Wasatch 22/23 - Gondolas, grooming highboy, and other comical anecdotes

[criscam]

have an alta sunday rez i'm not using if anyone needs.

[crankplank]

has anyone been to PC on a weekend lately? I am probably heading over to ride with my visiting cousin and dont want to blow it on the parking/lines.

[VTskibum]

Staying at Soli is great with the kiddos, easy to navigate. Good call. How old is yoru crew? Have a blast! My now 9 yo basically learned to ski at Soli , Alta, and Snowbird ski schools. The everyday skiing for 5-7 days made such a huge difference in their progression vs weekend warrior stuff we usually do back east. The boy desperately wanted to check Silver Fox off his list last spring, and did and was so stoked!

11 & 9. 11 y/o is pretty casual, vs my 9 y/o who’s a fast little ski racer (Bear Creek team). Convenience wins out so the older one can bail back to base whenever while little sis and I go ski steep stuff.


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[Boissal]

I lost count of how many best days of the season I've had so far but yesterday was close to the top of the list. I figure the scenery on its own it worthy of a micro TR, and since I'm too lazy to write up the big one I'm sitting on here goes a recap of an average Thursday in the life of a couple powder pigs.

It started with some cold slogging, I couldn't feel my toes and fingers for the first couple hours.



Morale improved considerably once we finally got some sun (read: I quit my incessant whining):



Not for long though, we plunged back in the shade while looking at the sunny tracks across the drainage. Oh well, here's buddy Drew taking it straight down to the mine:



Yet another novelty line I had never ridden clean, the rock band in there is usually a major hassle to deal with. It's completely gone this year, can't complain.

Next, a visit to the head of the drainage. There's a significant glide crack slashing across the whole bowl, it looks like a legit crevasse. Impressive and intimidating, we gave it a wide berth:



...and scraped our plans of sending the rarely filled-in lines which drain straight into it. Oh well, to the MillB window we go for some of the best views in the range:



Zoomed in, a whole bunch of BCC gnar packed in this shot. Rampage and Diving Board don't look all that friendly after getting hammered by winds the whole season...



Some good storm slab activity noted in the steeps:



The ridge was in shockingly good condition so we took it to the top and peeked into Cardiff. Barely any sign of traffic, untouched Cardiac. Well, don't mind if we do:



The slog back up was a bit punishing, the only time of the day where it got legit hot. Putting that skinner in is a treat though, can't complain.
Some interesting slides noted in upper Cardiff, the one on the left was from a cornice fall (posted as an obs by UAC) and the other one looks to be from massive loading on a weird feature in the N face of Superior (I seem to recall a large party getting in trouble a few years back putting a skinner in that exact zone).



Back to the pass, Mineral looking all kinds of delicious:



Not yet though, up the ridge for more! Is this the spot?



No. Might as well go the top again, especially with the ridge being skinnable the whole way. That was another first for me, it's usually a fucked up mess of frozen wind lips up there.
Cardiac cherry line #2:



A lazy storm slab took out my tracks, it would have caught me if I had stopped mid slope to have a cig while tugging on my horn, something I considered doing as the skiing was orgasmically good.

Things had cooled off significantly on our second Cardiac up and a zipper crust was already forming in spots. Time to move to less solar aspects. The entrance to the Room of Doom is the fattest I've ever seen it, the usual rocky traverse and skis-on downclimbing shenanigans have been replaced by this glorious bit of carpet:



Watch for sharks if you get in that way, it looks perfect but it's still thin and going over the bars into the chute would be embarrassing...
Another quick bump to the ridge to go check out our tracks and the big glider:



And into the granddaddy of Mineral lines, 2000' of this to the flats:



Apologies to the cow we flushed out of a comfy-looking bed of mahogany on the way out. She was less than pleased at the two kooks who came barreling down on top of her with rubbery legs.

[zion zig zag]

^^^Nice day Boissal!

[zion zig zag]

A comparison shot to try and show how good this season has been:

February 2022:


March 2023:

[whyturn]

For all the maggot vets out there get your free ski day on at pow mow on March 31st

Appreciate your service and send a pm for a free guided tour




Also 35% off all season for military thx.


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[muted reborn]

Attachment 452041

Couple days later and I'm still thinking about this pic.

[muted reborn]

Some proud lines and airs in Neffs canyon today that you all can gawk at tomorrow with bincocs. They are on a tall pyramid shaped sub-peak east and above Thomas fork, kudos to whomever did them - I wanna party with you guys! I doubt those lines get skied often, if ever.

[baron]

Lovin' the stoke Boi; thx for taking the time busting the camera out on your journeys

[Dantheman]

Some proud lines and airs in Neffs canyon today that you all can gawk at tomorrow with bincocs. They are on a tall pyramid shaped sub-peak east and above Thomas fork, kudos to whomever did them - I wanna party with you guys! I doubt those lines get skied often, if ever.

