First Flatiron Ski Descent March 1
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So I was hiking up Chataqua on Sunday and ran into a couple who had just climbed Silk Road on the First Flatiron. They said several parties were on the route during the day, and that one party was skiing down the East Face Gully aka Silk Road. |
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MasonStaney wrote:... people were below him on the route during this.Which would be pretty irresponsible on his part. |
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Yes, I skied 3 60m pitches of it on belay and for good reason. Once I realized climbers were below me I anchored into a tree and waited for them to get to me. We actually chatted for a bit then they kept climbing and I kept skiing. It was kinda funny we had quite a few mutual friends. This was a really fun descent and pretty challenging. Images were shot by Daniel Sohner. |
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Marc801 wrote: Which would be pretty irresponsible on his part.If he didn't give any warning of his intentions then I would agree that would be an irresponsible decision, but maybe just a bad idea to climb an ice route with parties above you. |
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Austin Porzak wrote: Once I realized climbers were below me I anchored into a tree and waited for them to get to me. We actually chatted for a bit then they kept climbing and I kept skiing. It was kinda funny we had quite a few mutual friends.Wow! Pretty awesome stuff. Glad that you and everyone else had a fun day and made it home safe! |
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Wanted to say a little more... This line was rad and presented constant challenges. It was a puzzle from top to bottom. There was so much uncertainty dropping into it and it was really rewarding putting it all together on the descent. Three 60m sections had to be skied on belay because your skiing 60 degree? snow on top of pure slab rock and ice with fatal exposure. I kept my skis on for the entire descent but had to sidestep all the vertical rollovers otherwise your looking at certain death. There was no rappelling or downclimbing just sidestepping on belay! I've been scouting this line for years and I have never seen it come into better conditions than it did the other day so I really don't think this descent can be improved upon but it is in Boulder so who knows :) Wanna see the footage? |
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"Wanna see the footage?" |
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Forgive the naive question but my non-resort ski experience is limited - how does belaying a ski run work? I imagine you build an anchor and it's similar to lowering a climber, but I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around how you'd pay out rope fast enough for a skiier while still keeping good belay control - is there any special technique to it? |
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Frosty Weller wrote:"Wanna see the footage?" Hell yeah! And man no kidding about the conditions... that's awesome. Nice work and way to seize the moment Austin!Yeah! Unedited footage of the whole ski! |
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Skiing on belay is kind of a pain in the ass. I just had him give me 3 to 5 feet of slack at all times (when I was on skiable terrain and had him keep it tighter on the sidestep sections). Your not skiing a line like this really fast and only once did he ask me to slow it down so he could feed rope faster. Im not sure about the steepness but it was steep. I think the very top section off the ridge could maybe be 60 but I'm not sure, also was really steep about 90m into the line. |
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CJC wrote:60 degrees? Having a hard time picturing where.Not to take anything away from a rad run, but yeah this can't be more than 35ish degrees. Moving onto the direct to avoid the mando air on the left might go around 40ish to 45. STILL...sick and ballsy. No base doesn't give a lot of decision making opportunities. |
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The real questions is, how are the bottoms of your skis??? Was there a base? Nothing but faceshots and coreshots down here in C.Springs! |
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If this ski were a top 1000' section of a real alpine peak, finally making the first complete descent of a peak, it would be cool, but is a scrappy ugly brown slab with a little frosting on it. High risk for an inconsequential route, at least I hope it was fun. |
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Very cool, but "circus stunt", "crazy" "!!!", this gets done all the time in SLC, see |
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Wait, did your follower also ski the line? |
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Please, oh please post this TR over on TGR. |
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one of my roomates and their partner got up there to climb Silk Road as the guys were finishing. Keith dropped their rope to them as he climbed past. I look forward to some video. |
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Scott McMahon wrote: Not to take anything away from a rad run, but yeah this can't be more than 35ish degrees. Moving onto the direct to avoid the mando air on the left might go around 40ish to 45. STILL...sick and ballsy. No base doesn't give a lot of decision making opportunities.If it's really only 35 deg. it would be very reasonable as a descent |
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MikeWh wrote:This is more a circus stunt than an accomplishment, usually 'stunts' are done to advance career or try to stand out from the crowd, not establish a new quality route worth repeating. If this ski were a top 1000' section of a real alpine peak, finally making the first complete descent of a peak, it would be cool, but is a scrappy ugly brown slab with a little frosting on it. High risk for an inconsequential route, at least I hope it was fun.Somebody piss in your cheerios Mike? What do you care if Austin likes to go out & enjoy himself in weird ways? Lighten up, Francis. |
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Glenn Schuler wrote: Somebody piss in your cheerios Mike? What do you care if Austin likes to go out & enjoy himself in weird ways? Lighten up, Francis.I get his point. I'm all for going out and having an adventure and getting psyched on something in your back yard. And sure, I don't think it's fair to dictate the style of someone else's adventure. That being said, the style can dictate the amount of credit an accomplishment deserves. So realistically, I can see how it is a bit off putting to see a big production to film something that isn't really all that mind blowing. |
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No one else did it
And I don't see people just soloing up the mere 35% (???) snow/ice route
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