Bountiful Ridge - Almost . . Big Collapse . . Turned Tail and Ran, January 24, 2021

Ten inches over night and five the day before, all on top of a foot of rotten snow. Trail-breaking was tough, sometimes supported by a very thin crust ten inches down, then the crust collapses and I sank to the ground. Back and forth, breaking trail through boot-top snow to suddenly dropping to the ground and it’s over the knee. 

Although we finally got a big storm, over 20 inches at Alta, there was still thin cover above Bountiful, tons of brush, too many downed trees from last year’s wind event, unsupportable base. It all added up to   tough trail breaking, but it’s skiing and despite the challenge I love being alone in the woods, breaking trail and feeling the storm all around. My daily life is a constant plowing of the fields at the dictates of others. This brings me back to what I feel in my soul, which is impossible to put into words, but I feel something deeply when I get up onto a snowy mountain. The issues of life fade, if only for a few hours, I hear my own thoughts without interruption, and I go home refreshed. 

It is such a gift to get this right out my back door (almost), but today was a risky day, stability-wise. The Utah Avalanche Forecast Center rated stability at moderate to considerable, so I was approaching with caution. As I was skinning I kept hearing collapsing but I wasn’t worried because I was on low-angle terrain. My approach was under the under the alpha angle. Yes, the snow was collapsing, but my route up the old short-cut of North Canyon wasn’t steep enough to slide, plus tons of brush still exposed. Route selection is a hot issue. Many folks disregard it as stupid, but people die due to poor route-finding. It' a skill very much taken for granted. If one selects a smart route for a skin track one can go out on days with bad instabilities, just stay out of the line of fire. 

Hearing a collapse grabs your attention and heightens the focus, but today there was another issue: every time I heard a collapse I’d sink to the ground within a second or two, then difficulty of breaking-trail increased by a large factor. I continued up but as the angle increased above Rudy’s Flat, I worried about approaching the Alpha Angle. Skinning up lower Rectangle Bowl I heard one of the loudest collapses I’ve ever experienced while BC skiing, and I was immediately enveloped in a cloud of snow.  Thinking it was an avalanche, instantly terrorized, but luckily it was just the snow shaken out of the nearby trees. With that my day was done. Too risky to ski my intended destination today so I turned for home. 

Rudy’s Flat now has 20 inches (11 inches last week) and there is 40 inches in Rectangle Bowl. We still need a lot of snow to cover the brush and rocks, and make this place skiable, like four storms just like this last one.

Huge Douglas Fir, make that two, maybe a hundred years old, went down during the huge wind of last fall. The cave under the root-ball was high enough for me to stand.

 

Snow stake way too visible. 

The little things bring joy. 

Waaaaa! The Mountain Mahogany still not covered (bush not the tree).

Drifting near Rudy’s Flat. This was the first time in WAY too long that I broke trail to Rudy’s Flat. I was nice to see no signs of others. 

Interesting danglers, like Christmas ornaments.

21 inches at Rudy’s Flat. Not great for January 24th, but it’s 10 inches more than January 15th.

Still too brushy.

38 inches in lower Rectangle Bowl. I measured this depth just before I heard and saw the huge collapse which enveloped me briefly in a cloud of snow shaken from the trees. This was in a spot where I was approaching the Alpha Angle and possible buried if the snow slid from way above. That said, based on the thin cover before this storm, still a lot of brush anchoring the snow (see next photo) and the light density snow of the storm, I felt confident down on these flatter hills. There was rotten snow on the ground but no running surface for the new snow to slide on, like a hard sun crust, with tons of brush still exposed, so the collapsing I was hearing was the old and new snow compressing as my skis cut through. If there had been a bit more snow covering the brush, with a hard crust below the new snow, and if the new snow was more dense, I may have been in big trouble.  

This is the view up the summer trail to Bountiful Ridge, just where the slope starts to steepen. Still way too brushy for great skiing.

Sun was setting as I was exiting North Canyon. Due to the thick brush, I skied down the North Canyon Trail instead of down one of the short-cuts. The bush-whack was bad enough while skinning up, it would have been hell skiing down when adding speed to the equation.