Bear Trap and Willow Fork, December 18, 2019

Kessler from Bear Trap

Went up Bear Trap and into upper Willow Fork today. 

I don't ski the Central Wasatch very often, primarily because I get totally stressed when I can't find a freaking parking spot at Spruces. With no parking available we look elsewhere and today that meant  Bear Trap, just up canyon from Spruces. We park and then I start popping Xanax to cope with the underlying anxiety that comes when skinning up the labyrinth of side-walk-wide/hard, human-urine-bombed skin tracks, spider-webbing their way up every hint of a drainage, just to take a spot in line to ski the glades off the Park City Ridge line. Only a sick mind would actually pay huge sums of cash to go wait in line at Disneyland, but here we are. OK, perhaps I have a flair for the dramatic, but you have to admit, the Central Wasatch is way, way, WAY overcrowded, the reason why we are now experiencing a huge spike in humanity in the grungy areas outside of the Central Wasatch. But I get it. The Central Wasatch offers big, beautiful skiing with mindlessly-easy access, and once it gets tracked-out, and it does get tracked-out, quite quickly in fact, the folks who still value solitude and fresh turns look elsewhere, thus the outlying Wasatch areas are now a destination and no longer just a 'Meh' to B.C. skiers. 

It hasn't snowed in over a week and the sun has been doing its work. It was sunny and calm, but cold! A lot of sun-crust but a few soft spots still remain in the trees. With the frigid temps I wore my shell most of the day, and, with my beacon and camera strapped to my belly under the shell, I look like a total fatty, which is a fun conversation killer when we pass a group of bad-ass youngsters who look at my gray beard, then my belly, then my gray beard again, then, to emphasize the fact they were being passed by two old, bald men, mumble something about a "bad knee from church ball" and, "they had to use old their old, rail-binding rigs because they had no time to cut new skins for their new kit." Blah, blah, blah. Excuses only bring a laser focus to that which you are trying to hide. I respond, "it's no race, leave that for the SkiMo crowd who give a shit." Uncomfortable silence follows, presumably they don't like my use of the 'S-word,' of which, I hear much worse every Sunday at church, but, conversation over, we move on. 

We ski Bear Trap Glades, Willow Fork West, and Bear Trap Glades again. Holy crap! It's shocking how it looks more like a ski area than the back country because it is totally tracked! Exclamation on the OUT! Whining aside, I only have myself to blame. If one is willing to work and cover longer distances, there is plenty of untracked terrain in the Central Wasatch. Maybird and Hogum have a much greater barrier to entry than the 'side-country areas.' Oh well, my annual experiment with the central Wasatch has come and gone. Although, I feel a strong draw to Hogum, buts that's another day....

Sunrise on Kessler

More Kessler

and more Kessler, the Catcher's Mitt, the BC ski run is the broad open bowl on the east side of Kessler.

The Cone, which is regularly skied-out like a ski area, testament to the explosion of humanity in the back country.

"Look at me!! I've got skins and a beacon and everything!" - Side-Country Bob.

This is the summit of 9,990, the Canyon's/Park City's highest ski lift, owned by Vail Ski Corp. It terminates 200 feet below the Park City Ridgeline and it's an access gate for side-country skiers (skiers who ride ski lifts to gain access to out of bounds terrain, which is not controlled for avalanches), not to be confused with back country skiers who are get to the same places but under 100% human power.

Since this lift was installed in the early 2,000's, there have been five avalanche deaths on nearby slopes and those five deaths were folks who rode the lifts to the top of 9,990, ducking the rope, hiking a short distance, then skiing an unstable slope that avalanched, buried and killed them. Call it what you will, personal freedom vs. regulation, but before the days of open access one would get ticketed and fined for leaving resort boundaries, so there were much fewer people skiing those slopes. It was completely legal to ski those slopes, but illegal to ride the lifts then duck the ropes. The physical effort to hike up the mountain in deep, soft snow is a barrier to entry which weeds out many people who would otherwise ski these slopes. As cold and harsh as it might sound, that barrier to entry saves lives. I'm not suggesting, even remotely, that back country skiers are more safety conscious than side-country/resort skiers, just that with easy access there are a lot more people now accessing those slopes than ever before, so the odds of unsuspecting skiers accessing unstable slopes has increased with open access from ski lifts. 

Sunrise on the Park City Ridgeline.

The Colony, the Canyon's lift-served elite housing development, as seen from the Park City Ridgeline.

B. Fuller on the Park City Ridgeline with the Central Wasatch behind.

The sidewalk in upper Bear Trap Fork. So rock hard if I ever got complacent and didn't feather the plush of my skins, they would suddenly lose purchase and I'd skate backwards. Ouch! A recipe for a pulled groin for an old, bald man. 

Mt. Raymond (l), Gobblers Knob (r).

Hoar frost developing.

Brett on the divide between Bear Trap Glades and West Willow Fork, with Dromedary and Broads Fork Twins on the skyline directly above Brett's head. The dominant bowl above his left shoulder
 (looker's right) is the Catcher's Mitt on Kessler.

I love birds and love to see signs off Chickadee's searching for a meal.

West Willow Fork, looking up towards the divide with Bear Trap Fork.

View over to the east side of Willow Fork, with Willow Knob and Little Willow (BC ski run) in center.

Last year's aspens . . . 

Aspens, sun and snow, a glorious combination.

Ot-ohh! Coyotes in the SLC watershed. 

The Wasatch is off to a good start but we need more snow, mostly to cover all the old tracks.

Our attempt at a figure eight. Tight '70's turns in sun-crust, a recipe for . . .  "why?"

West Willow Fork.

Tracks in West Willow Fork with silver Fork Meadows, Days Fork, Cardiff Fork (and Superior and Monte Cristo at the head), Mineral Fork (barely visible) above with Dromedary on the far right. 

View NW over the the Desolation divide (near ridge) and Peak 9,990 on the right.

Brett topping out above Bear Trap Glades (r) and West Willow Fork (l).

Lots of tracks, feels like the Epic, Icon and WTF passes now include the Wasatch BC.