Scottie's Snow

Scotties. Last day of January. 

Eleven days until the job starts and the fun gets scaled back to a reasonable level.

White Pine Winter Camping

January 25 - 26 - Cole, Zac, and I went camping in upper White Pine in Little Cottonwood Canyon and made the most of conditions that no one else wants to ski. The thing is....... it's always good, but sometimes you just have to try a little harder. 

Zac just got new skis... Volie V8's. 

Zac and his new skis pointing it off Red Baldy.

 

I have been winter camping 2x. Both trips have been lacking in comfort. Last year during an intense snow storm Cole, Tad, and I spent one unprepared night cold and damp on top of Cardiff Pass. About 2 years ago, Dani, Kirsten, and I spent the night at the Diamond Fork hot springs, where we underestimated the mileage and it rained in January.

So this time we brought Zac to impart some of his winter camping experience from Alaska. Things went better..... Cole skiing into Silver Lake with Timpanogos in the background. We did 2 runs down this SE facing run into upper Silver Lake basin.

Cole returning for #2.

Zac and Cole on the summit of Red Stack/Red Top.

Cole with the American Fork Twins in the background and Regulator Johnson at Snowbird to the left.

 Zac dropping into the choke on the middle Tri-Chute.

Me opting to check out the skiers left chute.

Safely back at camp. Alpenglow on the LCC/BCC divide.

Our cozy campsite, complete with fire, seating, music, drinks, and food, a vast improvement and actually enjoyable hanging out.

Thank you to Lib for giving me this awesome Bivy!

Our cook station.

Day 2: After sleeping for entirely too long to avoid being up and about in the cold, we are back on top of Red Baldy via the NW shoulder. The plan is to ski the SW shot down to Silver Glance Lake.

Me, doing just that.

In order to drop back into White Pine on an actual ski run required traversing Red Baldy. I had been dreading this section all day, after doing it on Wednesday without my pack on.

Changing over for the final run down the Baldy Shoulder to grab the camp gear in our big packs and coast back to the car.

MLK Weekend: Puffer Lake Yurt

Yurt Trip #2 - 2014 - Puffer Lake

It's been exactly one year since the team's last yurt trip to Mill Hollow Yurt in the Uintas. The weather both years has been very cooperative with warm sunny days and minimal snow. Great days to spend in the mountains even if we could use the snow.

The whole team (L to R): Sally, Voytek, Cole, Dani, Me, Brian, Kelsey, and Rico.

Thanks Todd for taking the group photo.

Dani soaking up the sun outside the Puffer Lake Yurt. Puffer Lake is in the Tushar Mountains just east of Beaver, UT. Puffer Lake is one of two yurts, the other being the Snorkeling Elk, which lies on slopes of Delano Peak. Both yurts are run by Tushar Mountain Tours, and are much more under the radar than the yurts in the Wasatch and Uintas.











Brian and Kelsey (couple shot) with Mount Holly to the right. *Note the low snow pack* It looks like June! The Tushar Mtns had not seen snow since before Christmas (1 month).

On Sunday we took a run off the NW side of City Creek peak and met the girls at Puffer Lake. The stability of frozen lakes during the winter, a recently popular discussion, was talked about.  In true wilderness style, Brian and Sally took the car to watch the Bronco's game at the Bar in town.

Voytek loves to chase snowballs. He would chase them to the point of complete exhaustion.

A closeup of the SW face of Mount Baldy taken from City Creek Peak. The Tushar Mountains have some pretty big peaks (Delano, Holly, and Baldy), with Mount Baldy being the most northern and impressive. Mount Baldy really makes you want to come back in the spring and ski steep lines, but it is a really long haul from the access road.

Sally hiking in after a Bronco victory.

From the top of City Creek Peak, Cole says if only there was snow we could ski down.

Delicious pancake snack. Dani hiked up too, 1 month post shoulder surgery!

As far as the skiing goes, it wasn't too bad! It wasn't quite up to our recent Silverton, CO standards, but given the no snow in 1 month, I thought we did alright.

We skied down this shot NE of City Creek Peak, which would have been a scary run in bad avalanche conditions, it was steep and funneled into a deep gully. On this day it held the deepest snow pack we found on the weekend, enough to cover the downed trees in most places.

On both days we also skied the WNW shot off of City Creek Peak, that is very visible from Puffer Lake and the yurt. By the afternoon the sun warmed up the crust and it was great spring skiing 1200' back to the access road that led to the yurt. 

