This is the last week to enter Kirkwood’s “Ski the Cirque” contest. On February 1st, the guides from Expedition Kirkwood will pick the 5 finalists. On Feb 6th, the finalist will be chosen for the trip of a lifetime. Yeah, we’re excited for it too.
We’ve picked four of our favorite entires so far. Have you skied a rowdier line than these? If so, you need to enter this contest right now. Deadline for entry is January 31 at midnight (MST).
Ben Woodworth’s Entry
“Took a page out of Andrew McLean’s book (literally, he wrote a book about chutes in the Wasatch called “The Chuting Gallery”) and ventured up about 4500 vertical feet (trailhead to top) to the Grunge Couloir on Mt. Timpanogos. It took us about 4 hours to get to the top. The snow was firm and stable. It’s always fun skiing steep terrain after touring/booting for 4 hours. Your legs are on fire after the first few turns. After skiing the couloir we skied the massive apron below. It was 100+ turns with variable snow conditions… another leg burner. Although it wasn’t blower pow, it was still an awesome adventure and definitely helped build confidence for bigger, burlier lines in the future.”
J.R. Musser’s Entry
“This run was the cherry on top of me showing two Cali boys what Colorado has to offer. The top part of the Sandwich Shop at Silverton is sometimes blown in and chalky. Rumor has it. I’ve only experienced it as bulletproof or bulletproof with a sprinkling of granite chocolate chips. Regardless, I’d crawl through glass to ski the apron. Our group stopped right at the bottom of the chute and let everyone else go down. Our guide Stan told me to chop through the wind lip that had formed between meatball and the chute directly to the skiers left of us. A couple of minutes swimming/flailing through the wind lip resulted in a clear path to the basin of silverton’s big bowl. Five or six turns later I was at the bottom. unquestionably the best run of my life.”
Mattias Sullivan’s Entry
“I was fortunate enough to go skiing in Antarctica with Ice Axe Expeditions. In this photo I was belayed over a cornice by my guide and then side stepped over to where the snow looked the best. I was able to ski fresh powder all the way down the the ocean. Definitely a once in a life time experience for sure!”
Yu Kuwabara’s Entry
“A few years back my ski partner and I went out to the Rock Creek Hut near Mammoth Lakes in late February. After a day of touring around the hut, my ski partner Nick and I got up at 5 am and huffed it out to the couloir. It was so cold that the water in my Nalgene froze, which was in the pocket of my down jacket I was touring with. That’s a pic of Nick, my ski partner entering the couloir. That bum didn’t carry a camera, so there aren’t any pics of me skiing the couloir.”
