Rethel Dusted Couloir (The Other North Couloir)

November 20, 2021

After circumnavigating the unfrozen lake we found ourselves booting up the wrong apron above Wedgemount Lake. We committed to the line hoping that it would go, and we were definitely rewarded

Snow conditions were thin even for November. Wedge North Mainline was snow free all the way to the top. After driving to 1100m we crossed the river and bushwhacked our way onto the main trail. Here we hiked with our skis on our back all the way to 1800m where there was finally enough snow to skin.

Arriving to the lake we found it still not frozen meaning we would have to work our way around the lake to access the couloir on the south side. Snow was thin and bony around the lake, often less than 20cm deep.

We skirted around the lake and over to the toe of wedge glacier where we explored some ice caves. Most of the ski season these will be well buried by seasonal snow, but the thin snow pack left the door to these crystalline rooms open.

We traversed back towards Rethel and under Parkhurst Couloir. Before coming to a big apron that we assumed was Rethel Couloir. We started booting up without a good view of the couloir above. We soon realized that we had picked the wrong apron, and that Rethel couloir was the next line over. From our view we couldn’t see how high the line went, but we decided to commit and try and go as far as we could.

When we arrived to the top of the apron we were excited to see a fairly long couloir that doglegged lookers left from from the apron. We excitedly started booting our way up.

Booting the couloir was mostly steady going in punchy moist snow. The final section up to the notch in the ridgeline was fairly steep. We topped out the ridgline and were welcomed with a bit of sunshine and and an easy spot to transition.

Right into the deep end for early season skiing. Our untempered quads burned doing jump turns down the moist snow. The punchy surface could easily grab a tail if you let your guard down.

After exiting the couloir we had gorgeous sunset turns down the apron through variable wind affected snow. We traversed around to the west end of the lake for an easy river crossing and an awkward climb back towards the Wedgemount trail.

The lake being unfrozed greatly increased the buy in to ski this line. There is no easy way around the lake. The east side offers a long detour and the west side has you navigate through a few awkward rock bulges that make quite slow going. By the time we were back to the trail we had our headlamps out. The descent was a bit of a grind between rocky turns and a slippery steep hike out. Overall a spectacular day, but the early season coverage worked us a little more than expected.

Edit: After reaching out to the community it seems this couloir was unnamed and had no recorded descents. We have decided to name it “Dusted Couloir”. If you have skied it previously and already have a name for it, please reach out and I will update the blog. We thought it deserved a better name than the “other north couloir”.

Lastly a final note on cornice hazard. A couple skiers noted that this line can have a mega cornice later in the season. We luckily had no visible overhanging cornice in November, but caution should be exercised especially later in the season. It could be a line that’s best reserved for early season.