Dang, would love to see pics of these.

[zion zig zag]

Dang, would love to see pics of these.

Same. Triangle peak?

[muted reborn]

Dang, would love to see pics of these.

I took this pic last night, didn't think it was worth posting because I'm 6 miles away so you can't see the tracks when you zoom in, but the main middle chute that cliffs out to a straightline and the one to the lookers right was skied. The middle one I've been gawking at for years. I think there was a rock in the bombhole coming out of the middle chute. I upgraded my binocs a few years ago and it was pricey so I can't quite see well even with crisp optics, I think I need a telescope now!

[Dantheman]

Fucking hell, sick!

[Boissal]

Unless I'm completely turned around and this isn't where I think it is, lookers left (the main chute-looking line) doesn't cliff out. It goes through a weird pinch with a fold of rock that makes it looks like a cliff but you're on snow the whole time.
Lookers right (the one with the wider headwall and some trees midway down) funnels into it and has a section of steep rock/ice that almost never fills in, except this year (most likely, haven't been up there in a month). That one is commiting as hell, lookers left is more manageable but still nowhere near a gimme. Rad to see proud tracks in there, it's hard to get sassy in those narrow lines!

[snowaddict91]

I can't say for sure, but I think this is a picture of Mall Walker coming out of one of those chutes, circa 2020. Its in that general area anyways.

[muted reborn]

Unless I'm completely turned around and this isn't where I think it is, lookers left (the main chute-looking line) doesn't cliff out. It goes through a weird pinch with a fold of rock that makes it looks like a cliff but you're on snow the whole time.
Lookers right (the one with the wider headwall and some trees midway down) funnels into it and has a section of steep rock/ice that almost never fills in, except this year (most likely, haven't been up there in a month). That one is commiting as hell, lookers left is more manageable but still nowhere near a gimme. Rad to see proud tracks in there, it's hard to get sassy in those narrow lines!

I think you are right. That would explain a few tracks on top and seemingly one skier with one bomb hole out of it. I was kinda thinking the skier in the 'never filled in' chute to the right might have jumped out, but again it's 6 miles away and hard to see. Maybe it's not a bombhole at all but a partly obscured straightline everyone did that magically appears after the pinch. And I was driving closer to it today, before I read your post, and thought, huh, that cliff may not run across the whole thing - but I was driving on i215 going 60 in the slow lane craning my neck heading west - and yeah that's a horrible way to spot lines!

I can't say for sure, but I think this is a picture of Mall Walker coming out of one of those chutes, circa 2020. Its in that general area anyways.

Those walls look too high to be it.

[Benneke10]

scaled some cirques today with the man himself

[Adski]

I see what you did there B
That looks like an excellent outing!

[jhyatt]

Thanks to a fellow mag @Tri-Ungulate for showing my teen son and me around solitude today! To paraphrase Geoff McFetridge in his blister podcast interview... Skiing is my user interface with the world.
Be nice, have fun!
We will be around a few more days. Ask for change. Orange and red marmot jacket. Green pata pants. Best skier on the mountain


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[VTskibum]

Had a bunch of fun showing my 9 y/o around Soli today. Get a feel for it before next few days of storms should pay dividends. Her favorite was headwall forest, hard to disagree.


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[Duffman]

Had a bunch of fun showing my 9 y/o around Soli today. Get a feel for it before next few days of storms should pay dividends. Her favorite was headwall forest, hard to disagree.


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Headwall forest is a great area to bring the tree monster 9 year olds (like mine,obsessed with trees)

Btw, was just looking , it's been a few years since I've been to Solitude bc with the really young kids we were staying up in LCC just to make life easier for ski school and such. When did Solitude officially put Highway to Heaven on the map as inbounds gated terrain? Wasn't that a Backcountry gate in the past?

[crankplank]

Windbuff was excellent on saturday.

Went to PCMR yesterday, and much like the cottonwoods there wasnt an open parking spot in a 3 mile radius but liftlines could not be found. That place is truly labyrinthine. Felt like we were the only people that lived in SLCO over there, i wish it was more accessible to get a few days riding there but the $270 window rate means i might never ride there again. Shame, as I really love some relaxed groomer cruising.

[jhyatt]

Had a bunch of fun showing my 9 y/o around Soli today. Get a feel for it before next few days of storms should pay dividends. Her favorite was headwall forest, hard to disagree.


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Base on this post I asked this guy for change for a nickel
We took a few laps.
Good maggot stoke

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[VTskibum]

Such a great day, been a while since I’ve done 9-3 non-stop!

Bumped into and made change w Jhyatt and his son as noted above. Caught up to them just as my daughter went in for a break for a bit.

Jhyatt off Navarone


Jhaytt’s son leading way through a bunch of Navaronne laps with a few little hucks as well


Picked kid back up and we had a bunch of great laps in Headwall Forrest and run of the day was DCR at 2:30 with fresh lines




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