Day 23 - Thursday Jan 31 - And I Thought Tuesday Was Crowded

I went up this morning with CJ and his friend Jake. We debated back and forth and ultimately decided to ski Short Swing in Mill D. Little did we know that the entire Wasatch backcountry community had come to this same conclusion. We pulled into the Spruces parking lot around 5:25 along with one other car. As we were finishing our preparations for the trailhead another four cars showed up. Then as we started skinning up there were another three cars that were arriving. We started just a little behind one of the other groups so we followed them on the skin track for the first while. It wasn't long, however, before they got tired and we passed them. I set the pace for the first of the real uphill climbing, and then let CJ do the rest. That guy is superhuman when it comes to skinning. It doesn't matter how hard I try - I just can't keep up with him. We reached the top with some really cool light happening. More and more people kept summiting and I was not into that, so I decided to ski. The skiing was great! Super deep. Sometimes too deep. I would get about four great turns and then I would sink and have to pull myself out. I reached the bottom and put my skins back on for another lap. I got about half of the way up before I realized I needed to get to class. So I got a few more turns in and then left my party to catch a ride down the canyon. I didn't have shoes again because they were in CJ's car (he is going to have every pair of shoes I own soon), but there was no way I was going to go to class with my boots on again. I swung by my house and picked up some shoes before going to class. I even put some jeans on as opposed to the ski pants I show up in every Tuesday and Thursday.

Day 22 - Tuesday Jan 29 - Much Fun for Many

Jer picked me up at 4:45 this morning. We then met CJ, Bret (for his first tour on a splitboard), Dave, Luke, and Sarah at the mouth of Big Cottonwood. We were debating between skiing in Butler Fork or Mill D. We drove up to the Butler parking lot and still couldn't decide so we continued up the road to see what the Spruces lot looked like. We didn't even make it to the Spruces before we decided to go back and ski Butler. And I am glad we did. By the time we got back to the trailhead there was a dude there digging out a spot for his car. We all piled out and dug out an area for our cars. It turned out that the dude was Derek, a local backcountry skier that carries a remote control helicopter mounted with an HD camera. He and his buddy, Jon, joined us for the skintrack. And when I say joined us I mean that Jon did the majority of the trailbreaking. I really did try to help as much as I could, but he insisted on continuing. By this time we had lost Bret and CJ. I guess Bret had begun to have issues with his skins and then he was just screwed all together. There was just enough light to ski when we reached the top so we took a lap as Derek prepared his helicopter for flight. Cody and Mark caught up with us just as we reached the ridge. Isn't that just like the Codeman? Sleeping in and taking it easy just enough to take advantage of someone's hard earned skin track and poach their fresh turns? Yeah, that's about right. The turns and the snow was fantastic. This was the first day I have been out on the new Asylums - by far the longest and biggest ski I have ever been on. They are 194cm in length and 160mm wide in the tip. I was nervous that I was not going to be able to turn them in the trees. I have to say, however, that I had no problems whatsoever in this area. They turned as I wanted them to and they floated like a dream. We had to get another lap in since the skiing was so great so we quickly put our skins back on and began our ascent. By this time the sun began to rise and lent itself to some great photos - see the photo of Jer skinning and Derek with his helicopter. The second lap proved to be just as good as the first. Derek did get some heli footage of our first few runs coming off the summit. I don't know if I will ever get to see that footage, but it was cool nonetheless to see how it all worked. By the time we reached the bottom Jer and I really had to get going to school and Luke had to get to work. Unfortunately, none of the car drivers needed to go. So we made our way to the road and hitched a ride with a nice gentleman named Kenneth. The big problem was that our shoes were in CJ's car so we had to go to class with our ski boots on. I did not like this. I felt like some kind of jerk wearing them in class. The general public is not even aware that things like dawn patrols exist. I am sure they assumed I was just heading up to the hills after class and wanted everyone to know about it in some fake effort to save time. We have decided to keep some flip-flops in our cars at all times to avoid situations like that in the future. But I suppose this was just the price we had to pay for the killer turns we got this morning. Peace. Edit to add: He did get that footage put together! Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaErTDBpezc. If you want to see the HD version (107mb) go here: http://www.pitonproductions.com/SkiingVids/Jan30HDV.wmv. I can be see making the few turns he got of me on film at around 1:50 just after Jer's turns.

