Mali Noyes Is The First Woman To Ski Canada's Comstock Couloir

Utah-based skier Mali Noyes has completed a historic descent of Mount Dawson’s Comstock Couloir. Mount Dawson is an 11,079-foot peak in the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia, Canada.

Noyes was a member of the third party to ski the iconic line featured in The Fifty: Classic Ski Descents of North America, and is the first female to ski it.

The Comstock Couloir sits on the second-tallest peak in Canada’s Selkirk Mountains and was first skied by Greg Hill in 2008. Another descent was made by Michael Wirth in 2022, but Wirth approached the couloir by boot-packing directly up it and then skiing down, unlike Hill.

Noyes and her team, which consisted of Spencer Harkins, Emrik Villeneuve, and Laurent Mathieu, followed Hill’s original route, which traverses Dawson Ridge and summits Mount Dawson before descending the couloir.

Keep reading for more on Noyes’ historic accomplishment.

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Noyes, Harkins, Villeneuve, and Mathieu spent four days and three nights camping in the Mount Dawson drainage on their attempt, which culminated in a 14-hour summit-to-ski push that involved glacier travel, an extremely exposed ridge walk, and a steep ski descent that required two rappels.

“While skiing the Comstock, in the steep, firm snow above the rappel, I did get scared. My brain started thinking, I don’t like this,” said Noyes in an email to POWDER. “But unlike last year, I now have practice with the mental game. I caught, identified that thought, and shut it down. Instead, I went back to my favorite quote from last spring, “I’m fucking good at this.” And just like during those 47 days, I reminded myself how much I genuinely love skiing.”

Last spring, Noyes skied the entirety of the Wasatch Chuting Gallery in just 47 days. She coined the project ‘Rapid Fire‘, and has since released a web series chronicling it. Noyes made two previous attempts on the Comstock Couloir alongside Cody Townsend during his Fifty Project. The first time, Noyes was present for the scout day, and Townsend ultimately turned around. Both were turned around on the second attempt as well.

“We skied this well-known line, but it was the time spent with these boys, strategizing, slowly moving our way across the ridge, enjoying our dehydrated meals, sharing a snow bench at camp, and talking about werewolf and vampires – that’s the highlight and what drives me for more,” said Noyes of their successful descent.

Noyes’ completion of the 93 lines in the Wasatch Chuting Gallery in March of 2025 gave her significant confidence in skiing steep, complex, big mountain terrain, sometimes in bad snow. “It’s wild how progress works. You look at something and think it’s the most intimidating, far-out thing you could possibly do. Then time passes. You keep learning, improving skills, and building experience. And one day you find yourself doing that “wild” thing and realizing: yeah, it was serious and exposed, but it wasn’t the wildest thing anymore. Instead, your mind is already thinking about the next big dream,” she said.

Currently, Noyes’ future plans depend somewhat on weather and conditions, but she’s planning to spend much of her winter and spring in Golden, British Columbia, skiing in the Selkirks, Purcells, and Rockies. Following her completion of the Chuting Gallery guidebook, Noyes is looking forward to skiing new or rarely skied lines and linkups in these areas.

“I love learning, challenging myself, and exploring. There’s an added demand when skiing something unknown; you have to be confident and competent in all of your skills to manage whatever you meet in the line. To me, this is the next step in pushing myself and continuing to learn, while also raising the bar and showing what women are capable of, so the next generation can push that bar even further.”

Related: A New First Ski Descent on Canada’s Deltaform Mountain