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The corridor is also the habitat of streams and torrents. The mountaineer should not underestimate the power of a mountain stream, nor overestimate its temperature and the ease of getting warm and dry after faulty attempts to cross. Couloirs: the chute, chimney, and crack.—Beyond the canyon, and tributary to it, are the gully formations that owe their existence largely to falling snow, ice, and rock, and are still avenues for the same falling bodies. In high mountains chutes are usually filled with ice at high angle, sometimes snow-covered and often not. They are normally to be avoided as dangerous territory, but the hazard varies greatly. In the mild summer climate of Yo-semite Valley one rarely hears falling rock in the chutes, which are usually the chosen route. In such severe weather as that of the Alps there may be many couloirs as evil as one on the Aiguille du Blatiere, which is rarely quiet. The detritus at the base of a chute, or the color of the snow or ice in it, may suggest the extent of danger. If the route must be taken, either wall of the chute should be preferred to the middle, which is directly in the firing line and provides least defilade from flying fragments. The best time to pass is in early morning, before the sun has released the seal that holds icicles and rock to the couloir walls. |
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