Yes that line is skiable.
Over President's Day weekend, I made my annual trip to visit Jonathon at the Ruby Mountains in Nevada. Since he was going to be working most of the time, I brought along my friend Margaret. On our first day there we teamed up with our new friend Doris and planned to ski the super classic line known as Terminal Cancer. This is about as unique as skiing gets. First, the Rubies are located in a high alpine desert with sandstone cliffs and desert vegetation. How often do you go skiing in the desert?! Second, this coulior is about 15 feet wide on a 30 degree slope for about 1800 feet and lined with very tall sandstone walls.
Margaret shredding!
It is approached by driving up Lamoille Canyon and parking at the end of road. It is then about a 15 minute skin up the road to where you try to find a place to cross the creek. The creek was very low but there was a bit of bushwacking involved. After crossing the creek, we skinned up the apron leading to Terminal Cancer. Once we reached the narrow coulior, we strapped our skis to our pack and booted up about 1800 feet to the top of the coulior.
Up and Up and Up...
Doris checking out the views from the top.
The coulior tops out at about 10, 000 feet and my lungs were definately feeling it since I had traveled from sea level the day before. There isn't much room for hanging out at the top so we gingerly stepped into our skis and jump-turned our way down the steepests parts. The snow was good and there was enough for all three of us to enjoy. It was a great day and definately some of the most unique and awesome skiing I have ever done!
Photo Margaret Schmidt.
Celebration with Jonathon and his fancy crown royal jacket.
