WASATCH STOKE, CONDITIONS, OBSERVATIONS and ASSORTED DRIVAL 19-20

[snowaddict91]

Yeah, not sure I care to spend an extra $200 per person to ski solitude 5 or 10 days. I forgot the ikon base doesn't include JHMR either.

[Dshack89]

Yep, agree. I really get very little value from the Ikon pass. Particularly given the Solitude parking situation.

The biggest dick move I'm seeing though is Snowbird is only giving a flat $60 refund if you had days remaining on a 10-pack. Those days should just be rolled over to next year or at least give a per day refund. That is highway robbery.

[mall walker]

could be a nice way to get into upper white pine as the lower bit of that trail was looking grim on my last drive down canyon. wouldn't mind skiing the stuff off twins/red stack either. socially distant mag party/raid?

[snowaddict91]

Yep, agree. I really get very little value from the Ikon pass. Particularly given the Solitude parking situation.

The biggest dick move I'm seeing though is Snowbird is only giving a flat $60 refund if you had days remaining on a 10-pack. Those days should just be rolled over to next year or at least give a per day refund. That is highway robbery.

I'm on a roll today. Forgot about the parking situation too lol.

That is straight BS on the 10 day.

[SJG]

Note you cannot get a refund, you can only get a credit on purchasing the jacked up prices for next season. Effectively 0 credit. Snowbird are crooks.

[brutah]

-Not reopening, uphill allowed starting Saturday

the bird may not have been allowing uphill skiing, but they never mentioned downhill







okay maybe we did do a little uphill....

[schindlerpiste]

I was up at Alta on Monday. The snow at the Bird looked much better than the ribbon under Collins that we skied down. At least, the Bird snow looks clean

[getoutside]

the bird may not have been allowing uphill skiing, but they never mentioned downhill

^^

[BobMc]

I’ll gladly pay the extra cash for the base Ikon, canyon closure day I’ll be strolling up to Deer Valley and be skiing pow on the fringes of the resort all day. Fuck that sitting in traffic shit. Night skiing five days at Brighton after work, or six, they’re not real clear on that. Soli skiing parking in the secret spot. Sign me up.

Only thing I don’t like is the crappy fine print. Read the terms and conditions... If you use your “free Cliff Lodge room” or ride a lift/use your “free two all day activities passes” they dock your refund, quite heavily. The Cliff Lodge “free room” takes $100 off your “renewal credit” of $150, riding a lift this summer or using the activities passes takes $25/day off your “refund.” In other words they monetized the “free” Wasatch Benefits.

Edit.

Ok, I’m an idiot, that only applies if you want a refund in December

[skiATL]

Been busy, so it's a little late, but had helluva weekend.
Dresden Friday:

Don't have many pics, but Dresden is def one of my favorite lines. Cliff band was skirted on skiers left with a short downclimb. Wish we could have taken it through the bottom cliff band with a rappel (seeing as how we brought a bunch of heavy shit), but it was too late in the day, so we opted for the traverse out. Will def go back next winter again.

Montgomery Saturday:
Saw this little dude on the White Pine road, took him a minute to exit off so we could pass. The main skinner is getting a little rough with several small sections without snow. Not the worst for going up, but going down would be a pain.

We ascended the sliver and walked the ridge over from there. We slung a big ass boulder and rapped from there into the chute, prob about 45-50m. Pretty cool rappel at the top.

The chute was weird mix of icy snow, refrozen corn, and very past prime corn, not super conducive to turns. There were two sets of anchors on skiers left, and the upper anchor was bomber. This is another one Ill have to come back for in better snow. The rappel out of it is likely my favorite rappel in the wasatch, except for maybe Hellgate.


It was a little rough going from White Pine to Hogum two days in a row, but at least we know the Hogum exit trail pretty well now. We joked about starting from White Pine for our objective Sunday.

The Ribbon Sunday:
Snow was good, soft and edgeable for the most part. With our group of 4, it took us about 6-7 hours to get across the dang thing. We encountered about 4 bolted anchors, but with all the gear we brought, the anchors weren't actually that bad.

It was pretty cool scootin along

Chilled at belay stations for a while too

The exposure was pretty in your face

Approaching the block

The block was devoid of snow, but manageable, and you really had trust your hands. Rwalk was a badass and dry skied around the block. I was jealous of the time and stress saved by not transitioning.


Whoever skied this line is super badass. Wish I had gotten a pic that showed the bottom of the line, as it's pretty impressive. The cool thing on the ribbon are these cool views you can't really get anywhere else.

