Day 8 - Saturday Dec 15 - Just Right

The stars aligned therefore allowing me to have a long tour today. Cody and Jer met me at my house this morning at 7:30. We then met a friend of Cody's, Seth, at the mouth of Big Cottonwood at 8. We knew we were going to have some time today so we wanted to choose an area where we could go for a long walk. We determined that Mill D would be a nice place. I brought my two pairs of Insanes for R&D. The one pair is mounted about a half inch forward of the other pair. Jer and I were going to try to figure out what difference it made. None of us had been been past Short Swing in Mill D but we decided we would do a little exploring and go a little further. It was not until after our return that I found out that we had gone into the Desolation Lake drainage, but let me just say that this was not desolate in the least. The skiing was fantastic. We eventually found a line that we were excited to ski and skinned our way up. After reaching the top we dug a few snow pits and concluded it was okay to ski. I took the first line to the first safe spot and it was sweet. My turns were on and the snow was great! The others followed and we then were able to ski all the way to the bottom of the line. I was just feeling longer and wider turns at this point for some reason and they were a lot of fun. We arrived at the bottom and quickly prepared for another lap. That was too good to wait for the second round. The skin up took much less time this round thanks to the previously laid skin track and less chatter between Jer and Seth. At the top we ran into a lone ski tourer named Craig. His wife had dropped him off at the Spruces parking lot (where we parked) and he was making his way over to the Canyons where he worked. He gave us a little info on where we were, but did not know what that specific drainage was called. The second line we took was even better than the first. It was at the bottom of this run that Cody and Seth pulled out their homemade "goos." They were simply a mixture of butter, chocolate, and just about any spice they could find in their cupboards. Yeah, it sounds disgusting. However, it really didn't taste that bad. We didn't waste too much time because we were having such a good time. We made our way back up the skin track in order to get back down the south side on our way to Short Swing. We had to navigate our way through a little bit of a boulder field before we reached a batch of aspen trees that were perfectly placed to allow for optimal snowfall, protection, and room for turns. These were some of the best turns of the day. We then skinned up and past what Craig called Powder Park Near and then on to Short Swing. By this time it was about 4 o'clock and we only had daylight for this one last run. Short Swing is one of my staple runs for high avy danger and it was great today. The snow got a little sparse as we neared the bottom. We had to ski through a little brush which produced a few humorous falls coming from each of us. The run out of Mill D past the cabins and back to the road is always a rough one on the legs. There is just something about that luge style skiing especially having just had ski toured for eight hours straight with little to no rest that just pushes your legs over the edge. We did make it to the car in time to get back down and I was able to get to Stacy's company Christmas party. Yes, it was a wonderful day.

Day 7 - Saturday Dec 8 - Too Deep?

After yesterday's excellent skiing, there was not much that was going to keep me out of the hills today. I had a super busy Saturday ahead of me with the ward party and everything so I had to find someone to dawn patrol with me. Lucky for me, Jer is also a sucker who has to do a bunch of stuff on Saturdays. We met at my house at 5:30 and then made our way to the canyon. Before arriving we decided we were likely not going to have much luck getting up the canyon with all this snow. So we stopped at 7-11 where we picked up some chains. I have to say that I was rather surprised with the added traction these gave. I am stoked I have them now. We got up to the hill around the same time as a couple other groups, but I imagine they were headed out for longer than we. We went up into Grizzly to pretty much ski the same stuff I skied yesterday. It turns out that today wasn't as easy as yesterday. The snow was too deep for this line and all we ended up doing was swimming down the mountain in snow up to our chest. We felt as though we could find a line that would better suit our needs and we skinned back up to a steeper section. This was tricky because we had to find something that wasn't going to slide, but was still steep enough to actually turn on. We found it. Our second line was fantastic. We had good momentum and big pillows of snow just bounding over our head every turn. My goggles were all fogged up by this time so it was difficult to see, but I just went Karate kid style (although just with my eyes closed - I wasn't quite blindfolded) and still got some sweet turns. It was saddening to discover that the time had come for us to be on our way. We are suckers for having to leave this for ward parties. Oh, well. On our way down we ran into the PowderWhores on their way up. I spoke to one of them for a minute and then we made the rest of our way down to the car. Really it was a sweet day. I have to apologize once again for the lack of photos. I know I promised photos on this one. The batteries were dead when I first pulled it out to use it out there. I did take a couple with my camera phone so if any of you are dying to see photos from this day you can send me a text message to which I will reply with a photo or two. Peace!

