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.