Situating yourself in the Catherine Pass area

This is obviously a down day (as in no skiing) since I have time to mess with the pictures I took yesterday. In any case, I like this composite skyline picture as it helps one get situated around Catherine Pass relative to the surrounding peaks. The picture was taken from Dry Fork (barely into it) just south of Alta’s Supreme lift top station (click to enlarge).

Rocky Point

Today’s tour, the 20th ski of the season so far, was all about the touring as the skiing was mostly not that great. The snow was a mix of very wind scoured on top and on other less predictable places with a mix of supportable – unsupportable crust and some sugar that made for the best skiing. Having said that there were a few good turns to be had on some of the north facing steeper shots provided you really center punch them to avoid the rocks. To the left is a picture of a shot just below Rocky Point, note the wind scoured band on top (click to enlarge). See the view looking up Catherine pass, I guess there is a reason we call it the Rockies...

Catherine Pass Nov. 27

Although the number of available pre-season training spots is rapidly diminishing, high in Little Cottonwood there is more than enough snow to tour and get those legs prepared for the season. It is true though that this season seems to, at best, be a late bloomer. I heard an unconfirmed rumor that we are having just 20% of the normal precipitation for November, kinda depressing if true… In any case, got a nice tour yesterday up to So Long Meadow and Catherine Pass. Skinning is no problem and skiing is in this chalky kind of snow but still fun although lots of it is tracked out by now. The whole area between Brighton and Alta included is holding a fair amount of snow past 9,500 feet. See pictures below (click to enlarge).

Black Diamond does it again

As you can read in my post of the 25th I broke my pole while skinning at Deer Valley. This is a pair of Black Diamond carbon poles bought back in 2005. The upper shaft is aluminum and the lower part is carbon fiber to keep the weight down. They also have what BD calls a “Flicklock closure” that ensures the ability to adjust the pole length when transferring from the up-track to downhill skiing. Although they don’t actually give them away (count about $100.00+) this has been a great product and as far as I am concerned a great value. With that level of attachment I was a bit apprehensive about the prospect of having to buy a whole new pair just for breaking the one (typically the case when it comes to ski poles). And if they would agree to sell just a lower shaft, I knew they kinda had me over a barrel – talk about captive audience… And what would that do to pricing? Well I went down there yesterday and not only do they sell just the one half of a shaft but the price was just $15.00 for what amounts to the better part of a quarter of a pair of poles. It is in moments like this that going with the slightly higher priced vendor with the superior product and service is completely rewarded. This is not the first time I get superior service at BD and that is also why they have been listed under the preferred vendor since the very beginnings of this blog; They are listed under "The Whippet Resource Center", see first link to the right under "Useful BC links".

Polarizing training in Deer Valley

The window of opportunities for pre-season training spots is rapidly shrinking. Between PCMR opening on Friday the 20th, Alta that shut down the Wildcat base access for opening prep and practically no snow up high by Empire Express, spots are getting few and far in between. We really need the mega storm to come in now... So today, in desperation, I went to Snow Park (Silver Lake access was temporarily blocked for snow making). The training round went from Snow Park to the top of Bald Eagle Mt. (which is just a 1,200 feet elevation gain). This is all on artificial snow some of it frozen solid.
Skinning up I unwittingly stuck one of my poles in a small ice hole, bent it over too much and snapped it in two (see picture to the left, click to enlarge). This is the first time ever that happened to me. I will get down to Black Diamond and see if they will sell me just the bottom carbon part of my pole and report back the outcome of that.
Ever wondered what a legendary Deer Valley grooming looks like in the pre-season? Wonder no more, here is what all those endless hours of work look like before it becomes an overnight grooming Success:

Winter wonderland

Saturday’s storm was a fizzler and Sunday’s did not seem too impressive on paper but boy did look good high up in LCC! We  (Mike, Richard and I) went up to so long meadow for just one lap and then went on to the Catherine Pass area skiing under Rocky Point and Sunset Peak. There was up to two feet of the really cold fluffy stuff, phenomenal lines, and almost no people and even less rocks. This is the real deal, the actual winter wonderland, who could ask for anything more?! See for yourself below (click to enlarge):

Pre-season training at Deer Valley

Since PCMR did in fact open today, I had to do my pre-season training session at Deer Valley. I went to the Empire Express base to skin up to the lift top station. That’s about 1,400 – 1,500 feet elevation gain. That is as much as you can do right now provided you are ready to hike some of it while carrying your skis. On the way down you will have to “Nordic ski” part of it on your skins and still walk some. The “variable” snow cover, as in snow, rocks, branches and the rest, makes it absolutely impossible to ski any of it unless your skis are throw a ways. The good news is that it snowed consistently there and over Big Cottonwood so hopefully that will add up to some sort of measurable result. However, unless we really get a lot of snow tomorrow, I will try to skin up from Silver Lake for my next training session on Wednesday. In the mean time here are some of today’s pictures:

Pre-season training at PCMR

Today I went back up for another pre-season – lunch hour (call that an extended lunch hour…) training session at PCMR, including these training sessions I am now up at 15 outings so far this season. I get to skin up from the First Timer parking lot, through Homerun and up to the Payday top lift station. That’s about 1,300 feet elevation gain. That is as much as you can do right now if you expect to ski down all that you skinned up. However if you need to extend your work-out session and you are ready to face “variable” cover (as in snow + rocks+ branches + all the other unidentifiable if not unspeakable stuff) then you can skin all the way up to the top of the Crescent lift. This will give you close to 1,900 feet of elevation gain. Of course if the resort really opens on the 21st, as scheduled, then this training terrain will be gone just two days from now… In the mean time here are some pictures taken today (click to enlarge):

BC Rendez-vous at Alta

Yesterday (November 15) I went back up to Alta to reap the benefits of the last storm. Judging from the up traffic it was clear that although I may have been solo, I wasn’t alone. My guess would be that no less than 300 people were on Baldy yesterday. By the time I left at about 3 pm the parking lot was almost full.


