Cathedral Shoulder NW couloir

<p>Mixed bag of hard old wind slab, sun crust, small pockets of powfer and breakable wind slab up to 10cm on South aspects on the aproach. We followed Cathedral mountain winter route bootpacking the south couloir. Final 200m vert slope to reach the top of the NW couloir was quite firm even in ski crampons. Cornice overhanging the line is already quite big but it looked like someone dug a tunnel through it for the entry on the skiers right side. Very shallow snowpack on the south side of the ridge, not enough snow for a t-slot anchor and no good boulders to sling either. We had to use a seat belay over the ridge to protect the ski cut. Triggered small soft slab 10cm deep on first ski cut in immediate lee. Looked like the entire couloir slid during last wind even. We had 10cm of powder over firm surface at the top reducing to only 2cm over firm surface mid line with a few deeper wind loaded pockets. The line is very low angle for a couloir and is quite wide.  Skied out by traversing high into the skiers right slidepath which held soft snow but has quite a bit of Xmas trees regrowth (enough space just for a few tracks in few open spots) </p>

Terrain Ridden

Alpine slopes, Dense trees, Steep slopes.

Snow Conditions

Crusty, Hard, Powder.

Weather Conditions

Cloudy, Sunny.