Day 21 - Thursday Jan 24 - A Morning With Our Old Friend, Patsy

Since our plans to ski Patsy Marley on Tuesday were altered, Jer and I decided there was no time like the present. We met at 5:15 and we headed on up. The skin to where we wanted to ski is quite a bit shorter than a lot of the other approaches we dawn patrol. So we were able to take our time. We timed it just right so there was just enough light for our first descent. It was a bit surreal skiing when it was still so dark outside. You couldn't rely on your vision to tell you how to ski and you just felt it (you used your vision to tell you where the trees were). We then skinned back up for a second lap. This was just as much fun as the first only with more light. It was this second lap that the dawn skinning photos of Jer come from. The descent produced the photo of Jer skiing. Can we just talk about the snow conditions this year? They have been so great! We have been getting deep powder turns every time we go out. It isn't that hard to keep waking up at 4:15am when I know I am going to get such sweet turns. I don't even lie there debating whether or not it is worth it and if I have officially gone crazy. I am really digging my season of dawn patrols. We had time for a third lap so we were not about to pass that up. It was this lap the the video of me hucking for some huge air comes from. Yeah, that's right. I am a hucker. I hope you enjoy watching it.

Day 20 - Tuesday Jan 22 - Finally Back to Pink Pine

Jer and I were planning on skiing up off Patsy Marley this morning and just getting several laps before we had to be in class. When we arrived at the Grizzly parking lot we were told that UDOT was going to be doing some avy control in the next hour and we should head elsewhere. They were not doing any control work mid-canyon so we (and a bunch of other people, for that matter) headed to White Pine. We skinned up with the help of the full moon and reached the Pink Pine ridge as light began to shine forth. It really was a beautiful morning. We reached an area that looked like good skiing so we decided to go for it. We were able to make two laps before we headed back to the car. The snow was way deep and the line was steep enough to make for some amazing turns. Face shots on every turn. The exit required some manuevering throught the trees, but nothing like last year's event with CJ. The turns were seriously memorable this morning. I wanted to stay out, but the responsibility in me said I should go to school. So I did... and my class had been cancelled! Now that was frustrating. Oh, well.

Day 19 - Saturday Jan 19 - A New Experience For Some... A Great Tour For All

Jer picked me up at 7:40 this morning and we then picked up Crazy Mike around 8. Yes, you heard me - Crazy Mike. The same Crazy Mike that goes by the blogger alias, Henpenney. You may have heard some negative comments from him in the past few months, but he seemed excited to get out for his first tour and give it a shot. We then went up to the Grizzly Gulch parking lot where we were supposed to meet Dan, Ray, and Dave. They weren't there yet and all of Jer's gear was in Dan's car. After a little while, Mike and I decided to start skinning so we could get a little ahead of the others and allow them to catch up. We enjoyed ourselves as we made our way up to Silverfork. It wasn't anywhere near as cold as it was on Thursday and the skinning was nice and pleasant. We only saw one other group headed for Silverfork which pleased us. We only had to wait at the top for a few minutes before the others caught up. We then had a swee line down. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the snow after it has been over a week since our last big storm. We have had some small flurries over the week, but nothing major. But we still found some great snow and some great lines. We loved it so much that we had tot first make another lap. We skinned up and then Jer and I skied through a little bit of a couloir while the others skied more through the trees. This line was fantastic. My turns were totally on. I was able to really respond to the terrain well and it felt great. Jer's turns looked great as well. It was really a solid line. The others also had a great line and they were convinced theirs was as good as ours (it wasn't). We then skinned back up to the ridge one final time for our final descent down the South face back to the car. This line also produced surprisingly good turns. There was about 6 inches of fresh stuff on top of a crust so as long as you kept turning you could stay on top of it. We really did have some great lines today. The company was great. The skiing was great. We had a good pace all day. I am very happy with today's tour and I just love it when I nail the Tao!