Day 6 - Friday Dec 7 - Negativity is For the Birds

I must apologize now for the lack of photos in this post. I was just too far from home this morning when I realized I had forgotten my camera. I understand what a disappointment this may be for some of you, and I sincerely apologize. I will do my best to have extra cool photos from tomorrow's tour.
Anyway, I had difficulty getting partners for this morning's tour. Has responded immediatley that he was in, but CJ, Luke, and Jer were all slugish and eventually said no. They were all negative about the conditions and they are total suckers for it. I met Has at the canyon at 5:15am. I was surprised to see two other groups of dudes arrive at the same time once we arrived at the Grizzly Gulch parking lot, but we did end up going to different places so it didn't matter. We made our way up through the cabins and onto the Patsy Marley ridge. It wasn't until we were finally reaching our destination that we began to see enough light to be able to ski. The first run down was a good one for me. Some snow was moving, but nothing major. It was just the new snow that was moving and it was going so slow it was unlikely even to mess up my sweet turns. The snow was surprisingly deep. Has followed and we made our way back to where you either head back up the ridge or back down to the car. We looked at the time and at the snow and made an executive decision to put our skins back on and get another run in. This one was even better. It was really good out there today! We were very close to heading up for one more run, but Has had to be to work by 9. Instead, we just skied out and back to the car. This morning was good enough to convince me that doing a dawn patrol before I had to be anywhere tomorrow was totally worth it. I will see you then.

Day 5 - Saturday Dec 1 - A Day To Be Remembered

After the storm in the middle of this week Jer and I decided we would head out today. We then saw last night's storm coming and there was no way we were going to miss it. The avalanche forecast done by the Utah Avalanche Center that was posted yesterday afternoon was very mild. Bruce Tremper called for low danger with some spots of moderate on certain aspects particularly in wind affected areas. This was promising, but I knew better. I knew that the layer beneath this week's snow was week and was not likely to hold the new stuff very well. I had this premonition confirmed when reading what the Wizard of the Wasatch had to say so we made sure to be very careful out there. We tried to get out a little earlier than we suspected everyone else would so Jer picked me up at 6:30. The only problem was that neither of us have a car that is four-wheel drive and his Jetta was not doing super great even on the flat roads in the city in the new snow. We took a little detour over to Jer's parents' house to borrow their X5. We could not even get his car up the hill to their house. We had to park it on the side of the approaching road. It was very kind of Neils to allow us to borrow his car. Needless to say, we ended up getting started a little later than we had planned. We were finally headed up the canyon around 7:30. There were a bunch of people up in the Grizzly parking lot as we had expected. We tried to get going as quickly as possible. We were surprised and joyed to find that we were the first ones to be heading into Grizzly Gulch and up on the Patsy Marley ridge from this storm. Most people were going to skin over in the closed sections of Alta where I assume they must feel more comfortable. We traded off breaking trail and we were not rushing anything as we were not in any huge hurry. We were passed on the ridge by Andrew McLean (the world's premiere ski mountaineer) and his touring partner who were thankful for our skintrack and were kind enough to then lay one for us for the rest of the way (notice the photo of Andrew's urine). Our original plan was to go into the Patsy Marley bowl, dig a snowpit, and preferably ski it. This changed when we saw the natural slide that had occurred in the bowl before our arrival. Just for educational reasons, we dug a pit anyway in an area that was very representative of the area that slid. We found that underneath the new snow from this week was a meltfreeze crust on top of loose facets to the ground. The top layer slid very easily and this information did not exactly instill confidence in us and our desire to ski this line. So we adjusted our plans. We took our skins off and headed back down the ridge a little to an area that we were confident in due to its lower angle and tree growth. This proved difficult for both Jer and I to ski. I found myself putting too much weight forward and therefore my tips kept diving. I soon figured it out and got some sweet turns the rest of the day. We skied back down to the area where the skin track begins up to the ridge where we put our skins back on and made our way to the top (only after discussing the snow conditions with a group of people checking things out). We did not traverse the ridge this time. We just skied the area just West of the first open area on the ridge that has become a mainstay of our backcountry skiing repertoire. We found this to be stable enough to ski and we got some sweet turns in it. I have to say the these were the best turns of the year so far. I was really happy Jer got some video of at least one of my runs because it was great out there. We took a couple laps in here and then decided it was probably time to head back. It was 12:15 and we both had things to do at home. The skiing was great. The exercise was great. I really enjoyed digging a pit again and remembering all that I learned from last year. I can't wait to get out again!

