It has been a while since I have written on here, and it is great to be back. It is currently mid-April here in the Wasatch and I have just returned from a short trip to Alaska. The temps have been warm and it is safe to say we have settled into a Spring Diurnal snowpack (for the time being). In a week, I head to Washington where I will spend the first half of my summer working and skiing. Before my gaze shifts to Rainier and the North Cascades, I figured I would write up a short post about some of the skiing and climbing I was fortunate to get into this past winter.
Following a very short trip to South America, I arrived back in SLC in mid January. Shortly after my arrival, I found my self standing on top of Storm Mountain with my buddy Dan Christ. Dan and I first met on an Alpine Guide Course in the Spring of 2023, and have been crossing paths a few times a year ever since. Last winter, Dan moved from Estes Park to the Salt Lake Valley and has been getting AFTER IT here in the Wasatch.
With the alpine boarded up and variable from strong wind and a lingering PWL problem from early season snow, we hoped to target the mid elevation bands where the rain had soaked up and rounded those sharp grains. I had thrown out the idea of Storm Mountain (one of my favorite mountains in the Wasatch) and Dan was psyched to make it happen.
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| NE Shoulder, Airplane Peak. Photo by Connor Lacy |
Spindrift Couloir
The last time I had skied the Spindrift Couloir was by myself in January of 2021. It was a formative experience and left a lasting impression on me and my perspective on how I wanted to move in the mountains. Minimal impact, a small rap kit, one 70m rope and a pair of headphones. I didn't care to tell anyone and could help smiling the whole walk down SR-190 back to my car at the Ferguson Trailhead. It was awesome.
Now, I wondered how my perspective might have changed on the line. Was it going to be as good as I remembered it?
The walk up Ferguson Canyon went quickly and Dan and I enjoyed the long shadows of the Central Wasatch along the valley floor. The snow was cold and we moved well up to the true summit of Storm. We enjoyed the windless summit, ate snacks, played music and harnessed up. We kept our skis on our packs and traversed back along the summit ridge to the gnarled, old growth that marks the entrance to the Spindrift.
The snow was soft and we did 2x 60m rappels on the upper headwall and two 30m rappels on the lower ice steps. The snow was supportable and creamy in the upper panels which turned to edgable chalk in the lower couloir. The skiing was high quality and it felt as though this time the Spindrift was a Wasatch final exam in a way. Once a intimidating and foreboding line, the Spindrift now felt like a comfortable and mellow day out. Although steep and exposed, Dan and I felt right at home and quickly meshed and leap frogged our way down one of the coolest faces in the Central Core.
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| Hop turning through the choke of the Spindrift Couloir |
The exit went smooth and we were quickly picked up and dropped back off at our car. It was certainly and incredible start to the steep skiing season!
Guiding work picked up and we settled into a unseasonably complex snowpack through January and February. It seemed as though we were plagued with large Maritime weather events in between fairly long periods of high pressure. It wasn't until mid March, when the snowpack began to truly settle out and steep, complex descents were back on the table.
Stairs Gulch
It is hard to emphasize how impactful good ski partners are on your ability to do cool shit in the mountains. This year, I feel as though I've struck gold. In addition to Dan Christ, I have been skiing quite a bit with splitboard crusher CJ Heaney. CJ has really lept onto the scene as an extremely talented splitboarder and alpine climber here in the Wasatch. He recently joined the UMA Guide Team and I have been extremely fortunate to both ski, climb and work with him this winter. After hearing about good conditions in Stairs Gulch the day prior; Dan, CJ and myself headed up Broads Fork for a quick surgical, pre-brunch strike mission.
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| Dan and I on top of Stairs Gulch |
We arrived at the top of Bonkers in just over 3 hours and enjoyed the late morning sun before dropping into the dark side. Stairs has been in the back of my head for a while now and I felt so fortunate to be up there with those guys. The snow was cold, dense and rippable! All three of us leapfrogged through the snow covered, quartz slabs with ease and were quickly at the choke.
