Mt. Superior

Arose at 4am. Got dressed for skiing, grabbed some food and headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon. Met up with the group. Harrison (the guide) Craig, Frankie and Shaun. Started hiking up the powerline skin track to Cardiff Ridge. We were skinning in the dark with our headlights while a light snow fell. By the time we made the ridge the sun was out and it was clearing into a beautiful spring day. Combination of skinning and boot packing west along the ridge to the top of Mt. Superior. A few clouds greeted us at the top but they didn't stay long. The view from the top of Mt. Superior is quite spectacular in all directions. We eyed our line down. Harrison made a ski cut to test the snow stability. He pronounced it sufficient. He was only concerned about surface sloughing with the new 8 inches of snow that had just fallen. The plan was to ski the mountain in thirds. Harrison skied toward the first stop. As he dropped out of our view we saw a huge plume of snow and figured he had triggered a slide. He eventually appeared and waved us down. Craig went first and then I followed with Shaun and Frankie bring up the rear. About half way down the first shot I wondered where the new snow had gone. By the time I arrived at where Harrison and Craig were stopped I could see where the snow had gone. There was a huge debris pile starting to our side. Our next shot was skiing over the debris and then off to skier right. This next shot was more manky than the first shot with lighter snow up high. Still the snow was very skiable and fun. The third shot was out to the apron and to the road. After skiing though frozen big chunks of avalanche debris from previous avalanches there was easy, low angle turns in the new snow that was warming rapidly. Wow, what a ride. Harrison hitched up to his car and then came and got us. After he dropped us off at our cars he had to split. The rest of us went to Rustler Lodge for a drink to toast our successful and satisfying morning and to plan our next adventure.

Hiking in the dark


At the ridge


Our objective in the morning clouds


Feeling good at the ridge


Frankie and Shaun


Up toward Little Superior


Up above the clouds


Harrison has a big smile since he doesn't have to break the skin track


Me and Harrison almost to the top


Getting closer


Harrison on top with me and Shaun


Harrison ready to ski


Craig and Frankie ready to ski




Harrison's chest cam captures the ride down

Superior lap with a surprise in the middle from harrison Brickman 2010/2011 seas on Vimeo.

Days Fork

After work I headed for BCC. I parked in the Spruces campground parking and was the only car in the lot. Wow, what a difference a few days can make. There has really been a warming trend. Where you couldn't see the creek last Friday you could not only see the creek but the ponds around Jordan Pines were all visible. I started hiking with my shell on because it was raining/snowing lightly. I didn't wear gloves or a hat. I hiked up the Days Fork trail. I got almost to the ridge that drops into LCC. The snow was pretty wet and as I got near my turnaround point it started to crust. Near my turn around point I saw some of the biggest pinwheel sluffing I had ever seen. One was a hard snowball the size of a Mini Cooper (not quite but close). It had run about 100 feet or so. I wondered how my Megawatts would deal with the crusty snow conditions. It is because of variable conditions like this that I bought them. I was able to ski and turn with much more confidence than the last time I skied in crusty conditions. I actually got some fun turns in. There were a bunch of nice ski shots deep into the drainage. I will probably do more skiing there next season. The ski out went pretty fast with the exception of a short stretch where I had to take off my skis and hike to get up the trail. The rest was all down hill. I passed a hiker (no skis or snow shoes,just boots) on the way out.

Days Fork - Greens Basin

Brett and I did our Dawn Patrol thing after about 12 inches of new fell the night before. It was snowing on us during our hike up and made skinning difficult. We were on the ridge but not quite to the spot we were hoping to ski by the time we ran out of time and needed to ski out. We pretty much skied out the way we came in. The turns were deep powder through tree. Powder was smashing us in the chest and face as skied out. We were having so much fun that we missed the traverse back to Days Fork. We finally put our skins back on and hiked out to the road. We were about a half a mile from the parking lot. Weird. There was just so much snow everything looked the same. We had big smiles on our faces the whole day.

PM - Sunset

I finally got work wrapped up and left the office at 5:30 and drove up LCC. I hiked up Grizzly Gulch and then took the skin track up the Patsey Marley ridge. About 400 ft. from the summit I transitioned and skied. The snow was excellent and with a fresh coat of wax on my Megawatts I had some real fun turns through the trees on out to the cat track. Great way to end the work day. Some of my co-workers spent the day at Alta. I'll be excited to hear about their trip.