/28/2021
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