Capitol Reef, March 23-25, 2012

Somehow we missed the sign and walked the full length of Grand Wash, but caught it on the way back.

Cassidy Arch

Too close to the edge at Cassidy Arch.

Pine Shadows Cabins in Teasdale. No massage therapist, concierge, room-service, or the drone of generators from motor homes (campground). Off the beaten path.  

Capitol Gorge

Future ski day, Henry Mountains, Mt. Ellen, from Hanksville.

Bountiful Ridge 03-09-2012

City Creek and Gotham.

Aged powder in the shade.

Wet "powder" in the sun.

What you smiling at?? Tough skin track!

Red zone!

Skied Bountiful Ridge again on Friday, March 9, 2012.

I got away from work way late and didn’t hit the trail until 1:45. Should have known, it’s almost impossible to get away once chained to the desk, better to just take the whole day.

As it was, I barely had time to skin up and make a couple of runs. The sun was setting on the second run and fully dark during the hike out. But I’m weird, I like nighttime descents. I have a positive association with nighttime hiking: early morning summit bids and evening ski exits are some of my fondest and most rewarding moments of life. After a good day on skis the dark of night is an inexplicable comfort; the feeling is of peace, calmness and contentment. There was no wind nor weather, the only sound was the crunch of boots on frozen snow, and when I stopped to listen, the reward was the soft, subtle call of a screech owl. I haven’t heard one since last winter during a similar descent. It’s good to be on familiar ground.

The feeling was the complete opposite 6 hours earlier when leaving work. In the bc ski world, trust, respect and cool-headedness under fire are paramount. Those ideals don't always translate to the real world, especially the business world. Backcountry skiing is an escape, a world where I call the shots, where I am in control.

I booted up North Canyon and again scouted my new route up the North Fork of North Canyon, trying to make it work. The traditional route up the main drainage of North Canyon is a rat’s-nest of thick willows and tight oak-brush. Made worse under a thin snow-pack like we’ve seen this winter. For the last few years I’ve eyed the pine covered ridge of the North Fork and wondered that maybe it’d mean less brush. So this winter I started exploring. The first two tries were NOT any better because I hugged the ridge too closely and fought oak brush almost all the way up. Today was a victory – I now have the new route dialed! - as I found a passage with little bush-whacking (a relative term for North Canyon). The secret was to stay low and stick to the Douglas Fir. The route is a winner, although tons of downed trees from last January wind event meant hurdling sizable logs and branches. Like I said, it is North Canyon. Adventure skinning for sure.  Overall the new route is a big improvement over the main drainage, maybe a wee bit longer, like a tenth of a mile, but now my preferred route.   

The snow was mostly wet and sun baked, but in the trees, on the true northern aspects, creamy aged powder was found, making for excellent turning conditions. The sunbaked snow was not bad either. With a solid supportable base it was almost the consistency of corn, just looser and not quite as forgiving, but still fun. The down side, when the sun set the wet snow immediately froze into grabby crusts, making the turns trippy and just a lot of hard work. When I reached the mountain bike trail I opted to boot out, skis on pack. Those icy 4X4 ruts torn in the lower canyon road are not my idea fun. I’d rather walk.

I skied two runs off Rectangle Peak (my title). I set two different skin tracks to the top, primarily to see new ground and check conditions on another hill. The trail-breaking effort was negligible so setting a new track on the second ascent didn’t cross my mind.  The original plan was to hike a mile beyond the Rectangle Peak (my name) and ski a steep northerly shot off Burro Mine, a thin cut through the trees (75 feet wide, 900 ft. vert.) I call “Burro Mine – Big Drop One” or “Big Drop One” for short, named out of respect for Cataract Canyon and my river-running Dad/Bros/Nephew’s. The Burro Mine 'Big Drops' (One through Twelve skied so far) are big lines with steep angles and northern aspects making for great skiing. Unfortunately, Wasatch Powderbird Guides (WPBG) caught wind of this and now fly rich clients to ski my lines (3 times so far this year). Nothing is sacred. Due to the late start I had to stop short and fit in my two measly runs down the Rectangle (37 degree slope, NW aspect, 700 ft. vert.,  7,650- 8,350.). Still a great day skiing. Next week it’ll be Big Drop One.  

Stats:         

Miles - 7.5

Vert. - 3,700. Low 5,550 ft., High 8,500 ft.; 2 runs X 700 ft. vert. off high point (Rectangle Peak).

