Day 36 - Thursday Feb 28 - It Pays To Get Up Early

I went to Built to Spill last night at the Depot. I am not the concert goer I once was. I found myself wishing that the openers would just stop playing so the headliner could come out, play, and then I could go home and go to bed. Not that I had a bad time. I actually had a good time, and I thought Built to Spill played a great set (the openers were a different story, however). No, I just really like being in bed around 9:30 on weeknights these days. This may do nothing but show how old I am getting, but that's just the way it is. I was very tempted to call off the dawn patrol for this morning. I decided that would be a foolish decision and I would rather get out there on three hours sleep instead of not skiing at all. Jer picked me up at 4:45 and we were on our way. I was unclear as to whether or not Matt was going to meet us at the mouth of Big so we hung out at the parking lot for a few minutes and then continued on our way. It was at this time that CJ (whom last night said he would not be joining us) sent me a text message asking where we were going. I told him White Pine and he said that is where he was headed. Apparently, a friend of his from BD had called him and talked him into skiing this morning. I suppose Ben has greater powers of persuasion than I. Either way, we skinned straight up Scotty's for two quick laps up off the peak. The skiing was actually really good and the scenery was fantastic. During our first run I took a couple of photos of Jer skiing and noticed the opportunity to take a really cool shot from the other side. This was our goal for our second lap - to get the shot where Jer is skiing and the Salt Lake valley is behind him. You can find this shot directly to the right of these words. I think it turned out really well. All in all, I really am glad I got up early this morning. I just hope I can last the rest of the day without totally crashing. On ski.

Day 35 - Tuesday Feb 26 - Midterm Exams

I was debating whether or not to ski this morning since I have midterms in every class I am enrolled in today. I decided that skiing would be a good way to relax and get my test-taking juices flowing. It turned out to be more than that - a bitchin' morning! Jer slept through his alarm so we had a little later start this morning as he picked me up around 5:30. Since it was just the two of us we headed straight up to the Butler Fork trailhead. We had to dig a little in order to get his car in, but not much (one of us really needs to get an all wheel drive car). The ascent was swift, but not super fast. The sun seems to be coming out remarkably earlier nowadays since we had light for most of the actual climb (not so for the approach). Has and Matt Cline caught up to us just as we were about to descend. It was nice to see them out, but we couldn't wait around since we were trying to get a second lap and they only had time for one. I finally got my GoPro Camera in the mail yesterday so I was stoked to use it. I was busy studying last night so I didn't have the chance to test it and make sure I did everything right, but I figured it couldn't be too hard. I turned it on to get some first person footage for the first lap down the trees. The skiing was great. The snow was deep and light. I couldn't figure out how to stop the video so I thought I was getting video of our quick transition at the base of the hill and for the skin back up. This skin was much faster. The powderkeg is fast approaching and I need to push myself to get into shape. This was a great opportunity to do so since I know Jer can keep up. We quickly arrived again at the summit and then skied off the south side and back down to the car. These turns were just as good as the north facing stuff. I don't know how long this will be the case, however, since the sun will be beating on it all day. It really was a beautiful morning. We got to the car, dug a little to get the car out, and we were on our way to school. With a little studying during the drive (or what little studying I could do with Jer's incessant gabbing) I was able to do well on both my tests this morning and I hope to do so again this evening at my final one. During lunch I tried to check the video on my new camera and I found that I must have installed the SD card wrong or something because it didn't have a second of footage on it. Oh, well. I am sure I will get out again soon. Hopefully I will have time to test it out in my house before getting it out on the hill. Peace.

