Baldy

Craig called yesterday to see if I would go with him to get his October skiing in. We met at Alta but decided to hike from Snowbird. As we parked near the Cliff Lodge we saw a young moose. The Peruvian Gulch had a nice summer trail (starting elevation 8,110 feet) that we followed up to the cat track. We didn't get very far up the trail when I found another single ski. I should have kept the one I found at Alta in July. Then I would have a mismatched pair. After I retrieved it I left it on the side of the trail. It had come from one of the Snowbird rental shops. We continued up the cat track to the ridge just east of the tram. We followed the ridge to the top of Mount Baldy at 11,068 feet. The views were excellent. From that angle we could see the Timpanogos summit. And we could see the snow field that we had skied last month. Just over the summit we came to snow where we transitioned. We skied down the ridge and dropped into the main Baldy Chute. The snow was way better than I thought it would be. There were a couple of sections that were real tight and plenty of rocks to try to avoid. Craig skied it from top to bottom without stopping. Very impressive. I stopped a couple of times to catch my breath. We continued skiing out and had snow until we got to the meadow at the elbow of the Collins lift. We strapped our skis back on our packs and hiked out. I was able to catch a ride at the Alta parking lot back to our cars and then shuttled Craig to his. Add 3,000 feet to the new ski season.

Snow!

We had a cold front with moisture come through the area and left about 15 inches in the mountains so I had no choice but to go up and investigate. Of course I took my skis. I got up early this morning and drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon. When I got to the Alta main parking lot there were about 20 cars and skiers already heading up. I strapped on the gear and joined them. I hiked to the top of the Collins lift and tried to follow the windblown pockets of snow on down and avoid rocks. I was mostly successful. On the way up I looked back at Mount Superior just as the first morning light hit the peak. It looked a lot more spectacular than my lame cell phone photo here. I also watched a pretty big group of hikers going up and down the main Baldy Chute. Props to these hearty souls. So put 2,000 feet of vertical on the 2011/2012 ski season.

Wasatch Crest Trail

Me and my homies from work PTOed the morning to ride our mountain bikes on the epic Wasatch Crest trail and take in the fall colors. I strapped on the helmet cam and shot 40 minutes of video in glorious HD. Rees was our host and we met at his east side home. His lovely wife Lisa shuttled us to the Guardsman connector trail head. Up the connector to Puke Hill. Scott and I commented that Puke Hill didn't seem so daunting when coming from the connector. So it's about 1,500 feet of up and about 4,500 feet of down back to Rees's house. I'll let the video speak for the beauty of the mountains. We were treated to perfect weather, trail conditions and views of the fall colors in all their majesty. I almost start crying when I think of it. Wow

Little and Big Mountain

Tom just got back from a week of cycling in France where he conquered Alpe d`huez among other killer climbs. He was feeling sufficiently frisky to want to do Little and Big Mountain. I met him at his home at about 1:30pm. Up Immigration Canyon to the top of Little Mountain and then to East Canyon Road to the top of Big Mountain. Tom and I have wanted to do this a couple of times this year but either had a time constraint or Tom's heart was acting up. We finally made it. The timing was great considering the maples were bright red and the aspens were starting to turn yellow. Great time to be in the mountains around Salt Lake.

Round Valley - Lost Prospector

Scott and I met Craig at his house and mountain biked through Round Valley doing the Impossible Hill and heading to the east end of the Lost Prospector trail. The Impossible Hill was only Impossible for me as Craig and Scott powered right up without dropping a foot or stopping. Hope a can make it some day. This was my first time on Lost Prospector. It is a peach of a trail that undulates through the trees westward to Park City. We exited the trail in Park City near Craig's office where he had his vehicle for the shuttle back to his house. More gorgeous trees to view along Lost Prospector. Got a few pics of the area too. Only about 1,500 feet of vertical today.