We ended up continuing past the normal descent option from the Ribbon to get up to Devils Castle Couloir. The extra excursion brought some actual turns, and an exit out in the dark.
Really fun, exhausting weekend, and big congrats to non-mag Will who completed the Chuting Gallery. Looking forward to a long day on Kings to finish myself.

[tgapp]

dang skiATL, well done!! badass!

[Dshack89]

That's pretty incredible skiATL, wow!

And LOL at you calling someone else's line badass while you yourself are halfway across the ribbon.

[mall walker]

badass. go get kings man!

[Boissal]

Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit man, that's a lot of exposure in 3 days...
I got mad FOMO when I saw the name Montgomery, that fucker rejected me 3 times this year. Good to have more beta on the raps at least.

[snowaddict91]

Nice work man! Helluva weekend.

[D-Roc]

Nice Work ATL! How did Hypo look?

[Xover]

In bigger years that East Castle Chute line goes straight and fills in that bare cliffband. It's a fun one for sure!!

[rwalk]

Nice Work ATL! How did Hypo look?

From what we could tell the top part is done, no way to ski through all the rocks. Below the usual rocky section still looks good though

[rwalk]

SkiATL nailed it with his write up so I won't be too repetitive, but I decided to suffer a little harder and get out on Thursday as well. The summit of Lone is a long ways up from the valley floor! First time making that slog was fun, especially with the snow line nearing 9k up Big Willow.





On day 3 (Saturday) I made a quick turnaround to ski and re-boot the Sliver before walking over to Montgomery since I hadn't checked that one off the list. Stepping through rocks, prickers, and bushes in the top section was slightly less enjoyable than the lower 80% of the couloir, which was great corn

The Ribbon definitely has a lot of exposure!


Sadly, though, the fun had to come to an end. After cleaning the Ribbon we booted up to the top of Devil's Castle to finish things off; and as I went to step off the transition platform to drop into the line I lost my balance, tumbling down a bit and snapping a ski in the process. Had to walk all the way to the bottom of DC before skiing out the groomer on one ski. No pics of the carnage unfortunately.

Despite that, I'd say 5 out of 6 is damn good when those 5 are NE Lone, Dresden, Sliver, Montgomery, and the Ribbon over 4 days!

[brutah]

Well done skiATL! that's bad ass! good luck on kings!

and glad you only broke your ski in that tumble rywalk, probably could have been much worse.

[skiATL]

Thanks yall.

DShack, lol, I know, and it was kinda funny as all of us were staring at it while on the ribbon (you have some time to chill at belay stations), commenting on how sick it looked. Gotta give credit when credits due.

Boissal, dang, thats rough. We were really lucky with the weather this last weekend, which we had to stack up everything since the weather didn't work most of the weekends earlier in the year. Anyway, Mont is super rad, and it's pretty cool that it curves down there. Would def ski it again next year.

Xover, Ill have to check it out next year during mid winter. Looks like a great one.

rwalk, my bad. I def didn't do a good job explaining he went hard in the paint 4 days in a row, and I would also count DC since you ended up making a turn up high above the rocks/cliffs. Ill def go back for DC next year to get it more filled in for more fun.

[Mudfoot]

FOUND a SMART PHONE while climbing around in the Cirque at Solitude yesterday. Looks like it was probably dropped by a skier and sat there for a while. Don't know if it works, but PM me if you think you lost it.

[JongDoe]

Has anybody told skiatl that he's insane? I shit my pants just looking at those pics.

[SJG]

that's radder than MTBing down Main Chute

[getoutside]

^^ that's some killer work skiatl!

some phenomenal smooth spring skiing today. was saving all my bird tickets to ski with the 10 yr old after solitude closes so, first time skiing the bird this year. beautiful morning. zoom to gad 2 to red stack and put a nice smooth one down at 8:45 to the left of brutah’s line the other day. fun skiing. just sat for 15, enjoying the weather, and just watching others making their way along that ridgeline or struggling up a frozen regulator. beach skied really good so back up to take a look at pipeline. skiing looked good but lots of people hiking up and with some pretty good numbers skiing down on them, i passed. skied pipeline bowl from the rock at the bottom of the chute into rasta chutes before heading back up for another. skied hoop’s or whatever tf its called and that also skied well. they ran a one lane groomer from above zoom, like at alta, so exiting was 600 turns at mock speed and was a blast. fun to be back at the bird.