Day 34 - Saturday Feb 23 - A Day Out With the Wizard

Things all worked out this weekend and I was finally able to get out with Mark (from Voile), G (his wife), Mark (a different one), and Bob Athey (the Wizard of the Wasatch). I have been wanted to get out with these guys for some time, but they usually go for their long tours on Sunday so it just doesn't work out for me. However, this week the better snow was to be had on Saturday so they sucked it up and decided to get out today. These guys all have so much to teach me. In particular, I was happy to ski with Bob today. He has been backcountry skiing the wasatch since 1975 and he just knows so much about the terrain, the slopes, and the snow. I really have not met anyone who knows more about the wasatch snow pack than Bob does. I was able to glean a few bits of knowledge from him today, but I hope I can get out with him more and continue to learn. We first climbed from Little Cottonwood up Pole Line Pass to Little Superior and skied Little Superior Buttress. G went to the side and got a little video of the rest of us making turns down it. This was a good sized line and proved to be some really great skiing. Bob was on a splitboard testing a new product Voile is putting together. He is a great tester as long as you can deal with all the complaints (but I suppose that's the whole point of testing, right?). We then skinned our way up to the peak of Superior. I have wanted to summit Superior for some time now and just haven't done it. Well, I finally did it today. I still want to ski the South face, but today we skied the Northwest face - Noah's - into Mill B South. This was another new line for me and was a lot of fun. We then skinned our way back up to Cardiac Ridge. Let me just say that all the complaining I have received from friends about my steep skin tracks no longer holds any water. The skin tracks we cut all day were at least as steep as I cut them. I no longer feel bad for Jer and his low climbing bars. We skied back into Cardiff from the ridge. There were so many people back here that we were lucky to find a fresh track for each of us. This proved to be the longest continuous backcountry line of my life. It was a blast. I really want to get back there when there are not as many people around. By the time I reached the bottom my legs were hammered from making telemark turns. Bob took a little detour in the middle to take some photos and get some data from a new snow avalanche that had occured earlier in the day. We then made our way back up Superior (although we did not summit - we just went to a small notch in the ridge that led us back into Mill B South). We took a short run into here and met at the bottom. On my first turn of this run I hammered my knee on a rock. Let me just say that I 100% support the use of kneepads when telemarking. I would not have much of a knee left if I had not been wearing them. Instead, I have a little bit of a sore knee, ripped pants, and a gouge taken out of my kneepad. We took a little break at the base here and G got some sweet video of Bob reading the back of a Raw Revolution bar - coming from him it was very funny. We then skinned up to the Room of Doom and skied down into Mineral Fork. Bob knew just where to ski in order to avoid possible dangers. I was very impressed. He took a few photos as we skied and got some great turns. It was here that I got the shots of him first decending through the Room of Doom and then making a nice turn at the base. This then led us to ski Santiago where we skied on top of some very soft avy debris still providing pleasant turns. Then we continued on to run it all out to Big Cottonwood canyon. Other than the first year I did the Powderkeg, this was my first multi-canyon tour. I had a blast. I was able to make it home in time for Stacy's grandma's birthday party and everyone was happy. The skiing was great, the company was great, and I look forward to doing it all again soon.

Day 33 - Thursday Feb 21 - What? No Dawn Patrol?

I sent out the standard Monday/Wednesday text message yesterday saying, "Dawn Patrol Tomorrow?" No takers. At first I was bummed out, but then I thought, "Nah, I guess I can just sleep in a little and get to class on time." I realized I had made a mistake when I finally awoke to the new snow on the driveway. I was not super excited to see that and now be out skiing. I went to class at 9:10 for a review session. The teacher was not prepared thinking she was going to be bombarded with questions. This was not the case, and class only lasted 7 minutes. I then made the executive decision that I did not need to attend my second class and I was on my way up to the hills. I called Kai and to my surprise he actually said he was in! I picked him up at his house and we went up to ski the Patsy Marley ridge once again. This is a quick line and I needed to be to work by 1. Kai has not been touring a whole lot this year so his prep time, skinning, and transitions aren't exactly the fastest in town, but I was still glad he made it out there with me. I began my line by jumping off the same cornice I have dropped many times before. However, it was a little different this time after all the snow and wind we have received. This was probably a 20 ft drop. I didn't land it super cleanly, but I was stoked I did it. There was only like 3 inches of new snow on top of the old stuff. The skiing was fair, but not great. We did the one lap, then traversed over and skied down and out the gully for a few more turns. I was feeling bummed out that I didn't go this morning and I am now feeling good about going out a little later.

Day 32 - Tuesday Feb 20 - What Are We Doing?

