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.