Little Cottonwood

Today I hiked up from Alta to the pass that looks into Mill D-South just west of Flagstaff. Then I skinned on up the next peak to the west. At the top there were glorious views of Superior, the Pfeifferhorn and all the peaks around Alta and Snowbird. The Powderbird helicopter was dropping skiers off in the Cardiff area. There were getting some nice low angle pow from their drop to the drainage. It was satisfying to be higher than they were at their drop. It was a beautiful sunny day and I hiked in my shirt and baseball hat. There wasn't much wind at the ridge either. I originally thought that I might hike up Superior but again my lack of knowledge about where to start put me in the wrong drainage. I tried to boot on down the west side of the ridge but it became a drop off so I booted back up to the peak. I debated skiing off to the north and then out to Big Cottonwood canyon but would then be in need of a shuttle back up LCC to get my car. At the peak there was a nice and steep couloir to the southeast. The snow was good in the center of the gully but as you got the edges the snow became crusty. The soft snow was deeper that I would have guessed and made the turns fun and tiring. After I got out of the steep section the snow became increasingly more difficult to turn in. Near the end of my run I was just traversing back and forth across the snow as I had absolutely no control in the crusty conditions. I crashed a couple of times on the way down re-torquing my left ankle. I lost my right ski twice but the left ski never came off. Maybe I need to ease the DIN on the left ski. My left ankle is pretty sore. I hope it doesn't slow me down as there is killer storm coming in tomorrow and I hope to get out on Thursday after it dumps. It should be epic.

Wet - Big Cottonwood

Forrest and I did the dawn patrol today. We met at LCC but the canyon was closed for avalanche work. We drove to BCC to meet and drive up to the Spruces. Our plan was to hike to the spot above Green's Basin where we had hiked before. We drove up the canyon in the dark. We were some of the first skiers/hikers in the parking lot. All the other skiers that we saw were headed across the road to start their hike. I quickly realized that I had left my skins in the car at the park and ride. Forrest was kind enough to drive me back down to get them. With the delay of LCC being closed and my skins forgetfulness we started hiking about an hour late. We were breaking trail pretty much all the way up too. We didn't make it to our goal when I ran out of time. We got a few nice turns in up high on a north aspect where the snow was soft enough. As we got lower and as we traversed onto more westerly facing slopes the snow became more dense and was very difficult to turn in. We skied a little too low and ended up in the Spruces campground group area then hiked to the parking lot. Great workout but the skiing was not too good.

LCC in BCC

I hiked today with Craig and Candice in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We met at the park and ride and drove on up to the Spruces campground parking lot. We hiked up the Days Fork trail under sunny and calm but cool weather. We then skinned off Days Fork to the east and onto a ridge taking us above Green's Basin. As we hiked along the west and south aspects of the hill the conditions were icy with only about 6 inches of really light powder with a hard crust under it. Thankfully, as we made our way up we got to look at the aspect that we would be skiing. It was some very nice powder over a foot deep. Near the transition area we had some excellent views of Mt. Superior. When we got to the transition point we noticed only a couple of other tracks in the ski run. It was a great powder shot. Craig was whooping it up Frankie style. I had a smile on my face that's still there. The sun was pretty low in the sky by time we got to Green's Basin so a second lap was out of the question. Dang.

Here is a video of us in the parking lot getting ready.


Here is a video of C and C hiking.


Continuing our hike by bushwhacking through the aspens.


After the hiking - now the skiing. Great powder day.


Candice skis the trees.


Pretty nice!

Twin Lakes Pass

Brett and I did our first Dawn Patrol today. It had been snowing during the evening and was still snowing lightly this morning. We met at Brett's office early and drove up LCC together. This was Brett's first time out on his new AT set-up. We skinned up Grizzly Gulch with the plan to hike to the top of Patsy-Marley. By the time we made the Twin Lakes pass we had run out of time. During the transition we observed 2 ski patrolmen from Solitude doing some avalanche work. The low angle ski out through the new snow was big fun. Brett said he had never skied in powder like this. We planned to do a dawn patrol at least once a week for the rest of the season. We also decided that we need to start earlier so we can get to better, steeper skiing.

Basic Avalanche - field work

I met the club at the Butler Elementary parking lot at 9am this morning. We broke into like groups (I went with the ski/snowboard group) to go to our site for field work. Our group had about 8 folks in it. We carpooled up to the Spruces parking area and started with beacon training and practice near the parking lot. The instructor taught us about beacon use and then we practiced searching for the beacon he would hide in the snow behind a stand of trees so we couldn't see him hiding the device. After each recovery we would debrief what had gone well and what we could have done better. Each time we improved our procedures as we worked on more difficult burials. The last time we searched the guide had buried the beacon right up next to a tree. It took a bit longer to find the beacon even though we had good readings from our beacons. After beacon review we started on a ski tour up Days Fork. The guide would point out what to watch for and how to select appropriate and safe routes. Some members of the group were new to ski touring. The guy I carpooled with Forrest, it was his first time ski touring with his AT gear. We forked off of the Days Fork trail to the east and then up a ridge for a wonderful powder shot through some aspen trees. This was the deepest powder I had skied in this year. It was real fun. The ski ended at Green Basin. Some of the group skinned back up to ski it again. I wanted to real bad but my ride back to Butler Elementary wanted to ski out. The guide said to just follow a skin track out which we did. It put us out to Big Cottonwood Canyon Road about 1 mile from the Spruces. We carried our skis back to the parking lot for the ride down the canyon. This was a real good learning and skiing experience. I traded phone numbers with some of the group so we could tour together again. Here is basically the trail we took up.

Avalanche Basics

I attended an evening Basic Avalanche course through the Wasatch Mountain Club that I have just recently joined. This is the first of a two part Basic Avalanche course. The session was held at a church near 3900 South and 3000 East. The presenter was from the Utah Avalanche Center. It turned out to be the director Bruce Tremper who is the author of a booked that I had purchased a few months earlier entitled "How to Survive in Avalanche Country". He had a video and a powerpoint presentation. The session was incredibly informative and will help me make real good decision about winter backcountry travel. The second part of the training will be field work on Saturday.

Patsey - Marley

Craig, Candice and I hiked up Grizzly Gulch to the Twin Lakes pass and then on to the peak just north of Mt. Wolverine. There was about 6-9 inches of new snow that was very skiable. We skied the main run, the wide open bowl off the north east aspect. There were a few track before us but it was still real fun. We then skied back through the trees and then to the skin track. After we got back to the Albion Basin summer road we skied onto the resort near the Sunnyside lift and waited for Scott. Candice hiked back to her car. Craig and I skied with Scott on the Sunnyside lift until the lift closed. We got 3 chairlift runs in. Craig gave Scott some good advice to help improve his skiing skills.