Ski Tour - Corral Couloir

Mar 1 2025

Get Up and Go

We started hiking from Bear Lake after picking up Clayton in Estes Park at around 7am. I soon realised that I was operating on about half a lung. Four days before the trip, I started coming down with a bad cough. Tash said that I probably had bronchitis. The hike up to Flat Top mountain where Corral Couloir started from was slow. I alternated between taking cough suppressants and magical yellow fever reducing pills from Japan every two hours.

Hiking Up Flat Top Mountain

Skiing My First Couloir

I arrived to the top of the couloir at midday, where Miles and Clayton had been waiting for my weezing ass. We transitioned and dropped in. The main thing to look out for in this couloir is the cornice that hangs out on the skier’s right of the entrance. Sticking to the skier’s left of the run, there are a couple of pull of points that are shielded from slides. Lower down there’s another pulloff skier’s right. The morning sun had warmed this south facing couloir and we found perfect corn on the way down.

Skiing corral couloir

View from the top of corral couloir

View from the bottom of corral couloir

The ski out down the Tyndall Gorge was icy but gorgeous (pun intended). Miles and Clayton also boot packed up and skied down Hallet North Couloir, right above Emerald Lake. I hung out at the bottom and messed around with my ice axe and crampons.

(left) The loadout; (right) Chris, Miles, and Clayton at Emerald Lake