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