Against our better judgement, Jer and I did a dawn patrol this morning. When I awoke at 4:15 and as we arrived at the Grizzly Gulch parking lot around 5:30 I wondered what I was doing awake and why I was not at home in my warm bed with my beautiful wife. The snow has not been falling consistently for the past little while, so we knew we had to hit some tree protected north facing slopes in order to ski the goods. We decided upon the Patsy Marley ridge. By the time we reached the summit for the first lap it was still rather dark outside. Light was just beginning to peer out from behind the hills and it was beautiful. Our first lap was rather dark, but we have skied this line so many times in the past that we knew where we were going. I wanted to hurry up for the second lap because the sky was beginning to really get pink and I thought I may be able to get a few cool photos. I wasn't looking for ski photos today because there are tracks everywhere you look back there right now. No, I wanted some stand around photos with cool light and perhaps some shots of Superior at dawn. The bummer about the Superior photos was that I shot too much sky and not enough mountain. I do think the other photos turned out cool, though. What do you think? The skiing was actually pretty good. The snow was nice and soft. It wasn't untracked utopia, but it was good nonetheless. After all was said and done, I really am glad we got out today. I got some exercise, we had some great views, and even got a little bit of skiing in.

Day 31 - Saturday Feb 16 - Free After Three

Stacy met me up at Alta at 3 this afternoon to get in some turns on Sunnyside. We have decided that telemark is too hard to try to learn in the backcountry, so we want to get some lift assisted time. We had time for only a few runs, but I have to say that she improved immensely from the first run to the last. We began to see what was throwing her off and we are on our way to fixing it. She is really the first person I have attempted to teach to telemark and I am doing my best to do so with patience and humility. This is easier than I thought since I really do enjoy being out there with her and I hope in the not-so-distant future we can spend some longer days together in the backcountry.

Day 30 - Saturday Feb 16 - The Chuting Gallery

Some of you may have noticed that I have borrowed the title of this post from Andrew McLean's book of the same name. It is because of this book that we even know the names of what Luke and I skied today. I have had my eye on a few chutes in Wolverine Cirque for some time. I have skied some back there before, but there are many more I have not yet tackled. Today was set apart as a day to check a few more off the list. Luke and I headed up around 8 this morning with our first objective being the Scythe. This chute begins at the top of Wolverine Peak and is one of the longest chutes in this area. The entrace got our hearts pounding a little which only continued with excitement once we started skiing. This was a really fun line. It had wider sections, skinnier sections, and everything in between. I really expected to see more people back here today, but it appears we were the only ones with this idea. Visability in the bowl was rather flat making really nice turns a little difficult, but the chutes were solid. We then skinned up Granny's for our second descent down Bronco Chute. This is one we looked at from the top on our way to the Scythe and determined it would be fun to ski. So we did. There was nothing terribly special about this line, but it was fun nonetheless. We skinned up again and this time skied another chute I have been looking at for some time - the Zoot Chute. This one looked cool because it has a hard right turn half way down the chute and it gets super skinny on the bottom half. It was super cool. I really had to drive my turns hard in order to keep a rhythm down it, which made it a lot of fun. We caught out skin track one last time and made our way back to the summit. We then skied down the south side into Alta. This did not prove to be our best idea of the day. There was a death crust that made for some difficult turns. We skied down and met up with some family friends of Luke's then we took a few runs in Alta with the help of the lifts before I was to meet Stacy for "Free After Three." The snow really wasn't great today, but we found some terrain that was fun regardless. I have wanted to ski these chutes for some time and I can now go into my copy of "The Chuting Gallery" and mark off three more chutes. He told me to "ski 'em all" and I am slowly on my way!

