Thread: Wasatch Conditions 11-12

A bit late on getting this photo up but took a walk up into Thomas fork about a week ago on the 9th to ski a chute on the backside of Triangle peak. Got up to it at about 10am and it skied pretty well aside from the pow being a little hot but couldn't complain had a great time checking out a new area. snow was definitely pretty wet on my exit but other than that no problems

A little video to go with it:

Originally Posted by Millsie

Does anybody explore farther north? Between SLC and Ogden? There is some good looking stuff out there.

Yea looks sweet eh? Too bad the majority of the land between city creek and i84 is private property. Never heard of anyone skiing anything around there, but maybe some do. Well people ski upper city creek in big years

I know that sick Terrain above Morgan is private and not friendly to trespassers or that's my understanding. I think you can ski the west face around the telescope above farmington. Maybe someone can clarify..... if you ski something up there be sure.to report back!!!

The Farmington Cnyn road accesses some good terrain, but last I heard it's so damaged from spring runoff last year that it's open only to a much lower point than in previous years. It normally stops a few hundred vert short of the west ridge and skiers can access Bountiful Peak, which has some good looking skiing on the east side. Lots of snow machiners use the area.

Originally Posted by Adski

Lots of snow machiners use the area.

http://utahavalanchecenter.org/accid...w_peak_1292010

Sounds like WPG goes up there sometimes, too. Not as far as Farmington, but north of Parley's.

Brutah, that was my first thought too that it was private. With so many in LCC and BCC I figured some of the areas would decrease pressure. Not far to travel.

tuesday we skied red baldy. it was really wet and then got a little spooky as we heard then saw naturals pull off of lake peak and white baldy.... poor visibility made for an interesting descent especially with new snow slides rippin.

yesterday we got higher than anyone else in the wasatch, but still didn't get to the top. couldn't find a safe way out of the top of the NW coulior and it got socked in as we were trying to find a way out. nice 1-2 foot wind slab in the upper section, q2-q3 on the release in tests. no sluff or anything moving on the descent. not a full refreeze up there. some pics







bailed on today's plans and glad we did, ended up trying to ski wolvy but due to poor visibility bailed on that too. sure is funny skiing in the heart of the sheep pen after not going there for the past few months. people are funny. snow was variable today, but some alright turns were had.

NEEEEEEBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOO

Love the Neebs.

heffnasty, there are no good lines up that way... We bushwacked up North Fork about a month ago, I imagine Thomas was similarly bushy.

It's a few days old by now, but is worth a mention in this thread... I was fortunate to tag along with the venerable slcsherpa on Lone Peak for this gem on 4/18, maybe even a first descent?



http://slcsherpa.blogspot.com/2012/0...15228847530035

Any Wasatch historians know anything else about this line?

Also, a couple great posts regarding the Superior S Face incident from 4/12, from the Samurai himself and his partner that day, the Sherpita...

http://slc-samurai.blogspot.com/2012...lusions-i.html

http://jasondorais.blogspot.com/2012...l#comment-form

A party of two ascending high on the E ridge of Superior triggered a wet slab avalanche @ ~2 pm today. The slide was apparently sympathetic to a couple rollerballs, and it stepped down to the most recent brown snow, probably the MF crust from prior to the 4/12 storm. The crown looked to be about a foot deep and about 20'-40' off the ridge. It spanned most of the broad ridge in between Superior and Little Superior, probably 100' feet wide, entraining lots of dirt and rock, and running halfway down the lower apron of Superior.

The hourly average temperature between 1 and 2 pm today was 69 degrees, FWIW.

I watched that go down today and pulled out the binoculars find the cause, only to see two people on the ridge just above the crown.
Although it looked as though they unintentionally started it with a couple normally harmless rollerballs.

You have to wonder what was the point of being there at all during the heat of the afternoon of one of the warmest april days I've ever seen in Alta?

2pm?

Nice corn around 9:30a.

Originally Posted by Johnny Deep

2pm?

Nice corn around 9:30a.

Yeah thats WAY too late the conditions wouldve sucked. The few i saaw coming down early Sunday AM (like 900) looked to be skiing about 2" of what looked to be perfect corn.

Originally Posted by awake1563

It's a few days old by now, but is worth a mention in this thread... I was fortunate to tag along with the venerable slcsherpa on Lone Peak for this gem on 4/18, maybe even a first descent?

Nice work, but:

From there, we debated climbing out of the cirque and descending back into Big Willow or heading along the Draper Ridge and eventually angling skier's right to meet up with the Crow's Feet and the lower Big Willow Drainage. We opted for the latter

Hahahahahaha!

Between 9 &10k skied surprisingly well on sheltered north aspects this morning. Poor visibility above 10k just about the whole time I was out.

^^^sheltered aspects were key yesterday. wind was moving around alot of snow. w-sw skied pretty good late afternoon. a little wind affected but fun. couldn't get anything to move w/ ski cuts although felt pretty slaby.

Originally Posted by awake1563

It's a few days old by now, but is worth a mention in this thread... I was fortunate to tag along with the venerable slcsherpa on Lone Peak for this gem on 4/18, maybe even a first descent?



http://slcsherpa.blogspot.com/2012/0...15228847530035

Any Wasatch historians know anything else about this line?

Also, a couple great posts regarding the Superior S Face incident from 4/12, from the Samurai himself and his partner that day, the Sherpita...

http://slc-samurai.blogspot.com/2012...lusions-i.html

http://jasondorais.blogspot.com/2012...l#comment-form

Interesting read for sure. Hope AS sticks to his new game plan. Probably live a lot longer. Maybe his partner should read his blog post. Interesting the slight but key differences of the two perspectives. First aid kit? Surprised neither carries one. Smart advice to listen to the mountain and not your ego. FWIW, I started playing a lower stakes game once I had children and never looked back. I want to ski with my kids and grandkids. Still plenty of turns to be had and a lifetime to accomplish what one can. Play it safe dude. Thanks for the honest sharing of your experience.

Between 9 &10k skied surprisingly well on sheltered north aspects this morning. Poor visibility above 10k just about the whole time I was out.

skied NE in days the down was great.. the up, not so much...

beautiful day yesterday. n facing sheltered still holding some creamy pow. by the time we skied w/nw sunny terrain, it was pretty heavy and set off 2 small slow moving wet slides. i won't mention our s facing exit other than there was some booting.

massive deep slab behind cardiff - little superior saddle northfacing rocky terrain. maybe 600 feet wide 6+ feet deep.

Originally Posted by smuggs

massive deep slab behind cardiff - little superior saddle northfacing rocky terrain. maybe 600 feet wide 6+ feet deep.

Did it look to be a couple days old maybe? I was standing over in the sugarloaf area at alta sunday and we heard what sounded like a monster slide over in that general direction...Ill bet that was it cause we couldnt visibly see anything but wow...boy did you hear it.

Thanks for the update.

This?



massive?



not in cardiff.

nice pictures wra, holy cow!

hiked to sugarloaf /alta last night...2 hrs early for the moon;but, a pitch blach ,headlamp req,ice run will get some blood pumping.Top 1/2 skied very well ,for the firmness....lookout on the bottom 1/2 . HAIL ULLR

anyone of the everyone who traded skis for mtn bikes want to check the status of cold fusion tomorrow ? wed ?