TR-La sals, skiing in Moab!
pics and vid at the bottom!
I just got back from spending two and a half weeks in Moab, skiing, biking and climbing. it was originally supposed be a six day trip, but I was having way too much fun. plus I got a bunch of water in the engine of my subaru and ruined it. but thats a whole nother story! for now I'll stick to the epicness that was skiing in the La sals.
the access is great, its less than an hour drive from Moab to Gieser pass parking lot. that road is plowed all winter and it gets you right to the edge of sollid snow pack. skin from the lot for about an hour to an hour and a half to get to the top of pre laurel peak. this is just the start of the day, we went to this peak every day no matter where we were headed, because its the best way into either drainage, and you get to ski into your drainage of choice, with even sicker lines. so this first peak, is pretty much a bonus. from that peak I ski'd 4 other peaks, all very very worth skiing.
on this map I dotted our up routes in green, and our skiing in red. the yellow is the way back out that was a bit of up and down but pretty mellow and easy. we took the same approach all three mournings, and two of them we ski'd off of pre laurel peak, down into gold basin and then back up to Mt. Tuk (Tukuhnikivats) one day, and Little Tuk another day. the third day, we continued on past pre laurel up to Laurel peak, and ski'd a sweet little shot off that, and then back up to the top of mt. Mellenthin for yet another sick descent.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...ntheLasals.jpg
mt. Tuk on the left with little Tuk on the right- I marked out descent routes in red. we rapped that cliff in the middle of big Tuk.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...tukwroutes.jpg
here is a pic of big tuk from the bottom. you cant really see our tracks coming into the cliff, but you can see them exiting for sure.
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...aineer/TUK.jpg
here is Kate on Rappel
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m.../kateonrap.jpg
another pic of kate on one of the "bonus runs" off of pre laurel peak in the mourning. i like this shot cuz you can plainly see moab in the background. (o and btw, the approaches were so quick, and this spring has not been so hot, that we never left the cars b4 9am! and we ski'd till 5 one day and it was never manky!)
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...ateskimoab.jpg
me skiing off of Laurel peak, with mt Peale in the background. mt Peale is the biggest peak in the range, and pretty much the only one we didnt get around to skiing. it has a really sick looking direct line on the north face with a massive rappel on it that might need to get done next year tho!
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...laurelpeak.jpg
my tracks down Mt. Mellenthin
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...ltmellanin.jpg
a couple bonus photos
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...uptheridge.jpg
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...opturnstuk.jpg
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...jbshreddin.jpg
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...eskiingtuk.jpg
Vid, the first line in the Vid is off of Little Tuk, the second line is off of Big Tuk, and is a bit chopped up and edited because we had to stop to build anchors and shit and the rappell was kind akward so i sped it up for your viewing pleasur. o and then there is some head cam of climbing splitters down in indian creek. the name of the route is Jolly Rancher and its this sickest climb i've ever done. fyi.
I dont know why i can never get vids to embed. but heres my attempt, and just a regular link to the vid. sorry
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