Snow - Rudy’s Flat (7,150 feet):  49 inches.

            Rectangle Bowl (7,713 feet): 69 inches.

Slope angles - 25-38degrees.

Slope Aspect -  North to North-West to West
Weather - 100% sun, calm, temperatures: mid 40's to low 50's.

Bountiful Ridge 03-03-2012

The season is winding down, or at least transitioning from powder to corn. March can mean the end of winter (2007, 2008), or a bonus month of cold and snow. I’m hoping for another month of winter. That said, there are always powder days in April, May and even early June, but one must hit it as the snow is falling.

This winter has been frustrating at best. Not the endless powder days of 2010-11. 2011-12 has shown all conditions: no snow, sugar snow, sketchy avalanche conditions, too many work days and partners with alternative objectives (i.e. low-bar objectives), resulting in numerous missed opportunities. I miss the days of hard charging for multiple laps on perfect powder slopes.

Today we went up Bountiful Ridge, a local hill that I’ve skied since the mid-70’s. It’s a challenging objective for its grunge features: longish approach, oak brush and relatively low elevation (5,500 to 8,500 ft – laps on the top 1,000). Today it didn’t disappoint, the oak is still thick, the trail still long, but the snow was stable, soft and deep. And the turning was sublime (who the hell uses that word?).

I skied with a neighbor (Byron) who was on AT gear for the first time - ever. New boots, new skis, new skins, everything so shiny. Other than a few learning-curve-quirks, he did great. It’s good to find new, young, fit partners. Hope I didn’t scare him off with the hellish pace through the oak-brush. Hey, it was a ‘powder-no-friends-day’.



52-inches of stable snow at 7,200 feet.





The goods, after the trials of the approach, many great ski options.



BC Skiing, Mill D North, Powder Park, February 17, 2012

Kind of a black and white day. Good skiing on the NE aspects, sun crusts on the SW. I've been spoiled by skiing the lonely slopes of Davis County the last few years. Few are willing to brave the long approaches and trashy accesses (brush), so I’m use to calling the shots: setting the skin track and skiing virgin slopes totally alone. In my world there are no other tracks, to the point that I’ve become a territorial snob. Some things are just not allowed, but we’ll get to that . . .

With the challenging snow year we’ve had, tougher on the lower elevations of my usual haunts, I've had to ski the Central Wasatch (LCC, BCC, MC) more this year than I typically do. I’ve skied Powder Park plenty, but it’s still a shock to see a skin track ten-feet wide and solid enough that the ‘Bubba’ up the street could drive his Hummer to Dog Lake. No chains required. Yes, I’m a skin track snob.

But I digress, bad cliches aside, a day skinning and skiing is always better than work. Better yet when the wife joins you. Don’t think so? You need a new wife! (Or a new job.) Powder Park is intermediate skiing, at best, but a good place for relaxed cruising and easy ascents. Not the most exciting skiing, but we all need a down day here or there.




View south, towards Cardiff Fork.

 


Desolation meadows, Powder Park hidden on the lee of the bald knob.

 




Still not a lot of snow at 8,300 feet. Sign should be 6-feet under this time of year.



Kara is a much better athlete than 'Moi'. For all the work I put in to my fitness, daily lunch runs and all, she seems unfazed on the climbs even with weeks between workouts. She’s a career nurse and just doesn’t have the time for daily workouts. Neither do I really, but I’m a sworn underachiever and my career path shows it, for every day at noon I go trail running. Rain or shine, promotions be damned, I go run. Don't get me wrong, I do work long hours, but no one notices that you're at the PC, slaving at 8pm, when they've all blitzed at five. What they 'DO' notice is that you're not going to lunch with the "team".  Oh well, I come back from my runs happy and energized. A proven formula, sans chugging a gallon of Diet Coke in the afternoon. Anyway, if Kara could run each day, she’d be competative with the Spaniards, and they’re not Grandmas!

So we ski laps in Powder Park, but after a couple of hours I can tell she’s limping in her ski boots. When pressed she finally admits that her bad foot, a surgically repaired foot, is killing her. So we cut it short and ski down the ‘Hummer Run’, back down Mill D North, back to the truck at the Spruces. We find out later she has a severe stress fracture. I feel kind of bad for pushing so hard. 

