Most Difficult Ski Descent in CO

Steep skiing season is here in the San Juans, if not just around the corner. Because I'm a sucker for spray and I love procrastinating: what's the most difficult ski descent that's been done in CO?

I've heard the Davenport E Face line on Capitol Peak be referred to as such. The North Face of S9 might be a contender, at the very least gets bonus points in my book for being continuous. Cody Townsend called Pyramid's Landry Line 'the scariest line in CO', and while in some ways it may be, it's probably been a classic for too long to be truly cutting edge.

This is also probably a good place to talk merits and drawbacks of possible ski mountaineering rating systems, which usually don't make much sense to me.

3 2 1 go!

I Heard the First Flatiron goes in the right conditions. 

Michael Spiesbachwrote:

I Heard the First Flatiron goes in the right conditions. 

don't you dare start this up again...

The Y Couloir, the Notch Couloir on Longs, and Notchtop East face all come to mind. 

Luigi Mwrote:

The Y Couloir, the Notch Couloir on Longs, and Notchtop East face all come to mind. 

E Face Notchtop has not been on my radar before! Did a quick search and found a random summitpost comment of someone skiing it with no raps, just one 10-15' huck in the middle of the face. That seems to put it up there. 

To add on to my OP, I suppose the Grandfather Couloir and Heaven's Eleven probably have their place in this convo. 

The one done off the east thorn in summit was groundbreaking, and it only fills in once every 30 years probably

This is a fun thread. Most difficult. Overall, the Davenport-Beidleman line has to be tops of the list for steep skiing, exposure, challenging transitions, and fickle conditions. And done w/out a rope. 

The Landry still has to be high on the list, for the upper crux and the continuity of the line alone. 

Longs Notch Couloir deserves a shout, especially if you only use one short rap at the dogleg and ski across (most of) Broadway. 

Ypsilon Y is certainly steep and dangerous, but pretty straightforward steep skiing. Falls into same category as Heaven's Eleven, but the ropes have been eliminated from that one.

E Face Notchtop doesn't have steep enough skiing, IMO. It's 50+ up top, but turns mellow after the top ice pitch.

That E Thorn line is pretty wild and looks like it took some skills and creativity to do without a rope. 

This one has yet to see a known ropeless descent, despite a couple of attempts: mountainproject.com/route/1…;

Edit to add: after going down the list in my head,

Thunder Pyramid and South Face Castle Peak are pretty tough looking lines!

I bet there are quite a few double blacks that have been done off the radar ;) 

I can't think of much here in Colorado that could be considered ground breaking in the greater sense. It's a progression that we've started to regularly ski these lines in cold snow conditions, but that's about it. 

Routes equal to the D-B (and all listed above) were skied in the 1980's in the Alps. What would make a more challenging objective? 

Mike Soucywrote:

This is a fun thread. Most difficult. Overall, the Davenport-Beidleman line has to be tops of the list for steep skiing, exposure, challenging transitions, and fickle conditions. And done w/out a rope. 

The Landry still has to be high on the list, for the upper crux and the continuity of the line alone. 

Longs Notch Couloir deserves a shout, especially if you only use one short rap at the dogleg and ski across (most of) Broadway. 

Ypsilon Y is certainly steep and dangerous, but pretty straightforward steep skiing. Falls into same category as Heaven's Eleven, but the ropes have been eliminated from that one.

E Face Notchtop doesn't have steep enough skiing, IMO. It's 50+ up top, but turns mellow after the top ice pitch.

That E Thorn line is pretty wild and looks like it took some skills and creativity to do without a rope. 

This one has yet to see a known ropeless descent, despite a couple of attempts: mountainproject.com/route/1…;

Edit to add: after going down the list in my head,

Thunder Pyramid and South Face Castle Peak are pretty tough looking lines!

I bet there are quite a few double blacks that have been done off the radar ;) 

I can't think of much here in Colorado that could be considered ground breaking in the greater sense. It's a progression that we've started to regularly ski these lines in cold snow conditions, but that's about it. 

Routes equal to the D-B (and all listed above) were skied in the 1980's in the Alps. What would make a more challenging objective? 

Have you skied any of these? I don't have the balls my spouse would kill me if I did

schoolmarm..

...and i'm only half joking.

The north face of green mountain, Lakewood

Luigi Mwrote:

Have you skied any of these? I don't have the balls my spouse would kill me if I did

Several of them, but def not all. Took a while!

Idk much about this but worth noting the needle has been skied once maybe more. Pretty gnarly and also the cables route on longs has been routinely skied in good conditions.. !! ???????

