Gunsight Chute

Morning hike started at Alta. Hiked under the Sunnyside lift, crossed the creek and up toward the Greeley bowl. At the base of the bowl I looked down as a large bull moose crossed the open space below me and disappeared into the scrub. Headed south to the base of the Gunsight chute. Just before the snow I looked up on the Greeley side hill and saw a deer watching me. Not much snow but I was already there with skis so what the heck. At the snow I put on my crampons and hiked up the snow. I transitioned to skis and got about 25 turns on the way down. On the hike out I saw another deer bounding across the trail. I now have 22 months of consecutive skiing in the Wasatch mountains.

Pfeifferhorn

Got to the White Pine trailhead at 7:00am. Not too many cars in the lot. Headed up the White Pine trail to the Red Pine cut off. At the White Pine bridge there was a powerful flow of water. I continue up the Red Pine trail past the Maybird cutoff to the north end of Beautiful Red Pine lake. There was a group of older teenaged boys admiring the view. I hiked on past them to the south end of the lake and the schoolbus sized rock. I followed a faint trail up to a boulder field. I stopped at the boulders to enjoy a Ding Dong. It was nothing to enjoy. Way beyond it's "best before" date. My solitude was broken by a group of 3 trail runners on their way down. I scrambled up over the rocks to the rocky ridgeline. The ridgeline provided excellent views of the whole Red Pine drainage. there are 3 more small lakes above the main Red Pine lake. I followed the carons along the ridge west to a trail. The trail leads to another rock/boulder ridge. This was tricky navigating along this section but I never felt exposed. From there a final trail to the steep climb up to the summit. I arrived on top at a little before 10am. I was the only one up there (well, me and the mountain goats). I enjoyed the 360 degree view and identified as many of the peaks as I could before tightening my laces and starting down. Back to the knife edge I meet the teenagers on their way up. They asked if the approach was steep. As I was scrambling down from the ridge I began to run into small groups and single hikers on their way up. When I got back to the Red Pine lake there were skads of people. Many were fishing. I picked up the pace hoping to get our before noon. I continued to pass folks on their way in. I got back to the trailhead at about 12:30pm. I ate my pb&j on the way to the office.

This video is best viewed at the youtube site - change the quality setting to HD


While I was still at my office, one of my co-workers called and asked if I had started a fire while I was in the mountains.