Millicent

I skipped out of work a pinch early today and drove to Brighton with the intent to night ski at the resort. Little did I know there is no night skiing on Sunday and Monday. It was bright at 5:30 when I started hiking. I parked at the Millicent lift and hiked up near the border of the resort and on up to the top of the Milli Express lift. There was still plenty of light and excellent views of Wolverine, Patsey Marley and even Superior to the west. The view to the east was of my favorite mountain biking trails up Puke Hill, 9,990 and alone the spine. There was a grooming machine operator that was giving me the stink eye near the top. I skied a bit on the fresh corduroy but mostly skied tracked out soft snow back to the car. I was the only one on the hill. I should have picked a different hill or did another lap as it was still plenty light as I drove down the canyon. I picked up a lone back country skier and gave him a ride to his home. He had been touring since 1pm. He smelled like a homeless man.

Daylight savings

After a longer day at the office I headed up to LCC. I started hiking at 6:45pm. It was snowing slightly and blowing as I hiked up the skin track toward Flagstaff. There were a couple of skier coming down. I was the only one going up. I hiked up about 1,200 feet as the sun started to go down. I saw some beautiful sky in various breaks in the clouds but I should have started down sooner. I would have liked to have been on the ridge to see the sunset over the peaks to the west. It got dark pretty quick and I didn't bring my headlight (left it in car). The snow was soft and excellent but the visibility was bad. I could not see the terrain very well which reduced my enjoyment of the nice snow conditions. I just need to start sooner or get a bright head light for my helmet. Happy Birthday Sam!!!

Mill D - North

I wanted to try out some Black Diamond Megawatts plus there has been a storm moving through adding some fresh in the high country. I found the skis on craiglist and mounted them up with my dynafit bindings and headed up before the crack of dawn. The seller of the Megawatts was willing to let me testdrive. I drove to the mouth of LCC but the sheriff wouldn't let me pass. I drove up BCC to the Spruces campground. I put the massive split skins on those big boards and hiked across the street and on up Mill D north. I followed the first skin track to the right and on up the ridge to the top of some unnamed peak skiing off the north aspect. The Megawatts were noticeably heavy but easy to control on the skin up. The split skins gripped pretty well but there was some slippage on the steepest parts of the climb. I know I was not climbing as fast as I could have been with my Stokes. My first turns as I dropped off the ridge were into super deep, wind loaded powder. Even with the Megawatts I sunk up to my waist. The ski out was all in trees and in deep powder. The Megawatts went right where I wanted them to go without a ton of effort. I began to run into other tracks from other skiers and the skis floated better than any other ski I've skied - the long rocker doing it's thang. The 188cm length was not a problem other than the sheer heft of the skis. The seller also has some 178cm but they were not drilled for Dynafit. I think there is only a 1 pound difference between the 178 and the 188. What to do? So, the photo is not me skiing (but I want it to be me). It's just some guy skiing aggressively on some Megawatts

Grizzly

I planned to take my pal Paul on a ski tour this morning. Paul is a good hiker, snowmobile and skier but had not been on a back country ski tour. He has size 10 feet and I have an extra setup right now so everything was working out - except the weather. What a difference a day makes. When Brett and I got super fun turns in soft snow Paul and I were looking at a 2 inch suncrust on the same snow. We started up the same path but turned around and went to Grizzly Gulch. We hiked up the summer road to the cat track. We had switched boot liners to get a better fit for Paul. When I put the liners back in my boots the left foot liner folded over a piece of plastic from the boot shell. It created a lump on my heel and quickly made me uncomfortable. I tried to wiggle my foot around as I hiked hoping I could work the knot out but that didn't work at all. All the time the wind continued to gust at higher and higher speeds making hiking uncomfortable. I finally had to stop to take my boot off and the liner out to see what the problem was. That's when I discovered the folded plastic. I fixed it all up and put the boot back together and back on my freezing foot. It felt better immediately. But the damage was done. My heel hurt to keep hiking. With that and the windy weather and the icy, unskiable snow conditions I was inclined to turn around and call it a day. Paul was pretty sad that his first outing was a bust. I was too plus I have a sore heel.

Flagstaff

Brett and I did our dawn patrol today. Up Little Cottonwood to the Alta city office then skinning up to Flagstaff peak. Didn't make the peak but skied off just west of the peak next to a line of turns. We decided to farm in that area. The snow was real soft and light on top but we could feel a crust below on most of the turns. It made for great acceleration after each turn. We had the sun on us eventually. We could have started our hike without headlamps but we had them on for a while. The wind was really blowing at the ridge. The skiing was super fun. I would have to say that the turns were as fun as any I have had this year. What made them so fun was the length of the run. Here is a little video/slide show.

Pink Pine Ridge

After the huge powder day at Snowbird with my good friend Craig last Tuesday I was anxious to get back to some skiing hoping to find some more fresh in the backcountry. That's why I was so glad when Brett called and wanted to go out this morning. I wanted to take Brett someplace new so we parked at White Pine TH and hike to the Pink Pine ridge. Up the ridge to the plateau before the peak was about as far as we could make it given my time constraints and since I forgot my skins. We had to drive back home from Brett's office to get them. Dang. We dug a snow pack trench and tested the snow pack. It was super solid so we skied off with confidence. We had been nervous since the temp had been warm the last couple of days and snow was sliding like crazy. There was a slight sun crust on the top of some nice soft snow. We got some fun turns in as we made our way through trees to the White Pine trail. The trail was super icy and scary on the slide on out to the car. There are some great morning views from the Pink Pine ridge.

PM with Scott

Scott wanted some of the skiing action he had heard about on Patsey Marley so on Saturday morning we hiked up to Twin Lakes pass and then up the ridge to the peak. Scott was challenged skinning the steep approach to the summit and elected to boot pack the final bit of the ascent. There was an established boot pack for him to follow. After we transitioned I skied down a few turns. Scott started down and after a couple of turns he biffed it. He got his skis back on and then did real well the rest of the way out given his lack of affection for deep, soft snow. We traversed and skied the low angle shots out to the cat track and then back to the car. Scott and I both would have liked another lap off the peak but we both needed to get home. It was cheese burger time at In and Out.

PM with Brett

Brett called and wanted to go for a morning hike. We went up to Patsey Marley. That seems to be my go to spot these days. We hiked up the ridge and skied a nice powder shot just before the peak. We each got some real good turns in and had a fun time talking about stuff. Got back to work at a decent time. I love these early morning outings.

P-M III

Dawn Patrol again. Tried to get Scott and Brett to go with me but they had other stuff so I was out alone this morning. In an effort to be safe I stayed close to Alta and hiked up the Patsey Marley ridge. I snapped a couple of early morning photos of Mt. Superior and the Pfeifferhorn and then skied a north facing slope off the ridge. I got about 20 turns in untracked powder then crud the rest of the way back down to the car. I made it to my office by 9:30.