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.

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.