A Birthday Cloud Bank

January 22. Oh No! I'm 26 years old and unemployed. Good thing Cole still has a flexible work schedule. This blog post has a story to go with it..... that starts like this: 

2 years ago on May 7, 2012 Cole and I started skinning up White Pine Canyon, which is 1 canyon down canyon from the Gad Valley at Snowbird Resort. We had been skinning for about 1.5 hours when we were overtaken by an elderly man (70s) on ski equipment from the 1960s. He asked us where we were headed, and we replied, "we're just seeing what happens". We then parted ways, the elderly man continued straight and we took a right to climb a short but steep roller. The roller proved difficult travel and when we reached the top, we saw the elderly man taking off his skis to boot up the last 700' to the top of Red Baldy peak? Who does that anyway, at 70+? Being young and resilient we again chose not to follow him, and instead continued further into White Pine, until booting a short stretch to the saddle dividing Red Baldy and White Baldy peaks. At the saddle, we were cliffed out, with no ski options but to return down the short and unaesthetic line we had just climbed, and we watched, as the elderly man proceeded to ski 2000' vertical feet of fall line goodness on perfect corn snow down into American Fork Canyon. 

Cole, shortly after the old guy stole the show:

But now we are 2 years older and wiser, and its June in January so the spring skiing is on! We are going back to Red Baldy for redemption.

Cole saying, "You look good Lake Chute, but not today, we're going further"

High on the Red Baldy shoulder looking west towards the Pfeifferhorn and beyond. *Note the high cloud bank in the distance* The snow on the NW facing Baldy shoulder was varying degrees of crusted. We dug a quick pit and determined that the pack was poor, but the slab was non-existent. By the time we hit the S facing shots of Baldy the sun would move around and soften the W crust.... things were looking as good as it gets for a birthday during a very low snowpack year.

Futher..... who cares what the snow is like, as long as you're not down there in the yuck. Yes that grey cloud over the city is smog.

And what better day than your birthday to debut your new split!

Doesn't it look so good! 

But Psych! Its still crusty. Oh well. Cole is willing to boot it back up from his drop spot. We can try again after a few more minutes of sun to soften the slope.

What a trooper. 

But the high cloud bank moved in and ruined the day by blocking out the sun, and ending our hope for some solar heating. Back down Baldy shoulder through the crust we go to the car, but  outside, among friends, exploring new places.

Moral of the story: We are now 2 years wiser, but you can never count on the weather, so always bring a puffy.

January or June?

January has been a month of two extremes. "January Part I" was all snow and wind, and was highlighted by many incredible ski days at Snowbird and clear air. In contrast, "January Part II" has been all high pressure, warm temps, and Shanghai-esque air pollution in the valley.

Two days after our Silverton trip  the snow started flying again. It snowed on and off for about 5 days, adding a much needed 2-3 feet of snow. Cole and I toured on the apron of Mount Superior, after deciding too much snow had fallen to try the Suicide Chute. The following day, Zac and I took a DP on the pink pine ridge. Many days were spent at Snowbird.

After the storm, Brian, Cole, and took advantage of the clear skies for our second consecutive month with a full moon tour month in a row, hiking up Little Willow Canyon to the Beartrap Glades. I went on a tour up Butler fork to Reynolds Peak and Soldier Peak and took a few pics.

Kessler from Butler Fork

Need to do it all before I get a job so....
Stay tuned for:

MLK weekend in the Tushar Mtns at the Puffer Lake yurt.
Red Baldy birthday super tour
Deseret Peak winter camping/ski weekend

Silverton, CO

We went to Silverton Colorado the weekend after New Year's for a 3 day skication. Silverton is a small town (500 people) in the San Juan mountains of SW Colorado. They have a small and unique ski resort called "Silverton Mtn" with 1 lift and a helicopter. Most of the terrain is accessed by hiking along the ridge accessed by the lift.

We spent one day touring in Minnie Gulch next to the old mining town of Eureka. Eureka is home to the Sunnyside Mine, which was one of the more prominent mining operations in the Silverton District. It operated continuously from 1876-1991, producing approximately 1,000 tons of ore a day during its peak in the 1920s-1940s. Ore mined in the upper canyon at approximately 12500' was transported 2.5 miles and 2500' feet by arial tramway to the town of Eurekan on the banks of the Animas River to be processed.

We spent Day 1 at Silverton Mountain soaking up the blue skies and the wind buff.

View of the otherside of the gulch that contains Silverton Mtn Resort.

Brian in the Powder Moment during our tour in Minnie Gulch

Heli Skiing. The guide said to go this way.

Cole keeping it tight in Ropedi dope #?

Looking across to the Mtns separating the Route 110 and Route 550

Minnie Gulch mining road looking back towards Silverton

We were able to do 4 laps in Minnie Gulch off of one of the slide paths on Middle Mountain. Below is Cole on our final lap lower in the gulley.

?

Here comes the choppa!

Silverton Mtn ski terrain as seen from the other side. Note the prominent cliff band in the lower right.

Cole during our Heli lap.

After finally making it through "Two Smokes" Cole with the sun setting on Storm Peak.

The town of Silverton as seen on our departure with Kenall Mountain on the left and a long drive back to SLC ahead.