Porter Fork Trail

Trying to avoid the "Considerable" risk on the UAC avalanch rose but still needing to do 3,000 feet+ elevation gain and wanting to bring the dogs, I went to Main Porter Fork in Mill Creek. You start at the trail head at 5,960 feet and you end up at a bit below 9,300 on north facing terrain that, in regards to avy risk, is "steep enough". Incidentally here is what the UAC avalanch rose looked like this morning:

As you can see the limit of "Considerable" on north facing terrain is 9,500 feet so this tour was kind of OK if all you want is to limit yourself to "Moderate" risk.

In any case Mill Creek was as delightful as always. The temperature was 9 degrees F at the start of the tour but no wind so not too cold. It was a bit more overcast than the weather forecast led us to believe but still more than pleasant enough.

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Jana working her way up

Your's truly with Skadi in the foreground and Loki behind me.

The originator of this impressive slide path seems to thankfully be purging
as the storms come and go.

Looking north a little below Main Porter.

A backcountry dog's life... Skadi got just in front of my tips in the powder
on Main Porter. She ended up at the vet getting stitches and is now
"grounded" for 14 days. She is going to hate beeing left behind
when Loki gets to go skiing.

Iron Mtn 12-26-2016

This is one spot I haven't been to in years (ever since The Colony has taken over and built houses and roads all over the place). This used to be a great little local outing. Today if you do the ridge line you'll get a bit over 1,000 feet elevation gate before you hit the development. You can double that by taking a sharp left, then summiting Iron, go east for a bit and pick one of the three bowls. In any case, yesterday I needed to test my legs and health coming out of a longish flue so Iron would do for the job at hand. Being out with two dogs and seeing the crowds on the Iron Mtn trail I decided to almost immediately take a sharp left and skin up the ridgeline. This came with the additional benefits of getting into the sun sooner (it was only 5 degrees F yesterday morning), and a more relevant "leg test" as you here have to break your own trail. There was a fair amount of really dry cold powder and this little mini-outing turned out to be a lot more pleasant than expected. The test also worked out great: I am officially not ill at all anymore (at least not physically..). Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Iron Mountain as seen from the Pinecone ridge line.

The dogs (Loki & Skadi) as excited as ever.

A fair amount of snow for being just 8,300 feet.

Empire Powder

This was a few days before this last storm and the conditions were already absolutely excellent. Jana and I went out for a couple of easy laps from Deer Valley Empire Lodge to Empire Express. Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Nice turns in Empire bowl.

Jana working here way up Supreme.

Snowmobile track all the way up Supreme.

Looking down on Empire Express top station.

Jana on top.

Giving Thanks to the latest storm

The season's first outing with Mike was to Empire Express top station from the Empire Lodge (next to the Montage). Elevation gain is 1,350 feet and we did three laps so a bit over 4,000 feet elev. gain before lunch. For the first lap (that started at 8:00 am) we were pretty much alone and had to break a fair amount of trail as today we were first to the Empire Express top station. On the third lap (past 10:30 am) the lower half of the hill was crowded, it felt like we were sharing this thing with another 100+ people. Here are a few pictures (click to enlarge):

View of Jupiter Peak from Empire Express top station.

Mike transitioning to the downhill at Empire Express.

Skadi hydrating...

...and Loki thinking about it.

Winter Wonderland - LCC

Today I went back to Alta Collins expecting pretty much the same conditions as last time. How wrong was I? Really, really wrong I am glad to say. This last storm made a huge difference. Everything was skiable, there was good powder everywhere and all the snow machines were limited to below the Collins angle station. A picture being worth a thousand words, here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Mt Superior looks a whole lot better than just two days ago.

Cardiff Pass

Toledo Bowl

On the way to the north shoulder of Mt Baldy.

I'll just call this one "magic of  winter."

Crossing over from the Wildcat area going
towards Germania Pass.

Looking back on my turns off the north shoulder of Baldy.

Below Sugarloaf from Germania Pass (aka Collins top station).

Training the zoom onto Twin Lakes Pass.

1st Ski of the Season!

