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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    Was UT, AK, now MT
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    13,499

    1-1-11 Lone Peak-Big Horn Peak South Faces

    Not much of the partying type. I went to bed at 9:30 on New Years Eve, then got up at 5:00am to ski. Seems like more fun to me. But I'm old, so......

    6:30am start at Suncrest. Leaving the car in the millionaire neighborhood, start skiing from there. Freeze ass cold this morning above suburbia.


    Timp looking arctic.


    I've skied Lone Peak a few other times, always starting from Big Willow. Today we decided to skin up from Suncrest, which as it turns out, is a really long slog. Lone Peak WAY out there, in the distance.


    Where's the bluebird?




    When we got on the south face of Lone Peak, the sun came out. Good timing as fatigue starts creaping in. Sunshine is good for the mind and motivation.


    South Face of Bighorn Peak. We'll ski that later today.


    Timpanogos massif.


    If you were into photo slutting, you could do cool things here.


    Ninja on summit of Lone Peak.


    We had hoped to ski the east face of Lone Peak, but the winds had loaded just about every aspect up with a dense wind slab. Having already been rolled once this year, we decided to not push our luck. I skied it about four years ago. It's steep and committing, and not a place to screw around.


    We opted to live and decided to ski the south face. Fun, high elevation meadow skipping.




    We then traversed the ridge between Lone Peak and Big Horn, looking for a way into Bells Canyon.


    Conditions did not change. Huge wind slabs on steep slopes. No thanks.


    So we skied down the south aspects further.......good times.




    We got down a ways and decided to skin back up the south ridge of Big Horn Peak. I skied the upper 1/3rd of this line years ago in corn and thought it would be fun to do the whole enchilada today.

    Kinda tired at this point, but the sun is out, the weather is good, and here we are, so..........


    South Face of Lone Peak with the NE couloir visible in the shadows.


    We dropped a car at the bottom of Bells Canyon, shown here, but we couldn't safely get into the canyon without a much longer slog over to Chipmans.


    So 3,000ft of continuous fall line, high elevation meadow skipping in the middle of nowhere would just have to do.




    High above the Happy Valley and the town of Alpine.






    Across what is know as the "Second Hammongog".


    Gigantic south face of Lone Peak, which, by the way, slid out top to bottom during the last storm. The slide ran the full 3,000ft.


    A pleasant coast back to suburbia.


    It was a bit surreal skiing back into a valley of 2 million people. Skiing right to the McMansions.


    At the trailhead, some nice folks gave us a ride back to our car. The perfect end to an excellent tour. Best of all, you could clearly see our tracks off of Bighorn from suburbia. Not much better than that.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Denver-ish
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    963
    Very nice. Thanks for posting these up.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    Glasgow, UK
    Posts
    1,312
    This is sick! Been outta town not skiing for a few days, now I am stoked

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2005
    Location
    A Chamonix of the Mind
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    3,656
    Outstanding, looks like a proud day. Much better use of New Years Day than my crippling champagne and quail hangover.
    "Buy the Fucking Plane Tickets!"
    -- Jack Tackle

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Ventura Highway in the Sunshine
    Posts
    22,431
    Very nice TR, thanks for the post.

    I agree it is a constitutional right for Americans to be assholes...its just too bad that so many take the opportunity...
    iscariot

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    Ogden
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    9,107
    I need a day like that, some of my favorite terrain in the central Wasatch.

    I looked at starting at Suncrest for a Lone Peak Cirque day this summer, and although the elevation gain looks tempting I realized it was a long ways horizontally.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Two Thousand Leagues
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    1,014
    Yeah Derek! I'm jealous: standing around doing beacon drills on such a nice day was kinda painful for me today. Even moreso now that I see what I was missing. Good kickoff to 2011.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    Was UT, AK, now MT
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    Quote Originally Posted by zion zig zag View Post
    I need a day like that, some of my favorite terrain in the central Wasatch.

