Red’s Couloir (+Campfire Couloir and Thing 1&2)

Frazier Lake Basin - North Bridgers

Date: April 7, 2019
Distance: 14.7 miles
Elevation Gain: 8,016 ft
Moving Time: 8’14”
Partner: Phillip Vaughn
Link to Strava Activity: https://www.strava.com/activities/2273808447

Skis: Black Diamond Helio 95 183 cm
Boots: Salomon MTN Explore

Camera: Sony A7RIII
Lens: Sony 24-105 F/4

The bulk of my ski touring this season was in the North Bridgers, specifically the tree chutes around Ainger Lake. The Ainger Lake Tree Chutes are terrain that I view as manageable risk skiing solo. It isn’t always easy finding partners, so it’s always a treat having company and being able to venture into steeper terrain.

My good friend, Phillip Vaughn, was to join me on this trip to the Bridgers. Phillip and I have spent a lot of time together elk hunting and skiing at Bridger Bowl but a mid season leg injury put a damper on Phillip’s skiing so I hadn’t yet toured with him. After a slightly later start than planned, we arrived at our starting point on Seitz Rd. Keep in mind, the actual trailhead is not accessible most of the winter and do NOT attempt to drive on the snow covered road to get there. I made that mistake earlier in the season and quickly punched through the faceted snow to the ice layer lying beneath and promptly got stuck. If it wasn’t for my MaxTraxs, I would have been in serious trouble.

We departed from the truck around 9:30 am and started skinning on the snow covered road just to make it to the trailhead. From here, the trail passes through a narrow corridor between two parcels of private land to get to the base of a small ridge that leads you to the objectives. At the base of the small ridge, you can either chose to gain the ridge and follow along it’s spine, or follow the snowmobile trail that runs north of it. Mid season when coverage is good, I prefer to stay on the ridge as the views are better and you don’t have to deal with skinning on frozen chunder caused by snowmobile tracks.

Dark skies led to precipitation and we were promptly greeted with significant snowfall as soon as we made it to the ridge. Once you ascend the first ridge, it flattens out for a bit where a snowmobile trail passes through before it continues to climb. After staying on the ridge, you’ll eventually intersect an open snowfield. There is usually a large cornice on the opposite side, so it’s critical to carefully choice a traverse that allows you to get over the most manageable spot on the cornice. From here, you continue to ascend a ridge that runs perpendicular to the previous one and duck in and out of the tightly spaced trees. Some trees are spaced wide enough to allow for easy skiing, but these are not those.

After some challenging skinning, you’ll eventually get to a saddle on top of the Ainger Lake Tree Chutes I mentioned previously. The Ainger Lake Tree Chutes are three ~1200 ft chutes that offer great intermediate backcountry skiing. They are north facing, and usually hold delightful, cold powder. An alternative ascent route is to skin to the base of the tree chutes and then boot up. Sometimes, this is easier depending on conditions. The chutes are just slightly too steep to efficiently skin up, so proper conditions are needed for safe and efficient booting.

We had other objectives in mind so we hooked around the saddle and continued skinning towards a group of couloirs towering over Frazier Lake in the next basin up. We started off the day skiing down the Frazier Skin Out Chute and we’re greeted with stable powder. The area had picked up a few inches of snow in the 12 hours prior, but not quite enough to drastically increase the risk of dry slab avalanches. As the name of the line implies, we skinned back up the chute we had just skiied and continued on to our other objectives. We then skied Thing 1&2 and Campfire Couloir. All three couloirs are very similar: short, tight and very aesthetic. The lines are very easy to find using FATMAP. It doesn’t have a ton of backcountry lines for most areas, but it has dozens of lines (with descriptions) in the North Bridgers and has been an invaluable resource for my exploration of the region.

We already had 4,000 ft of ascent knocked out and were thinking about calling it a day. We stopped to take in some calories and we both couldn’t stop staring at a big, south facing couloir on the other side on the basin. I consulted FATMAP and learned it was Red’s Couloir. Five minutes prior, Phillip was dragging a little so I thought he was joking when he suggested we go check it out. After two minutes of back and forth, we decided to give it a shot. It was already 4:00 pm, so we decided on a strict 6:00 pm turnaround time. I was unsure what the conditions would be like since we had some very warm days the previous week that significantly effected the south facing slopes.

We skinned until the slope got too steep, and then we started the boot pack. The snow conditions were surprisingly soft but still allowed for efficient booting. As we inched our way to the top, the slope got steeper and the snow got softer. Phillip made the wise choice of putting his skis on beneath a small rock outcropping ~20 feet below the top of the ridge. I stubbornly pressed on and the top 10 feet were extremely steep. Next time I ski this line from the top, I will definitely have crampons and an ice axe with me.

The wind was gusting on top of the ridge but after a short transition, it was time to ski Red’s Couloir. The top section is very steep (>50 degrees), so it took me a few turns before I regained my confidence. The couloir isn’t that narrow and allows plenty of space to make wide, arcing turns. The couloir had wonderful, soft snow and the main hazard was the refrozen wet slide debris in the basin below. Phillip is a far better photographer than me, so I handed off my camera and let him do the shooting.

We put skins back on and skinned back to the base of the Frazier Lake Skin Out Chute and skinned up it to arrive back at the top of the Ainger Lake Tree Chutes. We ripped down the first tree chute with waning daylight and transitioned back to skins at Ainger Lake. I wanted to be back at the fence line trail before dark and we made it just in time. To add to an already epic day, the snow turned rain as soon as the sun set. We made it back to the truck guided by headlamps at 10:00 pm. We were soaking wet and cold but couldn’t help but smile.

The only thing left was to head back to town and feast upon Bozeman’s finest late night dining establishment: Buffalo Wild Wings.