TR: Some gnar couloir, Portillo, Chile 8/3

no_steeze

Active member
Yeah so this couloir doesn't really have a name but it was super sick so i thought i'd share it
We had been eyeing a whole little valley right across the lake from the hotel and we finally decided to head up in there after Jeremy Nobis and his crew bootpacked up the day before. We were running out of inbounds pow so we decided to do a spin off of what those guys had done the day before and we ended up skiing a line that was way more extreme than theirs /claimsauce
This shows the route we skied, the first descent was what they skied but then we traversed out and skied the couloir with a narrow little choke on it. the line stops behind a rock band but we skied all the way down to the lake
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This shows the bootpack up, this was towards the end
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A pic of the traverse across condor couloir, this was the only sketchy part as the condor is notorious for sliding
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View down the first couloir we skied
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Me skiing the first couloir
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About halfway through the first couloir we traversed over the hump and into the next valley. We didn't really know what was in store and turns out it was about a 6 foot descent into the couloir. We took our skis off and booted in. My buddy went first and slid in and about 40 feet down the couloir...it was a bit sketchy. This is a pic after he booted back up to the entrance. It wasn't possible really to jump the entrance because the landing was crust and would've tossed you all the way down the couloir which would've resulted in serious injury. the snow was shitty in there but the line was sick
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Looking down the couloir
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Looking back up the couloir, you can see the entrance up on the left
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At the end of the couloir we hit a super narrow choke, it was 190 cm wide we measured according to our skis. It was somewhat of a mandatory straightline and super gnar. It's the choke you can see in the first pic. This is him about to slip into it
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We ended up on a run down to the lake where we skinned back up. This was a view of the choke from the skin back up. the couloir disappears behind the rocks
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Overall it was sick and you can see it from the hotel. We claimed that line pretty hard
Just sharing some summer skiing stoke, hope you enjoyed it

 
he actually is !
he should write a book with all these descents!
i really like all your posts about gnarly lines you did, keep up the good work, its really entertaining, especially because they contain images as well!
 
Shit man, 190cm chokes? Thats insanity. I probably couldnt do that in crust without dying, Id need at least 6 inches of real fluff
 
Where you filming some superman frontflips in the park either there or at El Colorado or Valle Nevado by any chance?
 
Sick!!! Was this a First Descent as far as you know? There is an actual lift accessible run at Taos that is super technical and has about a 195 CM choke about half way down. I think the locals call it "The Choke". It's pretty scary. No way to side slip through it and if you straight run it, you'd be doing about 70 mph in about 35 feet. You have to do super quick hop turns only about 45 degrees out of the fall line, and hope that you can slow yourself down once you get through. If you're looking to road trip somewhere new, I highly recommend Taos. That is if you like insane steeps.

Huge props, and big envy on your couloir.

 
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