    I looked at starting at Suncrest for a Lone Peak Cirque day this summer, and although the elevation gain looks tempting I realized it was a long ways horizontally.
    Yeah, it's a long ways. But starting from Big Willow is five hours to summit with that nasty, potentially avy prone climb out of Big Willow. The approach today took about five hours as well and had far less avy terrain. The approach from Alpine would be five hours too, I'm sure.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Arrrvada, CO
    Posts
    1,165
    Great TR, way to get after it and start of 2011 strong!
    Quote Originally Posted by RockBoy View Post
    The wife's not gonna be happy when she sees a few dollars missing from the savings and a note on the door that reads, "Gone to AK for the week. Remember to walk the dog."
    Quote Originally Posted by kannonbal View Post
    Damn it. You never get a powder day you didn't ski back. The one time you blow off a day, or a season, it will be the one time it is the miracle of all history. The indescribable flow, the irreplaceable nowness, the transcendental dance; blink and you miss it.
    Some people blink their whole lives.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    tourin BC
    Posts
    2,773
    I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to forget new years party to go touring. Nice work!
    Solesides and I went to rogers pass and just as we got into the alpine the ceiling dropped and we had to leave without foto's.
    One day I'll get a T.R. worthy folder of foto's
    We, the RATBAGGERS, formally axcept our duty is to trigger avalaches on all skiers ...

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Nov 2009
    Location
    Great Falls, MT
    Posts
    205
    Nice job fellas. Lots of good pics. Thanks

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    PDX
    Posts
    633
    Really love that second shot of Timp- great, great light.

    Looks like a loooong but fun day

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
    Location
    Above the Clouds
    Posts
    169
    Very nice good shots!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Oct 2006
    Location
    denver
    Posts
    1,863
    looks like a great day
    I can't believe you are a rando racer because I look so much better in Lycra than you.

    People who don't think the Earth is flat haven't skied Vail.

  15. #15
    Join Date
    May 2004
    Location
    Colorado
    Posts
    5,917
    nice tr. ty

  16. #16
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    802VT
    Posts
    196
    Nice TR. great Pic's! Way to ring in the New Year!
    Feeling anxious, a little paranoid.

  17. #17
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    NorCal
    Posts
    2,573
    Nice TR! Bump for very good stoke!

  18. #18
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
    Location
    slc
    Posts
    17,891
    Nice, I've looked at that SW face of Bighorn many times from I-15.


    Quote Originally Posted by zion zig zag View Post
    I looked at starting at Suncrest for a Lone Peak Cirque day this summer, and although the elevation gain looks tempting I realized it was a long ways horizontally.
    It's not that bad in the summer. For one of my speedgoat training runs this summer I started at the BST trailhead at the bottom of Big Willow and went BST->Corner Canyon road->Jacobs Ladder to the cirque and back in 5:20. If you drove to the Jacobs Ladder trailhead you could probably be at the cirque in under 2 hours even carrying a pack full of trad gear.
    Last edited by Dantheman; 01-03-2011 at 01:44 PM.

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Somewhere around the west
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    2,587
    Yes!

    Way to get after it.
    Johnny's only sin was dispair

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    New York Shitty
    Posts
    269
    s-s-s-slog. Haven't been on TGR in quite a while and great to see awesome stoke like this near the top. really missing the Wasatch right about now.

    presidents day nearing..

  21. #21
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Baltimore, MD
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    5,667
    Quote Originally Posted by springsproject View Post
    This is sick! Been outta town not skiing for a few days, now I am stoked
    This is sick! Been in town not skiing because the mid-atlantic sucks, now I am heartsick.


  22. #22
    Join Date
    Nov 2004
    Location
    Seattle/Snowbird
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    1,007
    Thats a good mountain, that one there. I really wanted to get up on the E. face on my few days back. I'm glad that I can use windslab evidence as an excuse for lack of preparation and excessive alcoholic consumption.

    Do you really think that approach sucks a lot more?

  23. #23
    Join Date
    Oct 2003
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    Was UT, AK, now MT
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    Quote Originally Posted by powdherb View Post

    Do you really think that approach sucks a lot more?
    I enjoyed the approach from Suncrest for the following reasons:
    1. It's closer than driving to Alpine
    2. It's very scenic, with your objective always in view.
    3. Less avy danger than the Big Willow approach with no booting.
    4. Approach time was about 5 hours, which is what the Big Willow approach usually takes.
    5. It's different.

    Trade off is the short scramble from the south summit to the start of the east face line. Sometimes it can be a little spicey, but not too bad really.
    Last edited by Trackhead; 01-03-2011 at 05:11 PM.

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