LOCALadk Magazine

LOCALadk | Epic Journey Matt Young Josh Wilson and Dave McCahill tethered together, make their way to the top of the Y-Couloir. hilarious exchanges; and these funny moments themselves are almost worth his daily fee. up the slopes leading to the beginning of the Y-couloir. Eventually we picked our way down to the glacier, which we traversed, and made a small climb to a hut that looked more like an alpine fortress. Once inside we got a real feel for what this experience was all about. We were a group of five among at least ten other larger groups staying in this massive structure in the mountains. We lived it up in the hut for the evening and eventually retired to our bunk room, which was one of five in the hut that slept at least twenty tired skiers form all over the world. As I lay down to sleep, Dave, who has a lot of experience in these types of huts, looks up at me from his bunk and asks, "Did you remember your ear plugs?" before he giggles and goes to sleep. For the remainder of the evening I drifted in and out of sleep as I listened to a chorus of snoring skiers, while I imagined what the following day might be like. The five of us split up into rope teams when we reached the bottom of the Y-couloir. With skis on our backs, ice axes in hand, and crampons on our feet, we made our way up the steep climb one step at a time. The ascent was pleasant, and we made good progress until we reached a snow section, deposited by the wind, just before the summit of the Aguille d' Argentiere. The sugary consistency of the snow near the top made us sink to our waists with each step. The ridges on either side of us were covered with snow, loaded by the wind; they were certain to release and develop into dangerous avalanches, had we chosen the "easier" routes. Our only choice was to literally tunnel our way through the last thirty meters using our ice axes as digging tools. We crawled our way to the summit of the 4000m peak, briefly took shelter from the wind, and switched our gear over to ski mode. We awoke at 4 a.m., shoved some bread, butter, jam and instant coffee down our throats, and out the door we went. We were on our skis by 4:30 a.m., illuminating the icy ski path with our headlamps. As we climbed farther and farther up the glacier toward our chosen ascent, the sun began to reveal the three classic North Faces of the Argentiere basinthe Aiguilles Courtes, Droites, and Verte. It was a beautiful, clear morning, and the five of us happily zig-zagged our way It was a crystal clear day. As we rounded a corner we could peer over a cornice and look straight down at our objective. It was the steepest most exposed ski descent I had ever seen in my life. It began with a steep, icy, consequential entrance. As Yannick gently committed himself to the couloir, he again informed us that we had the choice to go down the easier north couloir; but we knew there was no choice. We were going down Couloir Barbey despite our trembling knees. 24 LOCALadk Magazine Fall into Winter 2013

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