Wasatch Crest - Mountain Biking

Today was the day for the annual CW mountain bike ride. We start riding at Craig's house in PC at 8:30 AM. starting with some of the trails in Round Valley. There is a hill climb in the Round Valley that some of the riders have named "The Impossible Hill". It is short but steep. Only a couple of the riders from our group were able to make it up without stopping. From Round Valley we ride through Park City to the Spiro trailhead at the Silver Star resort. We met another rider there as well as dropped a rider. Frankie had already started from there and was up the trail. We slogged along up Spiro to the Thayne's ski lift and then on up to Shadow Lake. From there we forged on up to the Wasatch Crest trail. The major competition of the day was to ride this next section without putting you foot down. This section of the trail is commonly know as Puke Hill but there are other less affectionate terms used for it's name. There was a bunch of traffic on this section so we waited a bit to let the traffic clear. If you do put your foot down you can ride back down to the junction and start again. Craig ran into traffic and elected to turn around and try again. I was able to make this section but was gasping for air at the end. I didn't see anyone puking. Many riders walk their bike up this section. Our group was about 50/50. We continue north on the Wasatch Crest over a couple of dicey sections. One is known as the spine. I've only seen a few riders negotiate this section without walking their bike. I walked. The next challenging section has personal significance. I had crashed there a few years ago while on a ride with my son-in-law Ben. In the end I needed a few stitches in my forehead. I have walked this section too since then but today I not only rode it I filmed it with me and Scott's new helmet cam. It is a rocky downhill section that ends in pain if not successful. I am feeling confident on my full suspension bike. After Puke Hill some of the riders make the comment that it's all down hill from here. That is false. There are plenty of spots along the crest trail that will put a sting in the tail. Eventually we make a junction where you can drop into Mill Creek canyon to the west or drop into the Canyons ski resort area to the east. Here we took the east ridge connector to the Rob's and Collins trails on down to the trailhead. These two trails put the biggest smile on your face as you are descending through some of the most beautiful terrain in the area. At the trailhead there is a quick decent on pave' to hwy 224. We took 224 south to Old Ranch Rd. and on back to Craig's house. We got pelted with rain on Old Ranch Rd. It finally stopped just as we were ascending the hill to Craig's house. The total mileage is roughly 35 miles and at least 5,000 feet of vertical gain.

Some of us hung out at Craig's house and then went to our celebration dinner at Prime Steak to meet up with the other riders. Craig had engraved beer mugs for those that put their feet down on Puke Hill and wine goblets for those of us that didn't. We ate and talked til 11. Scott and I were the DD and chauffeured some of the folks home. I got home at 12:30 AM.

Little Cottonwood Canyon Road

Tom and I met at the park and ride 9:30ish and rode up the paved road on our road bikes. The temperature was perfect and trees were beautiful. Tom's heart was not cooperating today so we turned around at the 2nd Snowbird parking lot. Great way to start a morning. Sorry no pics.

