Little and Main Chute on 11/8

Looking back down the valley

After getting more snow this past week, we decided to head back up to Alta and get some more fresh turns in. As we were skinning up, we realized that the snow wasn't as soft as we would of hoped. With wishful thinking, we decided to head up to the top of Baldy to see how Main chute looked and to see if Little Chute would go too.

Orie on top of Main Chute

After getting on top of Baldy, Orie and Kurt decided to drop into Main Chute in hopes of sniffing out what little freshies remained. On the other hand, Little chute was untouched and looked good to go. Best way to spice up a classic ski decent... ski it before it completely fills in. Greg and I both enjoyed awesome lines down Little chute with some fun monitory drops thrown in to add some spice. Can't wait for opening day at Alta!
JT

Greg getting ready to drop Little Chute

Greg halfway down little

Preseason Skiing at Alta

This weekend we were able to get up and take advantage of some of the great snow that this latest preseason storm had dumped on the upper elevations. On Wednesday, Justin was able to get up and get some deep snow during a run down Alta. Friday Justin and I headed up to Alta again in search of more snow. We were surprised to find some great skiing, about 15 inches of freshies, with very little rock encounters on the Baldy shoulder. It was a great afternoon of skiing. The next morning Justin, Lucy, and I headed up to Alta again, looking to get on Main Chute off of Mt Baldy. We were hoping to get first tracks, but soon noticed that there was already a pair of ski tracks coming out of it from earlier that morning, and a party of 5 or 6 headed up in front of us. None-the-less we were psyched. We got to the top and scoped out the possibility of skiing Little Chute instead, but opted to stick with Main to avoid destroying our skis. The skiing down Main was great; the snow was soft and mostly all the rocks were covered up. We got back down to base with a car-to-car time of about 3 hours. It was a great day of skiing, especially for the beginning of November! Here's a link to a video of us skiing Main Chute: https://vimeo.com/78446652

Altas filling in on 10/30

Justin getting some fresh snow on the Baldy shoulder

Lucy heading up to the summit of Baldy

Getting ready to drop. Photo cred: Lucy

Panorama from on top of Main Chute. Photo Cred Lucy

Nothing Like Strapping the Skis on in September!

Right after Greg's recap of the summer came the good fortune of the first snow! This late September storm dropped a couple inches across the top of the Wasatch. So after an excited text from Greg, we all met up after class and headed for the hills!

We made it up to guardsman, and went for a short jaunt down to the blown zone. Now it's not quite the same as strapping on the ole AT setup and hitting the back country, but it was a blast to be on the skis again. We rubbed off the rust and JT threw down some pre-season tricks. Here's Greg shredding some PVC off to the left!

We skied until dark, and Chip the HippyTurns mascot had a blast playing in the snow. It's never a bad thing to have your first day on the skis on September 26th! Let's keep the snow coming! We here at HippyTurns are ready for a long and snowy season!

-K 

Winters a'coming

Ski premiers are showing, winter gear is starting to fill the shelves at REI, and there is a forecast for snow this weekend. Winter is almost here! Hopefully it won't be very long now until we can throw the skis back on. We've been busy this summer passing time until it snows again, and managed to have some really fun adventures along the way. Here's some pictures of what we were up to this summer. Enjoy!

Justin & Koby spent the Month exploring Europe..

 

and I spent some time in my home state of New Hampshire visiting the family and climbing a bit.

Next Both Justin and I started work at Durango Mountain Camp in Durango, Colarado. For 6 weeks we took little kid climbing ,and explored some of the near-by areas around the San Juan mountains.

 

 

Next it was back to Salt Lake City so I could lead a trip down to Colorado National Monument for the incoming Freshmen at the college I attend. While I was down there, I was able to climb Otto's Route on Independence Monument during a day off.

  

The latest trip we've taken after that was a recent weekend up in the Tetons, where we climbed the Exum Complete to the summit of the Grand Teton.

 

  

Also, welcome Kurt Linderman to Hippy Turns! He just returned from a year abroad in Austria and is stoked to get on some sweet lines this year.

 

So there's the brief recap of some of the highlights of our summer. We're stoked for the snow to start falling so we can start off this season. It should be a good one; hope to see you out there!

- GH

Monte Cristo Directissimo 4/28

The other day when I was up on the summit of Superior I saw a few local wasatch skiers head down Monte Cristo and into the direcctissimo line. This line had been on my hit list for a while and I knew if I wanted to ski it this season I should get on it soon. A few days later I was headed back up the ridge of Superior with my friend Charlie, a rope, and plans to ski the direct. We once again made good time on the approach, enjoying great morning views of the Wasatch mountains and also the lack of people heading up Superior. Maybe it had something to do with being closing day at Alta or the early start, but we didn't see anybody else from start to the finish, a rare thing for spring days in this area. We moved past the summit of Superior along the ridge to Monte Cristo. It was still early enough to ski the headwall of Monte Cristo, a southeast facing snowfield hanging on the side of cliffs to skiers right that was made a classic through "edge of the world" photographs.