The blind icy roll seemed tricky and we all took a second to survey the terrain. With word of a ropeless descent that went down yesterday, we figured we'd be able to do the same. As the token skier, I went to check it out and found a perfect ribbon of snow that traced along a bench between two icy bulges. It went smooth with a single ice axe and I was quickly throughout it. Dan followed suit on his toe side edge (goofy) and CJ decided he'd waited long enough and decided to wall ride to lower 8ft ice bulge (like a boss I might add). We simuled skied out of the drainage and soon enough we were back at the road. Just over 4 hours since we left the cars. We hitched a ride back up the S-Curves and were down at the Hub and Spoke diner by 1pm. What a morning!
Skookum Ramp
One of the last big days spent here in the Wasatch was back on Storm Mountain. This time by myself. I had recognized that this might be one of the last ski days on Storm before a prolonged and significant warmup and called out from my shift at The Gear Room (sorry Phil!). I arrived at the trailhead by 7:30am and at a casual pace made my way back up to the shoulder of Storm Mountain by 11:30am and stood on top right around midday.
It was warm with low winds and clear skies. Storm Mountain is one of my favorite peaks in the Wasatch and it is always such a treat to have clear views of the valley and my house from the 9,000' summit perch. Especially with skis on my feet.
I had a few different ideas of what I wanted to ski but ultimately settled on the Skookum ramp. A ski line first put down three years ago by a couple of friends Sam Hoffman and Zack Little on the Northwest Face. With minimal info, a 60m rope and a forgotten harness, I knew this line would be a real "treat."
I ripped skins, ate a bite of food and began my descent off of the summit. The snow was perfectly soft and supportable. The skiing was exposed and engaging. Although from the valley the "ramp" seems to require quite a bit of traversing, I found the skiing to be predominately fall line and superb. The western shoulder of the floating ramps I began to connect housed a thin wind skin that I repetitively flushed with a right turn on the rounded shoulder. The snow flushed off of the steep cliff to my left and added to the atmosphere of skiing this complex, Wasatch face.
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High on the Skookum Ramp |
Traverse a thin ribbon of snow into the next hanging ramp. Cut the wind skin with a right turn. Let it flush. Ski slightly off fall line, in steep terrain 45 degree terrain. Repeat.
The crux of the line came when I was forced to traverse along a thin ribbon of steep snow with an icy bed surface from the previous days of warm weather. I took my time along with a few deep breaths, grabbed a few handfuls of bushes for support and inched my way onto the final ramp and down to the start of the rappels. It would have been a shitty place to fall.
Following this cruxy traverse, I began shifting aspects to the west and encountered avy debris lodged in the trees above the first rappel. A quick link with blue cord was wrapped around a tree which led me down to some faded red tat slung around a shallow horn.
It might be wise to mention since I had forgotten a harness, I had concocted a make shift harness out of 6mm cord and a rappel tether. The makeshift harness was uncomfortable but fine for the lower angle terrain that I was moving quickly through. That was until I came upon a less than ideal anchor and decided to beef up the station. I grabbed the green cord that was acting as a leg loop of my harness and equalized two stoppers behind a small flake. The pick of my ice axe helped fuse the two stoppers and I felt much better about my improved anchor. The problem was that now I only had one leg loop left. Rappelling over the steep quartzite with skis on my feet and one leg loop was pretty shitty and after one final rappel where I slung the rope around a bunch of slide alder, I told myself that I never needed to do that again.
By the time I finished my rappels, it had gotten warm and I knew I wanted to get out of the Generator slide path before things unglued. The exit skiing was phenomenal and the bushwacking dense. I arrived on the side of the road at around 2:30pm and was quickly picked up by a coworker Winslow Passey. It was great to chat for a second and I was extremely grateful for the ride!
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| Staring down the NW Couloir of the Pfeifferhorn |
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