The Hash Pipe Couloir
It’s short, harsh, dangerous, leaves you dazed, your bases stoned, you’re likely to get burned, it smells like shit (mountain goat shit in this case) and is unrecommended, but it is also fun.
I’ve stood at the top of this couloir roughly five times over the last ten years and yesterday Courtney Phillips and I finally skied it, to use the term loosely. From the top, it looks like it could be either a hidden gem… or a fiasco. We brought a rope just in case.
Hmmm, looks good from here. The top of the Hash Pipe.
So far, so good. Forty-six degrees, southeast facing, 9,500', narrow, rock-lined & a big question mark down below.
The dead snag/verglass/rotten rock step-over crux. Why is Courtney smiling?
Unfortunately at the end of the first nice chute section, the party was over and the line cliffed out. Oh well. It turned out that a Mountain Goat had the same idea and had already done a lap on the Hash Pipe (he probably has a different name for it) earlier that day. To help show us the way, he shit all over the loose, rocky, exposed traverse, which was aromatic and fun to walk through.
There are a lot of famous traverses in the climbing world - this one, the Goat Shit Traverse, is not one of them, but it avoids a rappel.
There she blows. (that little patch of snow in the middle of the rocks)
Although I don’t think I’ll ever repeat this, I enjoy lines like these as they are fun little mysteries and you never know what you are going to find. Eighty percent of the time they are junk, but when you uncover a gem, it makes it all worth while. You never know until you go. It has been kind of a poopie year in the Wasatch, so lines like these are a fun distraction while the bigger stuff slowly stabilizes.
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Category: Trip Reports
Hey Andrew, I think you came and said hi at the base of Argenta yesterday. Is that how you ended up in Mineral? Do you mind revealing how to get to this shitty gem? Looks fun.
Andy
I bet even the hooligan argonaut (Lil ‘C) didn’t straight line this one.
Hi Andy – to add insult to injury, there is no easy way to get to the Hash Pipe, but if you really want to check it out, the top is located at 40.62858n 111.68251w. Watch out on the traverse – it is about 5.2 with ski boots on and could be a fatal fall. Enjoy. ;)
KC
I couldn’t get clearance from the tower. He said, “Negative bro-bra, your gig ain’t crispy enough.”
A nearby line, known to the dazed and confused as “A Room Full of Eight-Foot Hookah Hoses,” is a equally bad candidate for no-turn howler monkey hooliganism.
Y’all down there in the Wasatch are way too funny! Thanks for the laughs…
ill take all 5 burton kits because i know what they are used for exactly.
Dear Sir ,
The Vert Fest at Alpental, Wa.( your old stomping grounds ) , Saturday March 6th .
Martin has worked pretty hard getting it set and could use a little more assistance .
Followed by ,
Volunteer Patrol Spaghetti Feed ( all you can eat $6 ),
B.A.R.K. Ball & Silent Auction to follow .
Best Regards ,
Tom Davies