Day 12 - Tuesday Dec. 19 - Suicide Chute

I met CJ at the Wasatch Dan's parking lot this morning at 5:30. We drove up in his FJ40 on our way to Wolverine. We listened to a mix he had in his car which included tunes from Medeski, Martin, and Wood; Mason Jennings; and Ray Lamontagne. When we began unloading our gear from the cruiser CJ seemed a bit dissheveled. He had forgotten something but he would not tell me what. It was not until he was sure they were not in the car that I was told he had forgotten his skins. It was here that we had to make a decision. Was it worth it to keep going without them? And where would we go? We decided it was worth it and that Suicide Chute on Mt. Superior would be a good choice since you boot a good amount of that anyway. This brought back so many memories of when I as young and I used to boot pack Alta before it opened. This also brought a new love in my heart for climbing skins and how much more pleasant they make the ascent. This was tiring. Lucky for us there had been a big slide in the Superior bowl recently making the snow pack hard and easy to boot across, but the soft stuff was a nightmare. This was my first time up Suicide Chute (the name of which did not exactly give comforting feelings) and I got to say that there were times where I was a little nervous. Never times where I was in any danger, but times where had I lost my balance I would have lost a lot of ground on the climb. By the time we reached the summit my entire body was exhausted. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to now ski down this skinny couloir. But I did it. It wasn't my prettiest skiing of the season, but it was a lot of fun. The snow was a little more dense than usual and my body was so tired that it was difficult to power through, but fun none the less. The exit out of the chute and into Superior Bowl was cool - it becomes really narrow and you have to eventually just shoot straight out of it in order to fit. We skied to the side of the recent slide and found some decent turns there. By the time I got to the road I had just enough left in me to walk to the car. It was an adventure today - a rude awakening of how out of shape I really am. I probably would not have chosen Suicide had someone asked me, but now that I have done it I will totally do it again. This post is heavy on the pictures because I thought so many of them were cool (check out the steam coming from my boots in the picture of our gear). I hope you enjoy. See you soon!