Little Alaska, Little Couloir

This is the easiest of a few lines which I would like to tick off this winter.  The “Little Alaska, Little Couloir” has eluded me the last 3 winters.

Last Wednesday, the planets aligned…. a girl snowboarder skied it the day before, so there was no ruddy way I could pussy out of it any longer!!!

This pic is from Jan 27th looking up the couloir…. she hasn’t filled in and there are avalanches for Africa.alaska-1

We had to wait until 1pm for the sun to hit the couloir for it to soften a little, but letting it get too much sun increased the wet avalanche risk.

I did manage 2 warm up runs….

zuma-coulior-4 zumaspring-3

72 days after that first photo, April 9th, perfect conditions and I made a meal out of it (didn’t ski it very well at all). zuma-coulior-5

Still images make it look 10x better so that is what I’m going to post of course. zuma-couliorzuma-coulior3Once the scary part was over, I stopped being a pussy and pointed my shoulders down hill.zumaspring-1My weapon of choice for the day was Luke the Ski Makers, Super Rockers…..

Custom made for my last trip to Japan at 2m long, they worked awesome in Niseko despite not fitting into the gondoras.  These planks were perfect for last day, last winter, with 2 feet at Beaver Creek, AND they were the ski I chose to ski on for a Big Boy Backcountry Day last week.

Thanks mate!!!zuma-coulior-2