First Notch

Type: In Bounds (completely inside ski area boundary)

Accessed from the North Pole Gate, First Notch is the first entrance you encounter as you traverse across the ridge on top of the East Wall. It's a very obvious entrance and a popular line. You can't miss it.

The entrance is often fairly rocky, requiring some side-stepping to get over the rocks and start skiing, but not tough otherwise. In good snow years, you can ski right in.

First Notch is a little bit steep, but mostly wide enough to have plenty of room to choose your turns. The setting in general is awesome and a lot of fun; you're between the rock walls of the chute for the entire descent. There's one choke point about 2/3 of the way down that's around 2 ski widths wide. You can still choose your turns, but being able to hop turn confidently makes things more enjoyable.

Once you're through the choke point, there's just a few more turns until you pop out onto the apron above the lower East Wall traverse.