Patsey Marley

I got up pretty early, downed some granola and headed for LCC. It was snowing and blowing pretty hard at the end of the road where I started hiking. I headed up the Albion summer road then up to the snow cat road toward Twin Lakes pass. Just into the upper area I followed a skin track up the ridge toward the top of Patsey Marley. I had my new Stokes but was using the skins for my Mustagh Ata skis. They left quite a bit of ski uncovered by the climbing skin so when the trail got steep I slid back. It made for slow climbing. A couple of other hiker passed me. I stopped with them as they dug a snow pack sample. I knew the conditions were pretty stable but the snow pit confirmed it. I climbed a bit more beyond that spot and then skied on back to the car. I ended up taking about a half hour longer than I had planned because of the slippery climbing. The visibiliy was bad the whole time. Got a good workout though.

Little Superior

I parked my car in Big Cottonwood Canyon where Craig picked me up. We drove to LCC to meet up with Frankie. We started hiking about 11:15 from the fire station up toward Cardiff Pass. At the ridge we traveled west toward Mount Superior. Our objective was to get as close as possible to view possible the ski lines from the top and then ski out to BCC where my car was parked. We lunched on the ridge just before we booted to the top of Little Superior. The final boot was very steep but there was a set of boot tracks Frankie followed. After he and Craig booted up they made the footholds well pronounced for me. Even though it was the steepest, iciest path I had been on I felt pretty secure. There were some clouds starting to come into Little Cottonwood Canyon as we were making our final push up but by the time we got ready to ski they had blown on by. With the excellent visibility from the top we elected to ski off the south east face back to our cars in LCC. The first 3 or 4 turns were icy but conditions improved and we were skiing in already skied soft snow. There was a little sluffing at the top but the snow stabilized as we descended. I tried to video some but I couldn't see the screen in the bright sun. Needless to say my videography was lousy. Frankie on the other had got some nice still pics of our outing. Thanks Frankie. We had soft snow and fun skiing all the way to the road. We dropped onto the road about a mile away from our cars. Craig and I hiked on up to the cars but Frankie being the wiser of us all caught the bus. The clouds blew back in and covered the terrain that we had just skied so we couldn't really see our line that we had just descended. Craig and I went back to BCC to fetch my car. We then drove to the Black Diamond store where Craig bought some Whippet Poles and an ice axe for our next ski mountaineering adventure. What a hard day of climbing but so fulfilling in the end.

Bonneville Peak - Bannock County, Idaho

Casey and I drove up to Pebble Creek ski resort Saturday morning. I bought a one ride pass and we rode up the main chair lift. We then hiked up to the ridge between Skyline Peak and Bonneville Peak following a skin track through the frosted trees. Just before we reached the ridge we were passed by an split boarder. While on the ridge heading toward Bonneville Peak we were passed by a telemarker. They were the only other backcountry folks we saw all day. Near Bonneville Peak we saw the split boarder. He was ready to go off the back side to what he called the Super Bowl. The fog was thick and we couldn't see the terrain but we followed him anyway. The ski shot off the backside was awesome. About 1,200 feet of vertical in mostly open terrain with what seem to be the perfect steepness. The snow was skiable but a bit crusty on top. The snow continued to improve the further we dropped. The visibility also improved. At the bottom of the run we saw the split boarder transitioning for the skin up so Casey and I started to skin up as well. We were able to follow his tracks. We stopped about 300 feet from the ridge to have lunch. We then skinned to the ridge and over to Skyline Peak. We transitioned again and skied in to Stacey's Bowl. We got some decent powder in the trees above the resort and then skied the groomer out to the car. I'm guessing that we climbed about 2,000 feet of vertical today. A real nice effort for Casey's first tour. Hopefully I can travel to Idaho again soon and do it again with Casey.

Tri Chutes

Tom, Will and I hiked up the White Pine trail to the Tri Chutes on the west side of the west peak of the American Fork Twin Peaks. It was a bitter cold day. I had an extra layer on everywhere. I started hiking with my normal hiking gloves but they were too thin. My hands were freezing after just a few minutes of hiking. Will had new skis. He was hiking on Voile Vectors. They are about 95mm under foot. I was excited to be hiking with Will because I wanted to see him ski. He telemarks. After we lunched we pushed on up to the skier's left chute. Tom dug into the snow to test the snow pack. It broke after 22 taps (a technique he learned in a recent avalanche course). He pronounced the area safe to ski. Will got first tracks and did a super job carving beautiful telemark turns. I went next and biffed it after only two turn. The rest of the run went well though. We hiked back up and skied the middle chute. More first tracks. We found a few more little shots where we got 8 or 9 turns on the ski out. We were in the sun from our lunch area on through our skiing of the chutes. As we were on our ski out we were back in the shade of the valley. My face was so cold with the wind blowing on it. We had almost forgot how cold it was today. We also had a bit of excitement on the drive down the canyon. We spun out on one of the corners. Yikes.

