Winter camping and Kessler East/West Couloir Combo

A Bengal tiger in the White Room.

The weekend of March 23-24 was a good one in the Wasatch. After spending most of January, February, and March starved of big storms, one finally came through and dumped a few feet on the mountains from Wednesday into Saturday. 

Cardiff Peak Winter Camping

Wednesday night Tad, Cole, and I got out and tested our winter camping skills on top of Cardiff Peak before descending "Two Tree" down in the AM in time for class at 9:00 am. The first wave of the storm hit in the early morning 1-2 AM and made for a pretty miserable night. Its hard to stay dry in a bivy sack @ 10k in a snowstorm. My 32* degree bag was struggling to keep me warm, and the faceted snow we dug a platform on was a terrible surface for sleeping. Uncomfortable is relative however, my bivy sac atleast kept me completely enclosed from the snow and wind. Tad's bivy sack only had a mesh face screen. All misery aside the snow in the morning was incredible, and the run down the "Two Tree" gully is always a fun one.

Kessler E/W Combo

With the storm finally on its way out after 2-3 feet in upper BCC/LCC Brian, Cole, and I headed up Kessler with the intention of skiing the East and West couloirs. We did just that and added a quick run down the Catcher's Mitt too. Note if anyone ever reads this for information...... the west couloir has a little cliff band at the bottom. In big snow years this may be continuous but on this day sitting at about (330 inches) it required a little bit of technical scrambling down the skiers right side.

Here are some pictures from the Catcher's Mitt and a short video of some turns and scenery.

Brian heading up the Catcher's Mitt

Cole and Brian taking a break on the ridge.