The East Couloir, Hallett Peak

Name: The East Couloir, Hallett Peak
Rating: 4.7

4.7 ( 3 )

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Trail

0.4 mile 0.6 kilometer point to point
Ski Line
Difficult

Elevation

Ascent: 0' 0 m
Descent: -871' -265 m
High: 11,032' 3,363 m
Low: 10,161' 3,097 m

Grade

Avg Slope: 47% (25°)
Max Slope: 82% (39°)

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Trail shared by Chris Dickson

Avalanche risk for May 22, 2019: Considerable

Dangerous avalanche conditions. Careful snowpack evaluation, cautious route-finding and conservative decision-making essential. Natural avalanches possible; human-triggered avalanches likely.

Full forecast for CAIC: Front Range Zone — Brought to you by CO Avalanche Information Center

Avy tweets from @CAICfrontrange

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Current ascent conditions

Unknown See History

Popular ski lines nearby

Nick finding the good stuff near the bottom of the terrain park. See that cliff to his (skier's) left? Stick close to it.

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Singletrack Estes Park, CO

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Approaching the crux of Dragontail, Emerald Lake is far below.

Smoke and Dragons

0.2 mi 0.4 km • -830 ft Descent • -252.93 m Descent

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Getting closer to the bottom of Smoke and Dragons; here's one of the spots where you really need to stay left.

Dead Elk Couloir

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Corral Couloir

0.2 mi 0.4 km • -434 ft Descent • -132.27 m Descent

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Hidden Valley "Ptarmigan"

0.2 mi 0.3 km • -128 ft Descent • -38.9 m Descent

Singletrack Estes Park, CO

( 1 )

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“A broad couloir that provides a shorter alternative to it's neighbor's, Dragontail and Dead Elk.”

— Chris Dickson

GPX File

Type: Backcountry or Sidecountry

Description

From Emerald Lake, a steep and strenuous skin will bring you up the East Couloir. This is also done as a moderate snow climb in the summer and an approach to the East Ridge of Hallett Peak.

After ascending the couloir, rip skins and ski the steep entrance which mellows out into a nice 40-60ft wide couloir at roughly 35 degrees. This is definitely avalanche terrain, so skiing this in solid conditions is advised. Once you ski out the apron, there are several fun boulders to hit, and you can choose between going skier's left into a treed area or straight into a rockslide area. Either way, you end up on Emerald Lake and can re-group there.

A really fun alternative if you're looking for something different from Dragontail Couloir and Dead Elk Couloir in Tyndall Gorge.

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Check-Ins

Apr 30, 2019

Per Waag

Apr 6, 2019

Daniel Galhardo

May 5, 2017

Justin Palm

6:30 start, got to the top around 10:30. already warming up quite a lot, Dragon's Tail had a large wet slide at the base of it that had scoured off...

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Trail Ratings

4.7 from 3 votes

#7

in Rocky Mountain National Park

#204

Overall

4.7 from 3 votes

5 Star		67%
4 Star		33%
3 Star		0%
2 Star		0%
1 Star		0%

Rankings

#7

in Rocky Mountain Nationa…

#52

in Colorado

#204

Overall

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Photos

Looking down the middle of the couloir.

Looking up the East Couloir from the apron.

Looking up Dead Elk (left) and Dragontail (righ…

The East Couloir, Hallett Peak