The Sleeping Maiden

Woke up at 2:30am. Ate cereal and toast. Loaded up my gear and picked up Jake my neighbor. We drove to I-15 and met Craig. We then drove to the mouth of American Fork canyon to meet up with Madi, Jake's sister. She had a carload of BYU students with her. We drove to the Timpooneke trailhead. Forest Service personal were there directing us to park up the road as the lot was full. Really? We were hiking at 4:30. We had a good 2 hours of hiking in the dark. As it was starting to get light we came to the first spot where there was snow on the trail. We gingerly crossed the snow and kept hiking. As the sun was coming up we crossed another snow patch just before climbing up to the Timpanogos Basin. There was a fair amount of hiker traffic going both directions on the trail. Our group arrived at the saddle at about 10:30 then pushed on up to the summit. One of our group was having difficulty with the exposure on the push up to the summit but with some encouragement she forged ahead. The weather was bright and sunny the entire day but the temps were cool and pleasant. After the summit we talked about going down. Craig and I had carried in our skis with the intent to ski the large snowfield on the backside on the mountain. Madi was wanting to slid down the snowfield as everyone talks about but few sane people do. I had suggested a meeting spot if the hikers went back the way we came up. They elected to slid so we all hiked over to the saddle at the top of the snowfield. I had forgot that it is a long hike to the saddle. It doesn't look that far from the top. It is about the same as hiking back to the saddle the way we came up. Then the fun begins. Not. The snow is hard, lumpy and littered with rocks making for very sketchy skiing. Craig and I skied down to the very edge of Emerald Lake. The hikers slowly worked their way down the edge of the snowfield. In the end it added an hour or more to our hike and wasn't that much fun. I filtered water at the lake and we packed up to head back to our cars. The hikers got off a bit before Craig and me so when we got to the Quonset hut we couldn't see them. When we got to where we should have been able to see them they weren't there. I took off my pack and ran to another vantage point and saw them hiking down the Aspen Grove trail. I ran and hollered to get them to stop. That added another 20-30 minutes to our hike. Dang. I know the BYU students wanted to get back in time for the football game. As we started down the pace different between the hikers and the skiers became more pronounced. Since there was no more forks in the trail I suggested that Madi and her group bolt. Craig and I tried to keep a decent pace going down but the combination of the extra weight of the skis and the pressure on our shoulders made the slog our difficult and slow. With about 2 miles to go I pushed my pace as hard as I could with the idea that I could get out, unload my pack and then hurry back up to lighten Craig's load for the rest of his slog. After I got a drink and unloaded my pack I headed up the trail looking for Craig. It turns out that Craig wasn't that far behind me and had gone straight to the outhouse at the trailhead so when I went up he was already down. The further I hiked up the more frantic I became. I couldn't find Craig. I asked the other hikers coming down if they had seen Craig. They hadn't. That added to my frenzy. After 40 or so minutes going up I decided to head back down. When I got back I was glad to see that Craig was there. My feeble mind had congered up all sorts of disastrous outcomes so I was pretty happy but also sad that I was long beyond the time that I told Connie I would be home I knew she would either be worried or figuring out how to invest the life insurance money. When I looked at my cell phone the battery was dead. Weird. I had charged it the night before. Sorry Connie.

Would I haul skis in again? Probably not. Do I want to hike Timp again? Heck yes.

Sorry about the poor placement of my new helmet cam. I'll get better.

As a side note. The motivation for carrying skis on this trip was to complete 12 consecutive months of skiing in the Wasatch mountains. Since last October I have skied 53 times and climbed 76,900 feet of vertical not counting this slog into the Timp snowfield. Hopefully we will get snow in the mountains by the end of October and I can keep the streak going.

Gunsight - August turns

I was anxious to get some ski turns in August and had missed the last 3 weekends to get out into the high country. I awoke early to get up high before the sun came over the mountains and was treated to a beautiful sunrise on the drive up Little Cottonwood canyon. I parked at the end of the paved road and hiked toward the Gunsight chute. The vegetation was thick and the flowers were gorgeous. As I viewed the chute from a distance I was a little sad that there was so little snow. Since I had already come that far I forged ahead and ascended what was left of the narrow snowfield. My crampons worked perfectly to get me safely up the snowfield. I was able to see some grazing deer next to the snow. I tried to video my decent but quickly gave up that plan. I needed all my faculties to get me down the narrow shot and avoid the rocks and debris. If the skiing would have been only a pinch better I would have gone for another lap but it wasn't so I didn't. By the time I got to my car there were big crowds of hikers arriving. Time to get to back to Connie and the yard work.

