Right at the point when we were climbing through the dicy cliff bands on the summit ridge, a helicopter came raging by from behind the mountain and passed less then 100 feet from us. They were so close that we could see the people’s faces. I bet they were about as surprised as we were. We though the mountain was coming down on our heads and just about pooped our pants. Seems a little too weird to be a coincidence…

anybody know anything about that.

John

glad to hear that you and the crew made it back safe. If it is any consolation, you skied the most fun part of the line. The turns on the summit snowfield were more nauseating than they were enjoyable.

hope you had as much fun getting down into the exit coulie as we did.

Lou, as far as climbing the line that you ski, sometimes old’s cool. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Yea I was comfortable with our decision. It’s a bit of a letdown not to summit but the sun crust was beginning to soften very quickly- too quickly given that it was getting late- at the point of about the fourth red dot down in the picture you posted. Underneath the melting crust was rotten hoar. It kinda felt like a no-brainer with those conditions.