Old Man and the Sea - Bountiful Ridge, February 21, 2020

"But man is not made for defeat . . . A man can be destroyed but not defeated."

         - - Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea

Crescent Bowl never disappoints

Whether it be a major career change or just trying to find joy in the simple things, sometimes life gets you down. It's self-preservation to stay away from one's stressors, but, like one's career, we often have no choice can't avoid our stressors. Adapt, accept, move on. My little project of the last ten years up North Canyon has been one of my destroyers, but hopefully I am not defeated.

But I get it. I completely understand. When Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons gets shut down before noon due to maxed-out parking; when the White Pine parking lot is overflowing by 6AM; when Grizzly Gulch has moguls the day of a major storm (keepgrizzlywild.com - what a joke!); when the skin track up Mill D North is rock hard and as wide as an interstate; the message is clear: skiers are now pushing outward, going to the lesser known and less desirable ski destinations. Bountiful Ridge, just a few years ago, was one of those shunned areas, much to the delight of the locals, but those days are a distant memory. I'm slowly accepting the reality that nothing on the Wasatch Front is innocent. Humanity is now in every corner. 

Due to the crowds now using Kara's Pot Farm (KPF), it is now the most heavily used access to Bountiful Ridge, I tried to minimize the stress by avoiding KPF this year. Instead I've been working on a new access in an entirely different drainage, but it's far from clean. It's way too brushy and circuitous. When you're exhausted after a day of skiing powder the new access is far too much work to descend. It is narrow, steep and brushy, so I'm accepting defeat and going back to familiar terrain. 

Today I went back to KPF for the first time this winter and I was pleasantly 'stress-free' even in the face of tracked out conditions on KPF and too many tracks on the obvious ski lines off B-Ridge. Yes, it was a 'non stress,' fun ski day up on Bountiful Ridge in spite of not setting first tracks. Maybe I'm not destroyed after all. Maybe my defeat is over and I am moving forward? I hope. Just wish I could say the same for my career . . . 

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility is being superior to your former self."  - - Ernest Hemingway

There is a real nobility in old, dead trees. Makes one wonder of the state of the world when this took root.

The way to KPR, it's a good snow year when the Three Nephites (deadfall over the drainage) are buried. 

Tracked out KPR, but a clear passage . . .

If you don't believe it here is what it once was: thick, mature Gamble Oak, before someone made it skiable. 

The dogleg on KPR. I heard someone say that the dogleg was not planned. A total accident due to poor planning. First two days were approached from the bottom. The second two days approached from the top. The last two days joining the two lines after realizing the alignment error, then fixing the mistake with this dogleg.  

The Moose Beds with no Moose. So sad. They come and go every few years and I hear from good sources that they "go" due to hunters taking them out. No surprise really given the big mountain bike traffic during the summer months. I'm sure that many of those cyclist are hunters too. I'm not opposed to hunting, it's just my preference to see them alive and wild.  

Good snow year when the snow stake (4-ft rock) can be a ski jump.

Rudy's Flat snow depth, 7,120 ft elevation, 130cm (51.2inches). 

Looking down on the rock I placed last summer. Without snow this rock is 6'5" above ground. 

Lower Rectangle Bowl snow depth, about 7,600 feet, 150cm (62.6 inches).

View SW toward the Oquirhs, from Rectangle Bowl.

Dead Tree Peak from Rectangle Bowl (view SE).

I'm sure this rock in Rectangle Bowl is the source of one of my core shots.

Another departed but noble Douglas Fir. View north from Rectangle Ridge with Bountiful Peak the distant high point. 

View NW from Rectangle Ridge, over looking Bountiful City. 

Rectangle Peak. Years ago I skied this slope twice with no sign of instability, but on my third run the slope released, sliding below me as I escaped toward lookers right. The avalanche didn't slide far, but the debris pile was deep, over ten feet, easily deep enough for a deadly burial. I was lucky that day. 

Cornice on Crescent Peak with Black's Peak, the pointy peak, just beyond. 

Aspens, sun and shadows. Beautiful! Joyful as watching a moose or sensing the wisdom of a long departed, but still standing Douglas Fir. 

I can't help myself, sun and aspens and the camera comes out.

Best ski hat I've ever owned, and free! Courtesy Kara's Woolen Works.

Coyote. Sometimes I hear them yelping and howling, presumably fighting over a kill, but I'm not that lucky today. Still fun to see their tracks. 

Under snow, the 'bridge maze' a quarter mile from Rudy's Flat along the Mueller's to Rudy's trail. This use to be a challenge on a bike due to the elevated platforms and the loose, rocky ground. It was a challenge because if you turfed, you'd fall a serious distance off the bridge into mud. A few years ago the bridges were rebuilt, removing the challenge. No  longer any concern as one flies over those bridges. 

Coyote pit, digging for game. Mouse? Snowshoe Hare? 

Session's Mountain from the Moose Beds.

And it wouldn't be North Canyon without some joker using rusty-nail-timbers to free their 4x4 from deep snow, then leaving it, of course.  

Signage on North Canyon property. 

And some drone shots . . .

          

Crescent Peak

Hand landing

Photos are dark due to taking a still from the video. It was really a bright beautiful day.