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.

Riverton Country Mile 10K - Running

My daughter Whitney seems to like it when I run in races with her. I tend to do them somewhat begrudgingly but in the end I am glad that I do. The hesitation usually comes from my lack of preparation for the events. So when she wanted to run this event again (we did it last year too) I said yes. I got to the park early because I had to register. It was an absolutely beautiful morning for a run. I was able to see some of my neighbors that were also running the race. Some of them were new to running and other are real pros. When the run started I still had my car keys in one hand and my camera in the other so I ran the event with my hands full. I was able to snap a few photos as the route has a turnaround point so those neighbors of mine that are fast runners were on their way back before I got to it. I ran the 10k in 1:01 and was about in the middle of the pack for my age group and overall. I also finished with Whitney. Some high school kid from West Jordan ran it in 37 minutes.