Brian and I badly wanted to do Central Couloir (NEI III 2-3+, click the link at left for a photo). The route is 2,500'+ long and follows a beautiful, dramatically deep gully on Mt. Webster up to just below the summit of that mountain. It's a route that we've been ogling for a couple of years. We found it in last year but didn't have the combination of time and/or confidence to give it a shot. On our previous ice trip this year, Central Couloir was out (or too thin to realistically consider). The coolest thing about Central is whomever named it opted for the French for "gully." Which is not all that uncommon when naming big routes in the Canadian Rockies, or the Wasatch, or the Alps, or the Himalaya, for that matter. I have read that the French are very partial to New Hampshire, however. Haw-haw-haw!¹

We took a look at Central Couloir while climbing Little Willey's. The bottom section looked pretty good. Looking further up, there were some thin sections moving into the middle of the gully (pardon, couloir). The upper third of the route is the crux. It wanders up and left through a huge cleft in the rock face. It looks fierce. It is difficult to see the main exit from the road, but I thought I caught a look, and it looked... discontinuous. I'll leave it at that.

Brian and I discussed options over dinner Friday night. It came down to trying Central, a harder route that might or might not be in, and Shoestring Gully (NEI III 2), another long (2,500') but easier route that we were reasonably certain was in. We talked and talked, and eventually decided to try the surer thing. Neither of us wanted to do an easier route, and one of the nice things about Central was we were pretty sure no one would be on it. But... it was a long way to go up to perhaps find that the upper portion wouldn't go. Shoestring was still a good route, and if we found others on it, well, them's the breaks.

Above we see the east end of Webster, with a side view of Shoestring Gully (en francais: Lacet Couloir) on the right and Horseshoe Gully (NEI III 1-2) on the left (which I had entertained soloing the weekend before but did not make the trip due to various). This angle doesn't give you a true appreciation for the length of the routes. We'll get to that.

Day One
Shoestring Gully, Mt. Webster

Saturday morning arrived, we ate breakfast and drove to Crawford Notch. We parked under the route on 302, saddled up, and got sloggin'.

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¹Our fascination with respect to Central Couloir stems from it being a long route(i), the impossibly deep clefts and various mixed exits that grace its upper reaches, and [sadly] the fact that whomever named the route chose the French, "couloir(ii)," over the English "gully"(iii). I then submit to you, which sounds to be a better route: Central Couloir or Central Gully?
   (i)Mid-Atlantic climbers (or more specifically we) have this obsession with long routes. Perhaps it's because we don't have any out here. Or the notion that anything long is, by definition, good.
   (ii)Which brings up all sorts of romantic notions (a) of long routes in Chamonix and to a lesser extent cheese and surrenders. Topics (cheese and surrenders) which we won't dwell on here.
     (a)to aspiring but still really crappy climbers
   (iii)Which just sounds too easy and can refer to most anything. We need to feel elevated somehow and "couloir" for deep and mysterious reasons, seems to have...panache.
- Brian Connors, Earl of Footnote