Four Hour Couloir – Shadow Peak

Location: GTNP, Shadow Peak, Avalanche Canyon
Elevation: 9,886′, 3,456′ gain/loss
Distance: 8 miles RT
Difficulty: 3 stars
Time: 4-6 hours

Trip Report:

Date: 1/11/2016
Snow Conditions: Powder, sun crust 5″ down, loose sluff, frozen debris piles

Having made plans with Tyler to ski a quick lap in Grand Teton National Park on Monday a few days before, I slowly got out of bed and began to get ready. I was tired from the past two days (The Nugget, West Hourglass), but figured what’s one more schuss! Based on the conditions in the West Hourglass Sunday, I was hopeful the Four Hour Couloir would ski well. The wind had been coming from the West/Northwest for about two days and the temperature has stayed low, so a South-facing line seemed to make sense. With these thoughts in mind, we took off from the trailhead at 8:20am. We made easy work of the up and were at base of the couloir in 2hrs 30min.

(For a more detailed description of the route, etc take a look at an older post – 4 Hour Couloir.)

We geared up, took a look at the couloir and decided it was good to go. There was a noticeable sun crust about 5″ below soft powder, but the couloir looked to have flushed a few times recently. Down lower, the snow was soft and fluffy. We milked the last 800′ of powder all the way to the track out of Avalanche Canyon on the south side (which is in and crossed the creek). We cruised back to the truck at 3hrs 59min, happy with the quick lap and decent snow.