Snow conditions were beyond good. From about 9,600 and up there was about 7 – 8 inches of really light powder on bomber proof (as in no avy issues) crust; in short the snow was amazing (minus the rocks but they were a lot fewer than lately)! For the first time this season I saw signatures on the Sugarloaf side. They started from above the Sugarloaf top station skiing down and under the lift and continued down towards the Albion base. It seems pretty certain that Alta is not going have to take any of those Thanksgiving cancellations.

Not really chuting blanks

Mike and I went back up today to Baldy determined to finally ski the Great Baldy chute before Alta opens and the chute closes... We left PC at a comfortable 8:30 and were on the trail at 9:30 and up on top at 11:40. General conditions were excellent with, at least today, a minuscule avy risk if that. I don’t know if it is because the weather reports showed cloudy, cold and potentially stormy conditions but early on there was practically no one there. Only a party of two got to the chute before us so we still had phenomenal conditions; a few inches (maybe six) of cold smoke over hard crust (beats hard rocks…). In any case once on top this thing was even more inviting than usual. We got our helmets on (you are surrounded by granite in there) and went down cautiously at first but soon realized that these were playground conditions! To the left; yours truly, to the right: Mike himself. As a bonus we then got to ski the Ballroom that was in a beautiful condition.
It really feels like winter up there although there is probably not too much good skiing available on the Sugarloaf side of the mountain. Because Alta has been making snow down the Collins run, that is right now the only functional ski out option.
Being first at the Collins top for lunch, we got to squat the sunnyside terrace of the ski patrol, including bench and all. Below please admire Mike, its-a-dirty-job-but-someone-got-to-do-it, Florence:

Lambs Canyon access to the Mount Air area

You may have noticed that a long fence is being set up along the I80. This is obviously to protect us and the wildlife from each other. Some of us more paranoid BC skiers immediately will see a threat to BC access at Lambs Canyon to the Mount Air area. Being no less paranoid than any other BC skier I had to stop at the Lambs Canyon exit and see for myself. Well I am happy to report that UDOT, once again, is doing a great job for the BC community! For those who are not aware of this, I am saying “once again” because UDOT is also the agency that does all the avalanche control on the Utah roads that need it. We benefit because, as an example, they shoot up Mount Superior to protect the road which benefits us as this is a degree of backcountry avalanche control. So thank you UDOT! Now, back to the Lambs Canyon trail access: We are good because the fence goes along the trail in its lower portion and opens up well before the Lambs Canyon parking lot (click pictures to enlarge).

Alta forever - at least in the pre-season...

Had another pre-season workout tour in Alta. This is really the only spot I know in the central Wasatch that has a continuous 2,000 feet plus cover right now. As usual the conditions and particularly the snow were better than expected. The most significant take home with that is probably that it is high time I adjust my expectations… In any case there was more and better snow than I thought considering how warm it has been since last time I was there, see picture to the right (click here to see that post). Today the resort was making snow on the upper part of Collins (see left picture below). They have also been working a path from the top of the lift down to the parking lot. Seems like Alta is working hard at avoiding those pesky Thanksgiving cancellations that happen when no lifts are open… As an aside note that although Superior has hardly any snow at all, Suicide chute is hogging the beginnings of a stash (see right picture below).

Wasatch Tri-Canyon Series: Big Cottonwood

Under the influence of yet another hopelessly long and high high-pressure system I feel compelled to launch another series of posts. October was avy airbag month; November shall be about the structure of our wonderful and irreplaceable central Wasatch. The tri-canyon area (click on picture to the left to enlarge) is of course made up of, from North to South: Mill Creek Canyon, Big Cottonwood Canyon and Little Cottonwood Canyon. This first post in this new series focuses on Big Cottonwood Canyon.

Big Cottonwood Canyon, in the Wasatch Range, includes two ski resorts, Brighton and Solitude, and about 7 – 8 drainages, on each side of the road (see schematic to the left), that were like made for backcountry skiing. The road up from Salt Lake City to Brighton is about 15-mile long and is oriented from west to east. The uppermost drainage to the North is Willow Creek and the uppermost one to the South (out of resort boundary) is Silver Fork. For touring purposes the southern Big Cottonwood drainages can be efficiently accessed from Little Cottonwood Canyon (you start higher and so gain some “free” skiing). To do that the UDOT ski bus is a fantastic resource. You can drop a car at the 6200 South bus stop or the one at the Big Cottonwood base and just take that bus up Little Cottonwood and then just pick the Big Cottonwood bus down at the end of the day. Some classic tours in Big Cottonwood are: Mt. Raymond, Kessler Peak, Reynolds Peak, West Bowl (upper Silver Fork), Cardiac Ridge and Bowl (upper Mill D South Fork) and many more.

Below are some potentially useful resources if you are planning a tour in Big Cottonwood:

Utah Mountain Adventures (tours guided by professionals)
Backcountry Skiing Utah (Falcon Guide, author: Tyson Bradley) 
Wasatch Tours: The Northern Wasatch (Volume 2)
The Official Wasatch Mountain Club Trail Map
Wasatch Touring map 1 by Alpentech
UDOT ski bus