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.