White Pine, November 18, 2022

White Pine Fork of Little Cottonwood Canyon is a proven commodity. For backcountry skiing it has a huge selection of possibilities. Yes, it is just a ridge away from Snowbird, a world class ski area which provides easy lift access. From Snowbird's Gad II lift top terminal, the White Pine divide is an easy, 200 yard, easy, sweat-less, idiot-proof skin. Ten minutes from comfy chairlift to trackless, virgin (relatively) terrain. Did I say it was easy access? Seriously, White Pine Fork gets pounded by lifties poaching BC terrain from Gad II. 

When I was in high school in the late 1970’s, it was against the law to use the lifts to access out of bounds terrain such as White Pine. Enforcement of the law was easy for the Snowbird Ski Patrol, the White Pine boot pack was clearly visible from the ski patrol shack, complete with a balcony loaded with a BBQ blazing with ribs and a hot tub, all while Patrollers watched for poachers headed over to White Pine. They usually had a guy sitting on the ridge while the guys in the hot-tub would radio over when they spotted a potential poacher. And for access back then, I must stress ‘boot pack.” Today it's a skin track, which is totally legal to use to leave the resort, but, back in 1978, tech-bindings had not yet been invented, and 3-pin tele bindings were not allowed on Snowbird’s ski lifts. To get to the ridge, feigning that we were going to ski powder shots above the Gad II lift, we had to remove skis and hike (boot) up to the ridge. On a big powder day it was work, but once broken the hiking was easy. We usually did just that, drop back into the Gad II terrain, but if the Ski Patrol was not watching, their “Ridge Guy” down at the hot-tub for example, we’d quickly ducked the rope and dropped into White Pine for a glorious, track-free powder run all the way down to the trailhead, which was a mere half-mile from the Snowbird parking lot. We’d then hitch-hike back up to the lifts.  For real tours, not rope-ducking out of ski areas, we’d take tele gear because it was eminently more hike-able, albeit a wee but less skiable, but still skiable. . .  on great snow days . . . .but total shit on manky days, but good enough that we’d do it often. Lifts were quickly becoming less and less desirable even in the late 1970’s, even with the shitty tele gear. 

We didn’t use tele's to access White Pine from Gad II, largely because they sucked in moguls, and nothing was groomed back then, plus when the ‘Man’ (ski patrol) caught us, they’d escort us off their mountain, which is located on USFS Public lands I might add. 

Another proof of the skiing quality in White Pine, the Snowbird Master Plan originally called for another aerial tram to serve White Pine Fork, with the base near the confluence of Little Cottonwood Creek and Red Pine Creek, ascending all the way to the summit of Red Baldy, a respectable 4,000 feet of elevation gain. It was all talk when Snowbird was built in the early 1970’s, but Dick Base was nearly bankrupted form just building the first tram and a couple of lodges, so they weren’t even close to building a another tram, but it was seriously considered. Thank God that second tram never became reality.        

View NW from mid White Pine, Broads Fork Twins and Sunrise Peaks dead center. 

The famous Tri Chutes on the flanks of Red Top Mountain. Snowbird hasn't even opened yet and they’re tracked out. 

View NW from upper White Pine, and heavy ski traffic very evident.

Tracks off the east side of White Baldy in Glacier Bowl.

Lake Peak and its chute. Sad to see these twisted firs have died. They’ve always been a welcome site when approaching White Pine Lake.

Wind on Red Baldy, and very glad I don’t see a tram cable over head. 

My turns off the hill above White Pine Lake. White Pine gets a ton of traffic but there’s always a few spots still free of turns even a week after the last storm. 

I found soft settled powder on the N-NE aspects and it hadn’t snow for 6 days. That said, I had to shoe-horn my turns between those who came before. 

Lake Peak and Chute. The horizontal shadowed line in mid-picture is the man-made damn added by SLC/County in the 1960s to increase the size of White Pine Lake.

A healthy start to the winter snowpack. As I write this in mid April ’23, this pond is likely buried by 15 feet of snow. The winter of 2022-23 has set all-time snow-fall records. Today, April 8, 2023, Alta has a base of 218 inches and 877 inches for the season. Huge!

A beautiful site, a tram free Red Badly (11,171ft). 

My Tacoma and my shitty rock skis. That Rivian (r) was driven by a young, 20-something lady. I could barely afford that $33K tacoma in my late 50’s, so how does one so young afford a $90K truck? Granted, I suck in my career, I’ve always chosen life and family over work, so I have very likely short-circuited my career path in order to ski/climb/hike and be involved and present when my babies were born, a choice I’ve never regretted. But even when I was pushing hard early in my career, I couldn’t even afford a Toyota Tercel. I figured she was likely a recent grad of Stanford Law School, or a Harvard MBA or, perhaps, but less respectable, but something I sure as hell wouldn’t refuse, a wealthy trust-funder living the good life in the mountains. Good choice.