Day 4 - Wednesday Nov 28 - Undercover Powder

Well, it finally snowed. I wasn't going to pass this up. Unfortunately, the people that would go with me (myself included) could not spend too much time out today so we had to figure out a way to get some turns in early and fast. We figured one more time skinning Alta would satisfy these requirements. When we arrived at Alta around 5:30am we discovered that beginning today they were closed to uphill traffic. We did not have time to go anywhere else... so we went to the side. We skinned and skied through the trees. It wasn't as good as it could have been had we been able to go up into Ballroom or something, but it was good nonetheless. I enjoyed the company of three fine skiers: Has, Luke, Sarah, and CJ. The new snow was about 12" deep in spots on top of an icy crust (and a few rocks that Has was kind enough to uncover for us). We were quick to make a few laps before it got too late and before anyone from Alta could give us a hard time. It was a lot of fun, though. Can we just talk about how great it is to be skiing powder again? It feels like it has been so long! Looking back it was Friday, April 20th that was my last powder day. Yes, it has been a while. I look forward to a few more like this soon.

Day 3 - Saturday Nov. 17 - Girl You Know It's True

Cody was at my house a little before 9:00am this morning. We wanted to get a little later start because we simply have not been receiving precipitation lately so we wanted what was up there to warm up a little. I received a phone call around 9:10 from Jer saying his car had been broken into over night so he was going to be a little late. Being the understanding soul that I am, I told him it was no big deal and we could wait. When he arrived he was still determined to drive the three of us up to the hill so we threw a towel over the glass where Cody was going to sit and we were on our way. I suppose I should have expected Jer to have deliberately wasted some time this morning... after dealing with the cops and everything with his car, he then took the time to find his old stereo and (somewhat) install it. We had to play around with it for a while in order to get any sort of reception, but once we did it was pure gold! Notice the radio station on the screen - that's right, Movin' 100.7. We were especially pleased to hear the soothing sounds of Milli Vanilli - Girl You Know It's True on our journey (follow link to get the full effect). We decided to once again just skin Alta in order to actually be able to ski on snow. This time, however, we skinned up to the top of Collins instead of Wildcat. Jer and I were both happy to have Cody out on telemark gear today. He bought some boots a little while ago at a ski swap and I was more than happy to lend him a pair of skis and skins. He did quite well. We were all very impressed. I think even he was impressed and he wants to definitely do this again. (You know what I think? I think he is converting. He is too stubborn to say it himself, but I think he will fully come to the tele side of things by the end of the sesason.) We were able to find some soft spots up top which took a couple turns to get used to, but once you got in a rhythm it was actually pretty good skiing. We pretty much just skied all the way down while trying to traverse or whatever else in order to get the best turns. It really was a pretty good day out there. I need to start finding opportunities to do it more often so I can get back into shape. I hope you all recognize me in the final photo on this post. Yes, that is me. I have gone green (my coat has, at least). But don't think you will only see me in this jacket from now on. Those of you that are keen watchers of the backcountry scene may just see me in a certain December issue of Backcountry Magazine in a full page ad for Voile. Just watch for it.

Day 2 - Saturday Nov. 3 - Jibbing

Despite the lack of snow in recent weeks, Jer and I made our way up to Alta this morning. We knew there wasn't going to be much up there, but we wanted to get out. It had just been too long. We were debating between skiing Silverfork, Cardiff, Grizzly, or Alta. Since the others were going to require a substantial hike in with out the aid of skins, only to find crappy snow conditions, we decided upon Alta where we could skin the whole way to find crappy snow conditions. We skinned to the top of Wildcat and found that once we reached the snow that was in the sun, it was soft enough to actually be pretty fun skiing. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't great, but I can honestly say that it was the softest snow I have skied since July. We were both happy with our turns. Things are looking up for this season. Skiing down the rest of the mountain was just as we had expected - frozen, hard, and choppy. It certainly was a good time, however. It was fun to be out skinning and skiing again. I know I said that last month, but I just love it. When we reached the bottom, there were several groups of kids jibbing. They were going off jumps, doing rails, and this traffic barrier that was on the mountain. Jer simply could not pass this up. The following three video clips are Jer's three attempts at rail sliding the traffic barrier (notice the Gifford boys from my ward in videos #1 and #2).