Luigi Mwrote:

The north face of green mountain, Lakewood

Great line up there but I didn't find it so difficult lol 

What about the Shit For Brains (SFB) Couloir off A Basin East Ridgeline? That's what my ski buddies say it's called. It looks insanely narrow and continuous and steep, and can be seen lookers far left of East Wall.

Nick Herdegwrote:

Great line up there but I didn't find it so difficult lol 

What about the Shit For Brains (SFB) Couloir off A Basin East Ridgeline? That's what my ski buddies say it's called. It looks insanely narrow and continuous and steep, and can be seen lookers far left of East Wall.

SFB is definitely steep, narrow, and continuous, but I think it may get skied too often to be considered extreme. Not in the same league as Capitol or Pyramid IMO, but what do I know. 

These mega ski descents have always fascinated me because none of them look fun - from every video it seems like it’s mostly side slipping with occasional hard jump turns to keep the descent speed low. Do y’all who partake enjoy the actual riding or more so the challenge of getting up and down safely and the exposure?

MattHwrote:

These mega ski descents have always fascinated me because none of them look fun - from every video it seems like it’s mostly side slipping with occasional hard jump turns to keep the descent speed low. Do y’all who partake enjoy the actual riding or more so the challenge of getting up and down safely and the exposure?

For me it's both, but I can't comment on any of the extreme lines mentioned above, they're too gnar for me. I like to ski big lines and big mountains but I like for the skiing to feel solidly in my wheelhouse. 

MattHwrote:

These mega ski descents have always fascinated me because none of them look fun - from every video it seems like it’s mostly side slipping with occasional hard jump turns to keep the descent speed low. Do y’all who partake enjoy the actual riding or more so the challenge of getting up and down safely and the exposure?

Funny, I hear folks say this all the time. In my experience, when you're on a 50* slope with exposure below you, speed is the last thing on your mind, most of the time. Your mindset is closer to free soloing than it is speed climbing. You make adjustments to your speed based on in-the-moment evaluation of the snow surface and consequence of a mistake. Once you experience steep skiing on soft snow with a more forgiving runout, you're free to express yourself a bit more on the slope without fear of consequence. 

Compare it to a style of climbing that requires super focus and subtlety, like hard slabs. The mindset and flow of climbing a hard slab pitch is a lot different than moving fluidly up a steep hand crack.

Alex didn't look like he was having nearly as much fun soloing the Freeblast crux as he did on the hand cracks up high. But was it still a satisfying experience for him? 

Mike Soucywrote:

Funny, I hear folks say this all the time. In my experience, when you're on a 50* slope with exposure below you, speed is the last thing on your mind, most of the time. Your mindset is closer to free soloing than it is speed climbing. You make adjustments to your speed based on in-the-moment evaluation of the snow surface and consequence of a mistake. Once you experience steep skiing on soft snow with a more forgiving runout, you're free to express yourself a bit more on the slope without fear of consequence. 

Compare it to a style of climbing that requires super focus and subtlety, like hard slabs. The mindset and flow of climbing a hard slab pitch is a lot different than moving fluidly up a steep hand crack.

Alex didn't look like he was having nearly as much fun soloing the Freeblast crux as he did on the hand cracks up high. But was it still a satisfying experience for him? 

Fair enough! I still think I'd hate the slow-going technical bits -  my impression/analogy would be like climbing slab with roller skates (since you're using a method that's less 'connected'/'controllable' than just your feet, which to me would get frustrating - like doing surgery with mittens on). If I've got on the roller skates I'd much rather use them in a scenario where they're better suited/more enjoyable than my feet/climbing shoes.

MattHwrote:

Fair enough! I still think I'd hate the slow-going technical bits -  my impression/analogy would be like climbing slab with roller skates (since you're using a method that's less 'connected'/'controllable' than just your feet, which to me would get frustrating - like doing surgery with mittens on). If I've got on the roller skates I'd much rather use them in a scenario where they're better suited/more enjoyable than my feet/climbing shoes.

I think I'd retire from surgery (and slab climbing) if that were the case! 

Anyhow, we've derailed this thread for long enough. I'm still curious to hear folks' suggestions to the OP...

How about dreamweaver? Lol jk dreamweaver is neither hard nor scary just novel.

E face of notchtop felt exposed but not too challenging of skiing

My final answer is anything on the east wall of A bay at 8:00 am on a mid-late-april day. 

Molly Hogan's Bowl