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Backcountry Skiing blogs, videos, photos, and a whole lotta stoke.

Skiing the Young and Dumb Chute | Cooper Landing, Chugach Mountains, AK United States | 06/16/08, by TeleMonster

A previous story of mine discussed a first ski descent down a backcountry ski run that we later named "Junior Mint" on Junior Mountain near Cooper Landing, Alaska. The mountain's name is derived from the fact that it is smaller, or junior to the adjacent Cecil Rhode Mountain. So, naturally, our week long ski trip culminated with a run down the most aesthetic line on Cecil Rhode. Readers are referred to my previous post on Junior Mint for background details on the trip and the Alaska rating system.


We knew this would be the most impressive line that we skied all week, so we made some effort to capture proper documentation of the event. Out of our group of seven, two people opted out for different reasons, so we set them up near the town of Cooper Landing with an 18x zoom lens in attempt to get some quality video footage. Additionally, we had a few walkie-talkies so the skiers could communicate with the ground crew, complete with code names like "Chicken Legs" and "Bird Man".

It took a few hours to hike up the 3000 to 3500 vertical feet to the top of the chute which Chunk, our local friend and pseudo-guide, had skied many times and named it "Young and Dumb" several years ago. We later found out that this was a cropped version of the original name which is too vulgar to repeat here. We spent several minutes at the top of the chute, attempting to communicate with the cinematographers below, waiting for the proper lighting, etc.


The initial 100 feet or so of the chute was incredibly steep, probably over 60 degrees. Chunk, feeling at home in this type of terrain, thought it might be fun to throw a front flip off of the cornice leading onto this steep pitch. He proceeded to do this twice as the rest of us watched with cameras ready. Unfortunately, our communication system failed and the ground crew wasn't ready to film either stunt.



After these two successful inverts, Chunk hiked back up to the top and volunteered himself to go first. He opted for the slightly steeper line on skiers left and skied it very well given the conditions. The conditions consisted of 2-3 inches of overly-softened snow. Combined with the steep pitch, this created a recipe for medium fast moving wet slides initiated at every turn. As Chunk was more comfortable than the rest of us, he chose to go just fast enough to outrun the ever-growing wet slide that constantly nipped at the tails of his skis. The rest of us proceeded one turn at a time, letting our sluff descend ahead of us until things cleared out enough to start linking turns.




The pitch mellowed out to about 45 degrees half way down, and it was here that our cumulative sluff stopped, creating a massive pile of deep, heavy snow. I was glad I had my rock skis at this point because the lower section of the chute was littered with rockfall, and making big mountain turns was too much fun to worry about your edges and bases.


In the end, we had a great time skiing some of the steepest terrain I've yet to experience on skis (my first Alaskan black diamond). We also gained an appreciation for the ski film industry and how much coordination and logistics are involved in acquiring quality footage. Perhaps we would have done better with fewer "safety breaks".