Banana Couloir

Feb 18, 2025

The day was quintessentially coastal with the looming fog. We skied down through the fog traversing our way to Ledgeling Couloir and started bootpacking up. The moist coastal snow was supportive and secure without crampons. Topping out the couloir we headed east along the ridge through two short third class steps.

The entrance to the couloir is a little tricky to find. Head east along the ridgeline over the summit of W Nai, and down towards the saddle for Nai Couloir. Shortly before the saddle you will see a snow covered knife edge ridge extending to the north. There is a tree here with a rappel station. Rappel to skiers left of the knife edge and you will drop into Banana Couloir. We found that two 30m ropes were just barely enough to make a small alcove to put on your skis. Depending on the season, longer ropes could be necessary.

We both rappelled off the tree after backing up the single strand of 5mm cord extending the anchor. We rappelled straight into a cozy alcove where it was easy to put on our skis. From here some slightly awkward sidestepping got us down another 30 feet where the couloir eased off and had space to turn. A slightly longer rappel would allow you to skip this section.

The snow skied well in the steep couloir, it was punchy and supportive moist snow. After we exited the line we were welcomed back into ledge basin with ping pong ball visibility. It was disorienting seeing nothing but white. Fortunately we both knew the area well and slowly pieced our way to the bottom of the basin before skinning/skiing back out to the gondola.