Soapbox:  What’s up with SLC skiers urinating in center of the skin track? I counted seven pee holes, bulls-eye center. And don't make assumptions, this was not canine pee. Dogs have more class and at least look for a tree. Can you get Chlamydia from frozen urine? I'm not taking chances - skins are currently at the dry-cleaners. The price you pay for following the herd.
Funny side-bar: about 20 years ago we had a family reunion at a nearby campground and my young son was harshly reprimanded by his Aunt for "spitting" on the ground in the SLC watershed. Good thing she doesn't ski. If she only knew . . .

BC Skiing, B-Town Ridge, February 5, 2012



Black's Peak from top of Rectangle Peak (8,400 ft.).



What a strange winter. Jackson has more snow than Alta, and even a consistant under-achiever like Sun Valley has more than Park City; no one has much to brag about.

My local, “private hill”, was un-skiable until the storm cycle of January 20-24. So lean in fact, I could run to the Rudy’s Flat (7,130 ft.) - in running shoes - on January 14^th, and found only 14 inches of snow. In January of ’11 there was 52 inches. R.F. is the staging area for skiing Bountiful Ridge. The ridge has an endless array of drainages and bowls, the only limiting factor is one’s energy to hike in and hike out. The runs start out short and steep but get progressively longer the further one hikes the ridge; anywhere from 500 vert. to 2,000 vert. However, there are barriers to entry. The BIG drawbacks to B-Town Ridge are: (1) Long approach – five miles and 3,000 foot gain - one-way - to the nearest and shortest lines; (2) Brush! Trailhead is at 5,500 feet – oak brush city!; and (3) no easy way out. For the bigger lines, one must traverse several miles of the ridge, approach your line from the top, and thereby dropping in blind as far as stability and snow quality go. Further, the big lines are surprisingly remote considering the smog and drone of traffic of SL and Davis Counties are never out of eye or ear shot. But don’t let the humanity fool you, they are remote and they are a locked system. There is no easy way out. Once skied, a run must be re-ascended, back to the approach ridge, which must then be re-traversed-down to regain the approach trail. Simply put, the big lines are literally locked-in by brush on the lower reaches. I tried it once and won't make that mistake again! That is, I hiked out via  Mueller Park, and it was like Indy Jones in the Amazon jungle - but with snow - and shredded a nice pair of ski pants, lost two pints of blood, and sacrificed a pair of skis. Then had to walk 4 miles along the golf course to retrieve my truck. Dripping blood, skis on pack, torn trousers, and walking in ski boots, I got plenty of weird looks from joggers, golfers and dog-walkers. In comparison, re-ascending the ridge is easy.



Go east young man, but no easy way out, and no swearing at WPBG's!

The upside is good snow, steep lines and few people. Believe me, I count ski tracks like Rain-man watches Wapner, and, if not skiing it, I scope that ridgeline daily. Other than a few strays here and there, I am one of two skiers who hit it regularly. The other guy never ventures much past the shortest hills. Smart guy to minimize the ridge-traverse. He probably studied at Stanford or Yale. Me? I got an accounting degree from a state school (University of Utah). Explains a lot. Although, he was obviously NOT on the Dean’s list: sane skiers are too smart for the two hour, bush-whack approach just to do laps on a 700 foot hill.

 

Crust and oak-brush, but you could be fighitng for parking at Alta, Mill-D or Teton Pass.

Another thing: although it’s low elevation, between 7,000 and 9,400 feet, it’s blessed with lake effect snow. It doesn’t get the dumps of Little or Big Cottonwood Canyons, but it can hold its own against the Park City side of the range. I’ve skied into June and, long ago, as a teenager, I stumbled across a remnant snowfield in late October, at the 9,000 foot contour, still holding on from the previous winter. Permanent snowfields are common in Utah above 10,000 feet, but very rare below that line.  

Stats, February 5, 2012:

Start elevation: 5,550 feet.

High Point: Rectangle Peak, 8,400 feet.

Miles: 11 total (out and back + 2 runs).

Elev. Gain: 4,100 feet.

Snow Depth at R.F (7,150 feet): 34 inches.

Snow Depth mid-slope of Rectangle Peak (8,000 feet): 51 inches.

Conditions: can you say crusty? Hard, grabby crusts ruled the day, but a few creamy turns were found in the Douglas Firs way off the ridges.
Bonus material: A new approach was explored, N. Fork of N. Cyn. Probaly a bit longer but worth it due to less brush in the lower canyon.

             



B-town.



First run, 700 vert, 38 degree slope.