The Couloir Collection: Couloir "A"

What is this blog?

Designed to be an unofficial guide to ski mountaineering in Canterbury, the idea of this blog is that anyone who has skied a peak or a couloir in the region can post photos and information here to inspire and inform others. If you have something to contribute, send photos and a description of the route to:

thecouloircollection@gmail.com

and we will post them up. We will also start a list of contributors so credit can be given where due. If everyone gets out into the backcountry and remembers to take photos, a guide of sorts will form.
To standardise the guide as much as possible we will grade any routes using the "D" system. Details of this system can be found at:

www.wildsnow.com

Routes will also be marked with a green line for the ascent and a red line for the descent.
This guide will only work if the regions skiers take time to contribute and we are really keen to see what everyone is skiing so send us an email.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Couloir "A"

Otira Valley, Arthurs Pass (if anyone knows the real name please tell me)
Skied 19 October 2008, Duncan Sherratt and Tim Ensor.
"D" System Rating: D8, II, R2
This line is located on the west side of the valley and drops from the ridge between Mt Philistine and Mt Rolliston (approx halfway between points 1860m and 2000m). It is the wider of the two prominent couloirs marked in red on the map below.

The climb starts with an easy skin up the apron until the terrain pinches off. We encountered a rock band here which necessitated a bit of scrambling (this can be avoided by following the line of decent for the ascent or starting further skiers left and cutting into the couloir). Skis are then on the pack for the remainder of the ascent.
A nice pitch of around 42 degrees off the top mellows in the middle section and steepens again slightly where the terrain narrows. Exit either skiers left or right if the snow is too thin to ski the bottom rock band.