It's getting to that time of year where we sart geting exited about skiing again. So here is a trip report from punx's descent of an un-named couloir on the north face of A.N.D.P on april 25th 2005.
This un-named couloir on the north face of aiguille noir de pramecou, has to be one of the best and rarely skied couloirs in espace killy. The more i study the line, over the months, the more i wanted to ski it. But waiting for the right conditions was the key. Late december, early january, all the way through february it was not possible due to the rock barrier in the middle. I planned to ski the couloir on Monday 21st march 2005. But i bruised my ribs a few days privies and i didn’t really fancy having to hike a narrow 45 degree couloir any way.
On april 25th, i decided to ski the 45 degree un-named couloir on the aiguille noir de pramecou solo, while lil punk watched my back from the col du palet. We woke up to a bluebird day, with no wind. The temperature at 2100 meters was -3, rising to about -0 later on.
It’s now 10.00am and were both standing at the top of the col du palet, looking across at this 45 degree couloir, discussing if it’s a good or bad idea. After looking at it for another 10 minutes, i decided to got for it. I bootpacked up to the col, then cut a high traverses across to the couloir from the ridge. The snow on the traverses was a 2cm breakable crust, with random small pockets of choky powder in shaded areas. After huffing and puffing for 5 minutes getting through the 5cm breakable crust, i finally reached the bottom the of couloir. I was thinking about turning around at this point, but i thought fuck it. i may as well keep going. The bootpack up the couloir was fucking touchier. For two hours i slogged slowly up wards, breaking through crust up to my knees in some places. But i did get there in the end. The narrow ridge at the top, was to narrow or none existent. I spent the next 5 minutes digging a ledge and waiting for lil punk to say it's good to go.
A couple of minutes later the radio crackles back to life. The voice at the other end saying, are you ready to drop. A couple of seconds of silence then the radio comes back to life.
54321 dropping
The snow in the couloir was nice spring time powder on the top hafe, with a bit of a crust lower down still. Every turn solughs would continually come behind, trying to knock me of my feet. After 5 more minutes of turning and getting stuck in the breakable crust.I finally made it out of that couloir, in one piece.
