True PNW classic
Date: March 6th 2021
Partners: Sam Lien, Ben Peters, Diana Wendt
Mileage: 19.5
Gain: 8300'
Elapsed Time: 13 hours
Start time: 8AM
Approach/deproach: All on skis, but very long and skinning both ways with plenty of bushwhacking
Ski Gear: Light Weight, Alien RS and Zero G 85's
Technical Gear: Light mountain axe, Petzl Irvis hybrid crampons
Rope: No
Pack: Pretty light
Start: Twin Lakes Trailhead off of White River UFSF RD 6400
Finish: Start
Dryland: Hopefully none
Travel Logistics: Very simple, just a long drive from Seattle
Date: March 6th 2021
Partners: Sam Lien, Ben Peters, Diana Wendt
Mileage: 19.5
Gain: 8300'
Elapsed Time: 13 hours
Start time: 8AM
Approach/deproach: All on skis, but very long and skinning both ways with plenty of bushwhacking
Ski Gear: Light Weight, Alien RS and Zero G 85's
Technical Gear: Light mountain axe, Petzl Irvis hybrid crampons
Rope: No
Pack: Pretty light
Start: Twin Lakes Trailhead off of White River UFSF RD 6400
Finish: Start
Dryland: Hopefully none
Travel Logistics: Very simple, just a long drive from Seattle
Just a quick update as of 2024. I did find a back way into the Black Hole Couloir earlier this winter (Jan 2024). It requires snowmobile access up Chiwawa road, park right by Atkinson Flat CG and hope that one of the log jams just south still crosses the Chiwawa river. Then head up Y Creek on up to the summit of Bandit. There is a couloir that enters from the SE that connects directly to the Black Hole (would have required a short rap when we were there, probably not later on a good year, we didn't end up having time to ski BH) I gave it the name "the back hole" please let me know if this one is already named. You trade a super long flat approach on the west side for a wicked ski ascent/descent on the east side (some dense forest down low but mostly smooth sailing). That being said, the standard west approach does go through some amazing forests and it a real rarity in that there is no road or trail in the drainage, it's worth experiencing (though maybe only once). Cheers!
Making Friends
Oh boy, this route is special in a lot of ways. We had a great group and a massive approach ahead of us. It would be easy to imagine the approach totally sucking, at times it did. It was also incredibly special. The reality is that you head about 8 miles up a drainage that is totally wild. No trails, no roads, nothing. What there was was a boatload of amazing wildlife, and beautiful forests.
Booting the lower section
It's easy to arrive at the base of the line feeling a little put off. When you actually see up the line it really helps with motivation. It is a couloir in every sense of the term and it's massive. The ski run is about 4000' of fall line,
The route did test our faith in the snow. We had to climb up through some very nasty refrozen slide debris and slide beds in the lower 1000', Above that it got really good though. About 1.5' of amazing, stable pow.
Ben ripping the upper section
Diana dropping into the lower section
Refrozen baseballs and golf balls, an interesting surface
Since the snow on the apron below the line was a little "questionable" we opted to do a mega traverse to get a little further down the valley on our way out. With some skating and lots of polling we made it about 1.5 miles back out the drainage in ski mode. Then it was into skins for the whole way out, ugh.
The exit was kinda rough, lots of skinning downhill and bushwhacking. The line lives up to it's reputation for both bushwhacking and a long approach. One cool thing though, just as it was getting dark we heard a couple of owls hooting like crazy in a stand of old growth cedars. That was just as cool as the skiing.