Thunder Mountain

I planned to meet up with a group from the Wasatch Mountain Club for a ski tour today. The intel I received said to meet at the BCC park and ride at 9:00. I got there a couple of minutes early and waited till 20 after 9. Didn't see anyone that looked like a forming group of ski tourer. I must have got my details wrong. I then drove to LCC and parked at the White Pine parking lot and started hiking. After I got in about 3 miles I followed a skin track off to the right. I could see some turns on the apron to the west below Thunder Mountain. The turns were on a north easterly facing aspect. As I got closer I saw 4 skiers coming down and a couple of other skiers going up. Since I was solo I thought it best to stay around people. I was hiking about as fast as the group in front of me though they did put a little distance between us as we skinned up the last, steepest part. 2 of the skiers that had just come down transitioned and started back up and man they were fast ascenders. They passed me before I got to the top and by the time I skied down they were on their ascending again - their 3rd lap. The ski down was a nice powder stash about 800' of vertical. You could at times feel the rain crust below on some turns. I transitioned and started back up just as the fast boys were coming back down. It was a beautiful bluebird day. When I got to the top again the sky was so clear and nice. It was so quiet other than the occasional sound of other hikers/skiers a couple of miles away. I didn't feel as in control on the descent the second time. I was pretty tired from the climbing. But it was still a very fun and satisfying ski run. I got a little too low on the initial part of the ski out and had to climb a little in ski mode - never fun. After I could ski again I couldn't believe how fast I got out to the car. I got home at about 2:45.

Green's Basin with Amy

After a week in Florida and a few trips to the resorts I was finally able to strap my skins on the skis and go for a hike. I was missing the solitude and the aerobic workout. Amy came from down from Idaho and wanted to try the back country stuff.





We parked at the Spruces campground parking and hiked up the Days Fork trail then off toward Green's Basin. At Green's Basin I left Amy and skinned on up to the ridge about 500 or 600 feet higher then skied down through mostly untracked powder back to Amy. We got snowed on quit a bit during our outing and it was still snowing as we started out. Amy was challenged by the deep powder but did really well controlling her skis and picking her line down. We had packed a lunch but ended up eating our sandwiches on the drive out of the canyon. As we got about half way down the canyon it stopped snowing. We got home about at 3.



While I was visiting the resorts these past few weeks I have demoed some new back country skis. I first tried the Dynafit Stoke three weeks ago and then last Thursday I picked up the Black Diamond Drift. I skied the Drift last Thursday night at Brighton then again on Friday at Alta. I still had the BD skis for the hike today. Amy used my Dynafit skis. Just from a ski report standpoint, I think I liked the Stoke better than the Drift. Not that I am a real aggressive skier but the Dynafit Stoke seemed easier to ski and more stable when I was pushing my limits and in the harder to ski terrain. The Drift was very smooth on the groomers at the resort and would be smooth in even powder. The problem is that the powder and snow conditions are not always perfect. Well, enough for the ski report.

Powder day at Alta

I would not usually report on a day of resort skiing on this blog but I have to report on today. I hooked up with Craig and Liz. The plan was to meet at the LCC park and ride at 9. LCC was way backed up with cars. We made it to Alta and to our first lift ride by 11. The plan was to head straight for the Supreme lift. Supreme was still closed so we rode Collins and then over to Sugarloaf. The lift operator told us that the Supreme lift was open so we headed there. Signs were posted that said the lift was closed but yes it was open. We got into some fantastic powder skiing in the runs close to the lift. Plenty of snow hitting our faces as we skied. One time I plowed through a drift and I could feel the snow slamming into my chest. Another time I was breathing in and sucked down a mouth full of snow. At about 2 we went to the Watson lodge for lunch. I didn't add to my elevation totals today since I rode the lift but we still did a bit of hiking and traversing to get to some of the runs we were seeking. The worst was the traverse from the Sugerloaf lift to the Collins lift on our way to lunch. It was snowing hard, the wind was howling and in our faces. My arms were dead at the end of it from pushing myself with my poles. Liz asked me if I knew what Alta stood for?

A = another
L = long
T = traverse
A = again

We certainly did our fair share of long traversing. We skied the rest of the day off the Collins lift. Craig wanted to show me some of his favorite chutes around High Rustler and the Eagles Nest. I was skiing terrain that pushed me to my limits. It was such a hard day of skiing that my thighs started to cramp. On the last run of the day I had to stop a few times to work the cramps out. Craig was kind enough to give me some pointers on my skiing technique. He was able to ski the terrain with much less effort than I. I was begging for some guidance. It was a real clinic in skiing the steep stuff. At the end of the day of skiing I was totally spent. Since the canyon road conditions were bad and all the traffic we stayed at the lodge and had a pizza. I got home after 9:30.