Every once in a while I get an itch to go out and do a slog/grind ski knowing full well what the outcome will be:  an exhausted self, mediocre skiing and a story.  This time I shared the misery with my ski partner Shaun Raskin. The other day skiing the Y couloir didn’t let down. The first 2500 ft were pretty non descript;  A bomber boot pack, variable snow and fast ascension.

Enter the last 1000ft:  trail breaking 40 degree slope with the entire 265in snow pack to be trudged through.  The boot packing was everything from wading through snow up to your chest to “front pointing” on a slide path or wind buff.  The closer we got to the top the worse off it was….and deeper.  Eventually I had to put my skins on, which wasn’t actually that much of a help.  The Y is tight and steep, not the ideal place for skinning.  With the “summit” in sight and a mere 200 ft between us and it, the worst was yet to come.  Rock scrambling, wading in snow above my head, exposure and a lot of swearing finally resulted in gaining the summit.  After 5 hrs of boot packing, breaking trail and scambling we finally were at the top.   Not that you could ski off the top because there wasn’t enough snow and huge rocks with gangley trees…….

The ski down was variable to say the least.  There were pockets of amazing snow intermixed with wind buff, slid paths, boot pack tracks and old ski tracks.  Oh and because I am a genius I neglected to bring water or food..whoops.  Here is the video of our adventure.