Day 29 - Thursday Feb 14 - Valentine's Day

My dear wife is certainly my valentine, but coming up in second place this year is skiing (no offense, mom). I was worried that this past week was going to have a long lasting negative affect on the snow pack. This was not the case. We got dumped on yesterday afternoon through this morning which made for some pretty great snow. I met Matt and his friend, Ben, at the mouth of Little at 5:25 (we were all running a little late due to the weather). We all drive 2-wheel drive cars and I happened to be the only one with chains so it was my turn to drive up the canyon. I was very pleased to see that the White Pine parking lot had been plowed already this morning. I was half expecting to have to drive right past it and park and ski somewhere up near Alta. Instead, we were the first car to arrive in White Pine. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Allow me to explain... a good thing because we were going to get the first choice of turns up there; a bad thing because we had to break trail and none of us were familiar enough with the area to be super confident we could even find the trail. Well, we were right. Breaking wasn't all that bad, but we got lost several times trying to find the right place to lay the skin track. I kept saying that I thought we were too low, but they thought we were too high (later we found out we were too low, but I don't say this to boast). We did finally get to the Pink Pine ridge and we were on our way. There was a group of three dudes right behind us that had cut the correct skin track but were still unable to completely catch up in order to get first tracks. While skinning up the ridge we saw some interesting things happening with the snow. The wind was blowing from the east which was loading the northwesterly aspects. The top layer of new snow would crack, but nothing would move. We took this into account as we chose our line. We skied one of the first skiable lines off the ridge on a northeasterly aspect. The skiing was fantastic just like it has been all year. We were getting face shots on every turn again. This was very reassuring after the snow we dealt with over the weekend. We skied down to the skin track then headed up for another. The three dudes skied down behind us and headed back to their car. Then two old guys past us as we were transitioning. We caught up with them on the skin track, but we skied different lines. The second line was just as good as the first. I simply cannot complain. I had a great morning making some sweet turns. Happy Valentines Day to all and to all a good day.

Day 28 - Tuesday Feb 12 - Is This Suicide?

Jer and I met Codeman and his friend, Marco, at the mouth of Little Cottonwood this morning at 5:15. We still have not received any new snow so we decided to ski something a little more adventurous. I had not been up to Suicide Chute since last winter and I have been eyeing it all year. Today was the perfect day for it. The skin up the apron was simple enough - the snow was bulletproof allowing for easy travel on top of it. It wasn't long before we reached the base of Suicide. Now let me clarify something - with the snow levels so low last year, I agreed that this chute should be named something a little more intense, but with this year's levels it looked more like its original name, Country Lane. Marco had his skins stolen recently so he was on some old skinny skins that just were not getting the job done. Cody tried to help him out any way he could, but eventually Marco decided to sit it out as we continued to the top. Due to the hard packed snow, we were able to skin nearly to the top (with a small boot pack to get on the ridge). I have to say that I was very surprised to see about three inches of soft snow in the more shaded and wind protected areas. I thought that was not to be found anywhere in the Wasatch. I was wrong. We found it! We spent a little time on the summit basking in our coolness and transitioning our gear. Then we enjoyed the fruits of our labors and got some killer turns down the couloir. Sometimes I forget how much I love chute skiing. This was a ton of fun. My turns were really solid. My legs were exhausted by the bottom due to the necessarily powerful nature of the turns, my long tour over the weekend, my run last night, and my overall weakness. Marco was able to get a few turns on the bottom half of the chute and the Superior apron, but he missed the best snow and the best turns. It's a bummer for him, because it was a blast.

Day 27 - Saturday Feb 9 - I Like to Ski

It finally happened. Today was the first day since the season really began to take off that I found less than desirable snow in the backcountry. It has been super windy at high elevations for the past few days and it has really messed up the snow. We were, however, still able to have a good time out there despite it all. Jer and I met Luke at the mouth of Big Cottonwood around 8:15 this morning. Initially, the idea was to ski Twin Peaks today, but due to the wind we decided against it. We chose, instead, to ski Bear Trap. Unfortunately, none of us had ever skied in Bear Trap thus making it difficult to find the trailhead. I had a general idea of where it should start, but was relying on seeing an obvious skin track to lead the way. We never did find said skin track so we decided to head up into the Monitor, McDonald's area again. I was really struggling to keep up for some reason on the first climb but thanks to a remarkably disgusting pack of Chocolate Outrage Gu, I was able to get the needed energy to push forward. The wind was howling when we reached the top of West Monitor. We went through a few steps to test the stability of the bowl and then decided to drop in. It was not the easiest snow to ski - particularly with the lack of visibility. Basically, I had to stop relying on my sight to determine my turns and rely on the knowledge I had of the open bowl and the feel of the snow. This proved to be quite effective and I got some pretty good turns out of it. We had to cut our own skin track out of West Monitor since no one else had ventured to ski it since all the wind had blown it out. We then took two laps into the Easternmost line in McDonald's as it appeared to be the most protected of lines available to us. The snow conditions were about the same, but visibility was much higher. We then took a third lap into McDonald's but this time a little more West and this turned out to be some pretty good turns on a line none of us had skied prior. By this time, some people (who shall remain nameless) began to get a little tired and were thinking of calling it a day. I had been asked to keep Jer out for a full day so Mallory could get things ready for his surprise birthday party tonight so I encouraged one more North facing run. We had never skied South Monitor so we thought we would give it a shot. While the snow was no different in this area, we all had the best turns of the day coming down this line. Perhaps it was the fact that we had finally become familiar with the snowpack or perhaps it was the fact that we were just all so determined to nail at least one run. Either way it was a good line for all of us and I can only imagine how good it would be when the snow is nice. The skin back out was interesting seeing how it brought us through some very dense trees - this brought a bit of adventure to our day. We then made our way to the summit once again and then down through the Western trees in USA Bowl. We were all really dialed in by this time and had a lot of fun in these turns. The exit was another exhausting bobsled-type run that just pushes your legs to the limit of their capacity. We got in the car just in time for the resort traffic and had the opportunity to chat for some time on the drive down (as if Jer didn't chat enough on the hill today). It really was a good day. The snow was subpar, but we were able to make up for that with the exploration and adventure aspects of today's tour. Peace.