Day 18 - Thursday Jan 17 - KIDS Incorporated

Sometimes I dream about strange things. Last night could be one of the strangest things I could have ever dreamed about. There was a television show back in the late '80s called KIDS Incorporated. I would have been around 6 years old when it was on tv. For one reason or another, last night while I slumbered this show was vividly replayed in my head. I was so excited that I remembered something from 18 years ago that I probably didn't get enough sleep because I kept trying to remind myself about this whole thing. By the time 4:30 rolled around I was ready to wake up and tell everyone about it. Jer picked my up at 5:00 and we met CJ, Matt, Paul, and Tom at the mouth of Little Cottonwood shortly thereafter. After having gone to Wolverine Peak on Tuesday, I was jonesing to head up and ski the chutes in Wolverine. So we did. We arrived on the top just as it became light enough to ski. It was soooo cold that there was little time to stand and debate which chutes to ski. I have always been nervous to ski Tips and Tails. It is called Tips and Tails because it is so narrow that when you turn your tips and tails will hit the cliff bands to either side of you. It is also considerably steeper than most of the chutes in that area. I did it. It was a lot of fun. The snow was pretty heavy, but for chute skiing it worked just fine. CJ and Paul also skied Tips and Tails with me, while Matt, Jer, and Tom skied Granny's Chute to the East. We then made our way back up Granny's and were hoping for another line only to find that time was running low. So we began to make our way back to the car. We were able to get some really sweet lines on the North facing, tree protected stuff off the Patsy Marley ridgeline. The snow was really light and with a little help from the wind it was fairly untracked. We skied out the gulch and back to the car. Jer and I did arrive to class a little late, but it was worth it. I have been wanting to ski that chute for some time and I am glad I finally did it. Even now I am still singing the KIDS Incorporated song in my head. I really don't know where that came from, but it made for a great start of a great morning.

Day 17 - Tuesday Jan 15 - The Season of Dawn Patrols

School started last week and so did the dawn patrols. I really want to try to get out nearly every Tuesday and Thursday morning. We will see. I went up this morning with CJ, Matt, Kai, Ashley, and John (?). It was nice to see Kai since I have been inviting him all year and this was the first time we have gone out together so far. We went for a longer than traditional dawn patrol and made our way back to Wolverine Peak. CJ led and I was able to keep up with him for a little longer than last time. Soon enough I will be leading him and he won't know what hit him. I had forgotten to bring a headlamp this morning so I had to stay close to someone with light or it got just a little scary. Kai and his friends were not far behind us on the skin up so we didn't have to wait for too long. We passed up the chutes. I don't know why. They looked really good. Maybe I should go back there and ski them soon. We skied the bowl on the north side of the peak a few times and then came back down the southeast side through some minor crust that was actually really fun to ski. You just had to do some jump turns and you were fine. I then had to hurry out of there and make my way to school. I dropped Ashley off at her house on the way since she had to hurry off to work. It really was a great morning. It was beautiful up top (although quite windy and cold) and the skiing continued to be great.

Day 16 - Saturday Jan 12 - Too short to be epic, but too epic to be short

Jer and I went up this morning for a shorter day since we had things to do this afternoon. There was another big storm last night so we were going to go where we could get some great turns. We headed up into Days Fork from the Grizzly Gulch parking lot. We happened to be the first ones there so we had to break trail the entire way up. This was super hard today because of all the new snow. It took us forever. We did eventually make it to the top and we got some great turns on the North face. My turns were really dialed in today and I was loving it. We then reconvened and began to discuss our plans of skiing several more lines back there before we had to go. It was at this point that I checked the time only to find that I had to be home in less than an hour and we still had to skin out of there. That was not the best thing to realize after we had those kinds of turns. Oh, well. We skinned back up and then skied down the South face back to the car. Even these turns were great. I really wish we could have stayed out longer today, but sometimes it just doesn't work out.

