Sunnyside Laps

Scott got a new backcountry set mounted up last night so we went to Alta to hike up the Albion Basin summer road first thing this morning. We started at 8 am and did three laps up the road skiing back through the groomed easy runs. Scott needed to get used to his new stuff. Our legs were pretty tired on the last lap. We climbed about 3,000 feet total and made it home by Noon.

Weather Station Peak

Craig, Frankie and I planned originally to hike up grizzly Gulch but with the avalanche forecast rating at low we decided to hike the Weather Station Peak just east of Little Superior. The view from the Alta parking lot of the nice track in the southwest face were very inviting. The sun was out and it was even warmer than yesterday.The southwest face of the peak was in the shade. To our amatuer thinking the shade would protect the snow and make it better to turn in. We moved our vehicles down a little to be closer to the face we would be hiking to. We started hiking and I quickly realised that we should have moved our car's down further as we had to cross several small gullies. We were hiking is our shirts and were still working up a pretty good sweat. At about 9,500 feet the sun went behind a cloud and the wind started to pick up. We put our shells on and continued to traverse northwest. We hit the pass at 10,000 feet and then skinned up a couple hundred more feet for our transition to skiing.



After this ski we traversed back to the cars through stiff and crusty snow. Happy Birthday Craig!

White Pine trail to Tri-Chutes

Tom C took me on the White Pine trail up to the Tri-Chutes area. This was the very first ski tour I ever did back in 2007 on rented equipment. It brought back some good memories. The White Pine trail is nice low pitch skin up a summer road to the Tri-Chutes area. We had the benefit of well used skin track that also suggested that the new snow we were hoping to find would probably be tracked out. The hike really begins as you zig-zag up to the point you select for your ski run. There was lot's of fresh, light snow after last Sunday's dump but the warm weather stiffened up the snow and made for more difficult turns. As we skied back into the trees the snow conditions improved and made for better turns. I had some of my best powder turns ever on these short 5 to 8 turn shots. We started hiking about 1 and got back to the car at 4:30ish. No photos of the trip this time which is probably a good thing. I had forgotten my shell jacket so I packed the jacket that I wear to the bus stop. It looks like a trench coat with a hood on it. Tom said I looked like "the Bystander" from an old Go Fish card game his kids had when they were young. "the Bystander" was one of the pairs of cards in the game.

Honeycomb Cliffs

Craig and I hiked up the canyon toward the Honeycomb cliffs on Friday afternoon. It was warm and the snow was melting. There was really brisk winds blowing and as we got higher we were hiking on some crusty snow. We had some nice views at the top and then skied down. The snow wasn't as nice as it was on Wednesday. Consequently I fell 3 times. I was also hiking with a new backpack. It carries the weight a little lower on my back so that may have thrown me off a little too. We had a good time hiking and skiing together. Hopefully there will be new snow to ski on next time out. The avalanche forecast is calling for a big dump over the next few days taking the danger to high. It may be a while before we venture into the back country. Slackcountry will be the rule.

Grizzly Gulch

Tom goes retro with his old telemark setup. All his skis were in the shop getting tuned for the season. Tom invited his friend Pete and the 3 of us hiked toward Twin Lakes Pass. Tom stopped a couple of times along the way to dig a snow trench and test the snow. There were 3 distinct layers. They had all bonded nicely. Then yesterday it blew like crazy so there was some additional snow on top in some spots that had not bonded. Snow depth was about 3 feet on the north aspect and about 2 and a half on the south aspect. It was a pretty safe day to be in the backcountry.


Me at the top of the ridge near the Honeycomb Cliffs. Little Cottonwood Canyon in the backgound.



We got some nice turns in through the tree. The snow was deepest in the gullies.

Back to Catherine's on Veteran's Day

Craig W. and his daughter Candice got new BC ski gear and were ready to take their first tour. We met at the end of Little Cottonwood road and started hiking up toward the Catherine's area at about 2:20. I forgot to say that Frankie was with Craig and hiked with us for about an hour. He had to get back to meeting so he skied back just after we got past the top of the Albion lift. The weather provided foggy and cold conditions. Nothing too bad until we got to the top of the ridge above Catherine's Pass. Craig and Candice did super on their new gear. Craig had a little trouble with his binding releasing as we were hiking. We'll have to look into that. We skied the So Long run. It was pretty cut up but the snow was still light and soft. Craig and Candice have great skills when it comes to going down and they seemed to really be enjoying themselves. We were back to the cars and on our way down the canyon by 5. I hope we get another storm soon.

Catherine's Area

We woke up Tuesday to some rain mixed with snow in parts of the valley. This was bad news for commuters but great news for me as I was planning a little hike with Tom later that morning. We started hiking at 11:00am and were at the summit to the northeast of the Supreme lift at Alta by 12:15pm. We were getting snowed on at the start of the hike but the sun peeped out a couple of times. We got a killer powder shot on So Long and were tempted to continue laps on that run. We both had to get back to other things so we skied out. It was a gorgeous day with really nice early season powder. The temperature was a bit cooler than my last outing and we were down right cold by the time we got back to the car. Back to the office in a suit and tie by 1:30.