Diagonal Couloir On Rethel Mountain - Whistler / Garibaldi Provincial Park, BC (FD)
Two snowboarders. One mission. What could go wrong?
Rethel Mountain is one of the summits of the Wedgemount Lake area. That was not our plan yesterday, not even a plan B (it was closer to the third part of a very ambitious plan A lol). But adaptation is one of those things, that will 100% make you a better backcountry skier or snowboarder. Being OK without accomplishing that mission's objective is, of course, easier said than done. I should know, it's a complete mental game for me out there. Thankfully I was touring with a friend who picked up my mood and helped me shift the mindset when the moment came.
The alarm went off at 12.45 am. It wasn't easy but I was ready. It was one of those moments, where the morning mate fills you with not only caffeine but the euphoric sense of motivation and ready-ness.
The gear was packed a few hours before (3 hours of sleep is usually enough isn't it?) and the car was loaded 20 minutes later. The drive up to Whistler was amazing but sketchy. The stars made it amazing and the little Golf pretty much running on last fumes was sketchy. We filled up the tank in Creekside and continued to the Wedgmont parking lot, just north of Whistler.
We left the car around 3 am. The first part was cruisy, we took a wrong route right at the start (following the typical summer route to the parking lot), since we'd both been there but in the summer! So that was the route we were familiar with. That took us up an FSR and by the time we realized the mistake we were too far in. We decided to boot pack the 100 m vertical difference between the two FSR's and got up to the lake trail just when it was starting to get bright. It was awesome. The frozen slush from the last hot week was very enjoyable to hike up! The skins were gripping without any issues, the edges of the splitboards were cutting in, we hiked up fairly fast for the distance.
Isn't it great? We only had to boot pack twice before hitting the alpine! I love spring. I can confidently say that between the morning boot pack and the boot pack up to our line, it almost felt like I spent more time, strapped to my crampons than on my split board! Ha.
It's almost like we didn't even need the ski crampons, thank god we didn't bring those.
Hiking up to the Wedgemont lake, the sun came out and a beautiful valley opened up to us, hiking between the boulders.
The day was more than beautiful. Sun came out around 6.30/7 but it was just touching the tips of the trees, leaving us in a perfect hiking temperature. The first 1200m vertical to the lake were the hardest, by the time we reached the hut, it was full-on summer. Of course, I found out I forgot my sunscreen AND (!!) my big water bottle.
Boulder fields on the way up, probably potential pillow runs in the peak season?! Need to come back next year...
Rethel Mountain 2408m
Whistler / Garibaldi Provincial Park, BC
From all the trip reports I have been reading on Rethel mountain, most of the people would usually ski the wider and less steep "North couloir" so it was kind of nice, going off the typical path and doing something different. I'm not sure if this line has a name, if not, I'd like to name it something beyond the means of type 2 fun! Like Icey n' Spicy.
There you go. The couloir has a name.
From this angle, you can see the typically skied "Rethel Mountain North couloir and kind of the angle of our couloir on the right side,
coming out between the middle cliff and the right-hand side rock.
The line itself is incredible. Quite narrow but just open enough for enjoyable turns. With good snow, I imagine January/February, this would've been an amazing one to ride! We will just have to come back. It was quite good for hiking up but the way down, this couloir was survival skiing haha. Some side slips, some bunny hops over a thick ice crust... no thank you. It gets narrow on top, there is no cornice but some iced-up blocks of snow, covering the rocks above you. Dante got hit by one of those, as they started melting with these hot spring temperatures.