I went up to the Alta Collins base today and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could skin from the parking lot. Had one of those “stolen winter days” where everything around you tells you it really is winter, the wait is finally over. The wait has not been as bad as it seems, my first ski this year is only 12 days later than my first ski last year. It is true that the two years prior I was able to ski in October but then those two years turned into pitiful seasons while last season was quite OK. Here is to hoping that two late starts in a row translates into two proper seasons (or better).

I skinned to Germania Pass (top of Collins lift) but the snow up high was just insufficient for any real ski so I Nordic skied down on my skins and went across and up to the top of Wildcat. From there I again Nordic skied down but only to the Collins angle station as from there on the skiing was good and fun.

So what do you get out of a day like that?

1) A snow day

2) Lots of skinning

3) Average turns

Number 1) requires no comment. Number 2) gets you exercise while enjoying the Sub-Arctic flora, and 3) is amazing as everyone knows that bad turns let alone average turns, are a ton better than no turns at all!

Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Snow straight from the parking lot!

'Tis the season for a fair amount of service road action...

Limited but decent skiing opportunities

It looks like this is yet another year where the resort is
going to open before Graet Baldy chute is in condition...

...but thanks god Suicide chute is still there to
take up the slack.

I have passed here a million times (take or leave...) but
until today never noticed the indian head in profile.
Look inside the oval on the ridge-line and  look for the
nose then you'll figure out the eye and the mouth.

ARE WE THERE YET?!!!#@$%!!!!

OK, so we already have two false alerts here and here. Is this going the be the one? Is this going to be the week that we remember as launching an amazing 2016/2017 season! This horribly delayed start of the season is really a cruel and unusual hardship. There are two reasons it is almost survivable 1) we did not get a regular shoulder season monsoon so pre-season training on the hill never got interrupted, and 2) last year was a later start than the two prior seasons yet it was a much better winter than the two prior. This means there is still hope for an amazing 2016/2017 season!

Her's the forecast (click to enlarge):

Second September storm (and the 3rd one is in the chamber)

What a difference a couple of days can make! The first picture below was taken on Sunday the 2nd (two days ago) and the second picture was taken today. The last picture is a screenshot of the Alta webcam today at 10:35 am. It shows Mt Superior and you can see a longish white line going from the ridge line down towards the middle of the base; that's Suicide Chute.

Our next snow storm is due to start tonight and last through Wednesday and Thursday.

Could that be the one that will yield the season's first ski? Stay tuned... Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

Jupiter East Bowl Sunday 10-2-2016

Jupiter East Bowl Tuesday 10-4-2016

Mount Superior Tuesday 10-4-2016 at 10:35 am

Winter Hike in September

What makes this a winter hike? I don't have to carry water for the dogs. Today Skadi didn't even look at the water I gave her on top of Jupiter Peak and Loki took a sip only because I told him to.
So we went to Jupiter to explore the snow conditions and also take a few shots into Big Cotonwood and get a sense of where they are at with their snow cover.
Here are the pictures (click to enlarge):

First glimt of Jupiter from top of Payday.

Clayton Peak and 10420 from Jupiter ridge line.

Mt Woolverine and Woolverine Bowl from Jupiter summit.

Mt Raymond from Jupiter

Sampson, Comstock and Hawkeye.

Jupiter ski patrol hut.

Jupiter P-Zone

Brock has moved in to PC from Michigan two weeks or so
ago and he is looking to make this place his permanent
residence. I had the honor of guiding him on his first
oxygen-less yet successfull summit bid on
Jupiter Peak today. Great job Brock!

Windy Ridge in the Uintas.

First Snow of the 2016/17 Season!

The forecast guarantueed it and we got it! These are pictures taken from Payday at the Park City resort (Click to enlarge):

Jupiter with his head in the clouds.

McConkey's.

The Uintas.

Lewis Peak (far right at about 9,200).

 See Suicide chute. Another 3 - 4 of these storms
and that becomes skiable...

This is clearly off topic today but if you checkout the
largest lower left branch, you can see that it is
"growing two pines"...

...and here is a close-up of the two pines with the right
hand side one more clearly visible than the other.