Greeley Bowl - Ski/Hike

I talked my brother in law Dave in to an early morning hike. We met at the Little Cottonwood park and ride at 6am and drove up to Alta. We hike up toward the Gunsight chute but elected to hike to the top of the Greeley Bowl. There was much less snow on the snow field than last Tuesday. Once we got to the snow field we put on my pair of crampons. Dave had the right and I had the left foot. The single crampon provided sufficient grip to walk up the hill to the ridge. On the climb Dave found a silver whiskey flask with initials engraved in it. As we looked back down from the ridge Dave spotted a lone ski. Looking from the ridge to the west there was a wonderful view of Mount Superior through the trees. The snow in the morning sun and starting to soften but was still a bit stiff. We skied down to the lone ski. I strapped it to my backpack and we skied down a bit more. I can only guess that some skier crashed and lost his ski in the deep powder. It is a rental ski from a local shop. I'll turn it in and hope they reward me with some cool chotchkie. We transitioned for another lap up to the ridge. I dropped the lone ski before the hike up. This time up the bowl I spotted a coyote about a quarter mile away on the snow field. We looked at each other for a couple of minutes. Then he went his way and I went mine. On this run the snow was softer and allowed for better turns. We skied down to the lone ski where I strapped it to my pack. We tried to ski out through a little gully down to the creek. But with less snow it made it harder to pick our way around the brush and rocks. We ran out of snow before we got to the creek. I was worried that the snow bridge would be gone and we would have bushwhack up and over to the bridge that we crossed on the way in. Luckily it was still there and still thick enough to handle our crossing. It probably won't last for much longer though. Dave's computer said we had burned 1,600 calories. I'm ready for a cheeseburger.

Ghost Falls - Mtn. Bike

I recruited Mark a co-worker to go for a ride after work today. We parked at the equestrian park and rode up to Ghost Falls. We got a late start so we didn't have a lot of time to go clear to the top. The falls were lovely. We bombed on down. Descending always puts a smile on my face.

Little Dell Reservoir via Immigration - Road Bike

I rode with Tom from his house up Immigration Canyon to Little Mountain. I then rode down to the Little Dell Reservoir and back up to Little Mountain Summit and on back down Immigration Canyon to Toms house. It was a beautiful day for a bike ride. Nice temps and beautiful scenery. This ride is 22 miles long and climbs 1,673 feet. It is considered a category 2 climb and a category 5 climb. Tom and I then went to the Oasis for a yummy lunch. Here is a link to the details of the ride.

Gunsight - Ski tour

Got up early today and headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon. It had been quite some time since I have been up there. I thought my next trip up would be on a bike but this morning I packed my skis and hiked from the summer Albion Basin road, through the Alta snow cat garage and up toward the Albion Basin. I crossed the creek as soon as I could. There was snow just after leaving the garage area. Off and on snow on up the hillside toward Gunsight. I skied Gunsight last year on July 6th. There was less snow and the mountain shrubbery was further along. It took about half an hour to get to the snow field where I put on my ski boots and crampons. It took an hour to hike to the top of the Gunsight chute. The snow was soft enough to turn in and with more snow I had less concern about hitting rocks with my skis. Bonus. I was also able to ski clear back to the creek. I figure the climb was about 1,500 feet of vertical.

Mountain plants starting to grow


Gunsight snow field


Ski exit to creek


View from the top of Gunsight looking north ~10,300 ft.


Flower (in case you couldn't tell)

Ghost Falls, Canyon Hollow - Mtn. Bike

After work today, Scott and I headed for Corner Canyon. We parked at the equestrian park and hit the Canyon Hollow trail at about 6:20pm. There was a hint of rain but nothing of substance materialized. At the junction to Clarks Trail we continued on the Canyon Hollow trail. We accidentally got off Canyon Hollow and followed the Ghost Falls trail up to the falls. The water was flowing nicely and was clear. We followed the loop not knowing that it was headed down. We bushwhacked off the trail and up to the Corner Canyon Road. We followed the road up past the Jacob's Ladder trail head and on to the upper Clarks Trail junction. We debated taking Clarks Trail down but settled on exploring new terrain. We descended using the Brocks cutoff to Upper Canyon Hollow trail. The decent was fast and fun but with occasional stops for uphill traffic. Probably 1,500 feet of vertical today. Scott bought me a cheeseburger at In N Out.