Pagoda Mountain 4/24/09

Pagoda Mountain
"Arabian Ridge Via the Knife Me Couloir"


Wild Basin you say? I’m there! Said Moski
Sleep is overrated I say
I’ll sleep when I’m dead, said Erik
Holy shit…, said Johnny
This after I proposed we go ski a sweet intricate route on Pagoda that through a few pictures had decided would go, especially after the big upslope.
It was 7pm and we planned to leave 3 hours later at 11.
All it took for Dave to come out was a phone call and the words “wild basin”, even with only an hour or two notice. We were like troops that had been called in for a mission.

The sleepwalking went smooth, we couldn’t have asked for a better transition from dry trail to skinnable snow.

Near treeline the wind blew strong and cold.

We struggled to skin up a steep and icy slope without skin crampons.

We had breakfast to a lightening sky apartment sized boulders.

The bootpacking up the steeper slopes was tough with a thick, but still breakable crust with moist and dry snow underneath that would continue to give, like an elipse machine. The crawl method worked a little better, spreading weight over hands, knees, shins and feet in order to stay afloat.

Once on the ridge, more than one of us almost got blown off our feet from the strong and gusty winds. Johnny called it just before the last crux.

There were 3 main cruxes on the route proper. 1: the “Knife me couloir” 2: the wrap around slot thing 3: the hanging couloir.

Once on the ridge, we could skin again, very carefully. This was “no fall” skinning for sure.

The summit rocked with sick views and some shelter from the wind in the sun. Not sure why, but I had an urge to sing a song, so I sang: “Did you ever know that you’re my hero!” to everyone, individually. (Could’ve been the handfuls of chocolate covered espresso beans, lack of sleep, and crack?)

The descent was awesome with soft creamy corn

I was mildly delirious as I skied on in split mode through slop, but made it work.

We napped at the trail before finishing off the 14.5 hr, 5,100 ft push.

“You are the wind beneath my wings!”