Willows, December 6, 2022

 

I love the north side of Big Cottonwood, the slopes and gullies that stretch from Mt. Raymond to Guardsmen Pass. It has easy access and it’s perfect for quick hits in the early morning, lunch runs, or after work. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of options for great terrain and great snow with some hidden treasures that seem to get missed by the huge crowds, and we all know that huge crowds are now the norm for Wasatch backcountry skiing. I’m not sure why but several small slopes, which will remain nameless, rarely get tracked out unlike others that are just yards away. One area I ski a lot, I’ll call it Area 51, is notorious for slides, it is steep and it’s hidden from the sun until spring, so the snow is always dry and  prone to faceting, but the crowds stay away. When it does get skied, there’ll only be a track or two on a slope that can hold 50. It falls steeply from a rounded ridge and ends in a meadow with a semi-abrupt transition from steep to flat, which could possibly act like a terrain trap if the debris piled up where the slope flattens, but without an opposing slope it is not a trap in the classical sense. The last time I saw it slide the debris didn't stack, it fanned out like a river delta. When the snow is wet and less elastic, perhaps it could pile deep right at the base. 

Still, why isn’t this slope regularly skied? Are other skiers just too smart and cautious to avoid it’s notorious instabilities?? Nah, this is Utah, where skiers don’t give a shit about slides. Yeah, they do the dance, they dig a pit and do the proverbial ECT, they say all the right things and preach safety to all who care to listen, especially their partners to ease familial stress, but, when the Utah powder piles deep they center punch every big line in the Wasatch, instabilities be damned. So I’m still puzzled, why is Area 51 largely ignored?  Is it too short and not worth the effort? For me, thirty turns are better than no turns, so I ski there when everything else is toast, which is often.

Today I got away from work late, arriving at the Willows trailhead in late afternoon, the shadows already drawing long footprints. It was cold, mid to upper teens, but the sky was a glorious, brilliant blue and the winter sun was warm on my face. The snow was still early-season-thin, but yesterday's storm left a superb top layer, maybe six inches on a supportable base, but overall conditions were very unstable.  I can’t remember the specific avalanche rating, but it was not good, and as I skied up the Willows trail, which is very low angle, I continually heard collapsing, even seeing some shooting cracks where the angle was steep enough for the snow to move. By the time I reached the lower pond I knew I would not ski Area 51. Instead I headed up the approach ridge to Area 51 but stopped short, on a plateau on the shoulder where I stopped and transitioned to ski. I was soon shivering uncontrollably, I didn’t wear nearly enough layers today, and was happy to start down even on a thin, sage-spiked south facing slope. The cold temps still couldn’t stop the power of the sun, the radiation putting a bit of stickiness in that thin snow, but I managed a few ugly turns back down to the pond. I was disappointed to not ski anything big and bold, but I’m confident I did the right thing. I saw much evidence of a more liberal avalanche mentality, steep slopes completely tracked out, which had me scratching my head given the days rating. With the instabilities I saw on my short hike, there's no way I would have skied anything steeper. Like I said, SLC skiers are luckier than they are good. 

Willows, lower pond

Cold temps but strong sun

Steep approach through the Aspens up to the shoulder of Area 51.

I wouldn’t ski that hill today given the instabilities I saw, but hey, someone thought otherwise and got away with it, a few times. Pavlovian response, a positive reinforcement of bad decisions. 

Shoulder plateau of Area 51

Back at the pond after some sticky turns through sage brush. 

My sloppy turns in sticky, thin snow. So sloppy it looks like I’m on tele gear . . . but I’m not.

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. 

November 11, 2022 - KPF Trail Maintenance

I hoped to ski Bountiful Ridge but it quickly became obvious the cover was still way too thin so I ended up just doing some trail maintenance for the coming ski days. 

Up KPF to Rudy’s Flat then down the North Canyon Trail. There was about 15 inches of snow at Rudy’s Flat (7,160ft). No core-shots but I hit plenty of rocks. The Voile V6's are my first choice in rocks skis as they have always been one of my biggest disappointments. I bought them brand-spanking new about five years ago with huge expectations. They came with rave reviews, from magazines, blogs and friends because, presumably, they are very light and they float like a fatty surf-board, but I found them to be heavy, slow and cumbersome from edge-to-edge, and I HATE skies that are slow to turn. Admittedly, I am not a big-turn, surfy-skier, I like fast, quick turns, whether in powder or on hard-pack, so the V6’s just did not work for me. In comparison, my Black Diamond Helio 104s, which are 5mm wider than the V6s, are much quicker edge-to-edge and much easier to initiate a turn. Perhaps it makes no sense from a physics point of view, 5mm more width should be tougher to move, but they’re NOT. The Helio 104s are light and playful and they carve a turn with ease. What’s more, they float way better then the V6’s, they rise to the surface while the V6’s are lazy and prefer to submarine. The reality is that we all have different body types, and different ski-styles originating from our ski-conception-DNA, and the micro differences in ski lay-up that might work for some skiers could be total hell for another. The V6’s for me may not be total hell, they’re just not fun to ski. That said, the V6s are my go-to rock-ski, they bring confidence in early-season thin snow because I don’t give a SHIT! if I destroy them.

KPF, newly maintained, waiting for a big dump.

15-inches at Rudy’s Flat (7,160ft).

Moose are back . . until hunters get the word then they’ll disappear for a few years. 

Rock skis

No motos, a suggestion not a rule. Later this winter the ski motos arrived en-masse. Ironically funny! I use to whine about too many skiers, but those ski-motos track out everything, effortlessly, in a matter of minutes. 

Silver Fork, Friday, November 4, 2022

Now that the ski season is over, it’s time to update my blog . . .

Silver Fork Meadows, Friday, November 4, 2022. Solitude wasn't yet open so I took advantage of the easy access, parked at the west end of the parking lot, no epic hike from the highway, and no reserved parking requried. Single digits temps and about 18 inches of snow, deep for November 4th and an Omen of things to come. But with only 18 inches, the lower half of the Silver Fork Meadows is too brushy to ski, I had to switch-back back down it, and it was nearly as slow as skinning up, but the top half was fun turning.