Day 15 - Thursday Jan 10 - Wow, that was fast

It has been snowing. The holidays are over. It was high time for a dawn patrol. I received great response to my inquiries yesterday for interested parties for skiing this morning. When Jer and I arrived at the Big Cottonwood parking lot at 5:10 I was expecting to see Cody, CJ, Evan, Matt, and perhaps some friends of Evan and CJ. After some waiting it ended up just being me, Jer, and the Codeman. I had not skied Circle All yet this year so we decided to do that. The "parking lot" at the Butler Fork trailhead required some shoveling on our part to be able to get the Jetta in, but we were surprised to see a couple other cars there already. It was while we were shoveling that we were approached by a dude saying his buddy hadn't shown up and he was looking for some ski partners for the morning. His name is Paul. We got the cars in and began to get ready when we noticed a sign from UDOT saying they were going to do some avy control work in the area in the next 24 hours. We decided we would be quick so we wouldn't run into any issues. We had a nice skin track to follow from those cars already at the trailhead. I really wanted to push myself this morning so I tried to skin as hard as I could. I made it about half way without having to slow down or stop. It was at this point that I began resting and then I was screwed. I still did alright for the rest of the skin up, but I do have a ways to go in the next couple months before the powderkeg (and before the half ironman this summer). We were on the peak even before there was enough light to ski so we hung out for just a couple of minutes until we could see enough to make some sweet turns. The skiing was great. The snow was soft. We were super fast in and super fast out. We were back to the car by like 7:20! We even had time to go to Molca Salsa for breakfast before heading off to class. Yeah, it was sweet. I was so excited for these photos because I thought they had just enough light to be way cool. Instead they are mostly just black. Oh, well. I hope you enjoy it all the same. These were taken from the peak before we skied down.

Day 14 - Saturday Dec 5 - Interpretations

After a short trip to 7-11 to get some chains for Jer's car, he and I headed up Big Cottonwood this morning on our way up to Mill D. There were some avalanche warnings in place so we went to one of the places we were confident with. We got there a little later than we had wanted, but we were okay with that - it is Saturday. We then began the skin up Short Swing. Don't be fooled by the name of this backcountry area. It is not that short. In fact, the skin up is actually quite long. It seems like you are climbing forever. You aren't, but it sort of seems like it. We were so excited because the weather forcast was calling for over a foot of snow and we were going to tear it up. During our ascent we discovered that this "foot" of snow was no more than six inches. Don't get me wrong, the skiing was great. It just wasn't all that we were hoping for. My turns never really clicked today. They were close, but not quite there. I just didn't hit the tao today. Maybe next time. Jer looked good, though. He was out on some rental Garmont Ener-G boots. He felt like they may be a bit too much boot for him, but we shall see. Aside from all my negativity, today really was a good backcountry ski day. Forgive me if I have brought down the mood of your otherwise delightful day.

Day 13 - Tuesday Jan 1 - And a Voile New Year

I went up skiing today with some of my coworkers at Voile. The original idea was that we were going to be joined by the Wizard of the Wasatch; but for whatever reason, he did not make it. I met Don at the mouth of Big Cottonwood at 8:30 and we then met Mark, his wife G, and two of their friends up at the upper Solitude parking lot. We then made our way back to West Monitor. Even at the beginning of the day it was hard to try to keep up with Mark (he is an ultra marathoner), but as the day progressed it became harder and harder. We arrived to find West Monitor completely untouched. We approached it with caution by kicking a few cornices and trying to set something off... nothing went. We then decided we should go for it. Mark took the first turns and then I followed. As you can see in the photos, West Monitor is a huge bowl with a ton of room to make a lot of turns before you reach the bottom. The snow was, once again, fantastic and the turns were nice and big to be sure I didn't sink. We decided it was too good to not make another lap in this same area so we did. This was equally as good (see the video of Don on his splitboard hauling down with huge waves of snow from his turns). We then went up to the next drainage to the west called McDonalds. If we had kept skiing down this we would have ended up at the Canyon's resort. This was not as long as West Monitor, but the turns were just as good. We took two laps in here before deciding to begin our descent back to the car. This also brought some sweet turns down Will's Hill and then a long traverse back to the uptrack. This was a killer day and I had a great time skiing with these folks. I look forward to doing it again.