Day 26 - Thursday Feb 7 - A Backcountry Morning

I just don't get it. We are right in the middle of the best snow year I have ever skied and my regular touring partners are nowhere to be found. They really need to get their priorities straight. Luckily, I have made a few friends in the past couple years that I enjoy skiing with as well. I met Matt Young and two of his buddies, Cody and Eric, from Backcountry.com at the mouth of Little Cottonwood this morning at 5:20. The plan was to ski Pink Pine, but Little was closed due to avalanche danger. So we headed to Big. We were the fourth car at the Butler Fork trailhead so I expected to see a few others ahead of us. It didn't take us long to overtake them on the skintrack. It was still a little dark when we summited for our first lap, but by the time we transitioned there was just enough light to really get some great turns. I did, however, manage to miss seeing a small, snow-covered tree stump about half of the way down the hill which threw off my turns just a bit. The skiing was... you guessed it: amazing. We were in at least a foot of fresh powder and soft snow under that. I got just a little bit of a brainfreeze coming down from all the faceshots. We quickly put our skins back on and began the uphill push knowing we totally had time for another lap. By the time we reached the ridgeline this time it was totally light outside although we were not blessed with a beautiful sunrise this morning due to the cloud cover. We decided to ski down the East face which leads more directly to the car. I had never skied this line before and it was great. It was quite a long line with some good steep skiing. There was a bit of a wind crust on top of the ridge, but once you dropped in just a little the skiing was just as good or better than the other side. We got to the car quickly and packed up. Knowing I have been consistently late to class this whole semester, I decided I would just head straight to class. This got me there 30 minutes early! What's the story with that? It's a good thing I had Sudoku to keep me company because no one else was there.

Day 25 - Tuesday Feb 5 - Super Tuesday

Jer met me at my house at 4:45 this morning. Since Eric called me last night and informed me that he was not going to be able to take me home from school, I decided to drive today. We met CJ, Has, Matt Cline, Mark, and Evan at the mouth of Big Cottonwood. After some deliberation, we decided to ski Flagstaff and we were on our way. There was another group that got to the trailhead right when we got there, but they were headed a different way. When we began skinning we did not realize we had started our skin track right on top of a car that was completely covered in snow. We made sure not to scratch it, though. We traded off breaking trail with several requests for me to continue since I was on some prototype Asylums that are 126mm under foot. But it ended just like it always does - with CJ taking the brunt of the work. We took our first lap down into Days Fork which was great. I do have to admit, though, that this super wide ski with no sidecut is less than ideal. I just had a hard time getting it to turn like I wanted it to. I felt like I was bullying it around all morning when I was supposed to be just riding it out. I still managed to get some great turns, however. We then skinned back up to the top with the help of a skintrack by some dudes that had followed our skintrack on the South face. Evan, Jer, and I then traversed a little East down the ridge and found a great South facing line to hit. It was beautiful. The light was really cool and we really got some great turns. I don't even know what to say. I feel like every time I go out I am using the same adjectives to describe it. I guess you really just have to be out there to understand that this is the best winter in the Wasatch I can remember. The snow just keeps coming and my turns have never been better. If you have the means, I would highly recommend getting out there.