Gaining Cardiff Pass

On the way up Superior ridge

Monte Cristo Headwall (Picture taken the other day)

The headwall ended up having perfect skiing. We timed it just right to take advantage of soft playful snow but not too soft to make wet slides an issue. After enjoying some great skiing down the headwall, the line curves skiers right down a chute. This section of the descent is shadowed by the South ridge of Superior and contained a lot of icy debris. We pieced our way through this section and got a few more soft turns before the rappel. On skiers left it's possible to branch out into the line Monte Cristo Gully. I've never skied the line and didn't bother to check it out, but heard it usually holds snow for a while if one wishes to avoid the rappel. However it also avoids the bottom half of a great line and a fun rappel. With the current amount of snow, there was two rappels to get through the cliffs blocking the route. The first rappel anchor is located on the rock face to skiers right, just as the line cliffs out. There was an extremely icy section in the way of this anchor that required a few exposed tricky moves to get by. Thankfully my partner Charlie seemed exited to test it out after I backed away. This first rappel was pretty short, only about 50 feet at most, and brings you to the second main rap, located skiers right on the obvious tree. This one was much, longer, probably around 100 feet with the current amount of snow. Both rappels went smoothly and we were putting our skis back on with more great skiing ahead of us.

Charlie getting some smooth turns on the edge of the world

First Rap

First Rap

Second Rap

 From the bottom of the rappel the line wraps around a small cliff and continues south through the obvious gully. It wraps left and right several times, with the snow riding high up on both sides of the couloir, half pipe style. The skiing through this section was very fun, soft and playful. At a few points near the end it was a bit too soft and made the skiing difficult but it's all part of spring skiing, and much better than the icy debris up top. We kept our eyes out for any potential wet slides coming off the south face but didn't see any activity as we enjoyed the rest of the skiing. At the end of the gully there was one part we had to take off the skis to get around, but other than that we were able to ski right to the road. I'm sure this is going to change in the next week as the river continues to poke its way out of the snow. It was a fun day of skiing and an awesome line I was able to check out.

Skiing down shortly after the rappel

Exiting the gully in some mashed potato snow

GH

Superior South Face 4/25

I had not been up to the summit of superior at all this year, so when my friend Brett asked if I wanted to get up there and ski the south face this week I was excited. We left the valley at 5:30 and were heading up to Cardiff Fork by 6:15. Its always great seeing the sunrise on the Wasatch peaks.The day turned out really well and everything went smoothly  We made it to the summit in about 2 and a half hours thanks to a solid booter going up the east ridge. It was still pretty early so we waited about a half hour on the summit for the snow to soften. From the summit we watched a few others head over to the headwall of Monte Cristo to ski the directissimo line, another descent I've been really wanting to do. After traversing South for about 150 feet, we found our line of choice: a series of gullies that leads into a tighter rock band, back into the open face, through another rock band, and out the apron. We laid down the first tracks on this top section through soft corn snow that stayed consistent for the entire descent. It was early enough in the warm cycle to not have to deal with very much wet debris. Three thousand feet of great spring skiing later we were dished out at the road and were back at our car at 10. Overall a great morning of skiing.

Sunrise from little superior (the previous mornig)

Brett working his way up the ridge

From the summit of Superior

Looking South

Grabbing some lunch while waiting for the snow to soften

Superior skiing down Superior South Face

Looking back up from the road

GH

Northwest Couloir of the Pfeifferhorn 4/19

Ever since I first hiked the Pfeifferhorn shortly after moving to Utah, I've always had the Northwest Couloir in the back of my mind. With stable conditions and "supposedly" solid weather for the morning, Justin and I set out early to ski it. We rolled up to the White Pine Trailhead and were on the trail by around 4. The approach over into Red Pine and up to the lakes went really well and we made good time. After gaining the ridge near No Name Baldy we were able to get a few views of the surrounding Wasatch before the bad weather rolled in. We watched the clouds swallow the Pfeiff and move down to us just in time for the knife's edge traverse.

Views of Box Elder and Utah Lake

Approaching the knifes edge ridge as the clouds rolled in

Justin led the ridge with the one ice-ax we brought and kicked steps for me to follow. I felt a little bit exposed on the ridge without a self-arrest tool, but the snow was stable and none of the moves were difficult. The traverse was much more fun then scary. At the end of this traverse we reached the base of where the Pfeifferhorn jets out from the rock, earning it's nick-name "Little Matterhorn". The standard route goes up the southeast facing snowfields to the summit, but we found ourselves sinking into a lot of deep wind drifted snow and thought it would be safer to stay mostly on the ridge going up from the East. From the start of the knifes-edge ridge to the summit it had been mostly a complete whiteout and we weren't sure if it would be safe to drop the NW couloir with the really poor visibility, since neither of us had skied it before.

Justin leading the way

Weather clearing up on the Pfiefferhorn summit

Fortunately the weather cleared a few minutes after summiting and we were able to get a view of what we were skiing. We threw on our harnesses and got ready for the descent. On most years you can drop right from the summit and ski to the main rappel. However, there was about a 15 foot ice and rock gully about 50 feet down that couldn't be skied. This became a problem for us and our 30 m rope we brought. To get down I lowered Justin to below the gully, rappelled down as far as I could go and did some sketchy downclimbing to get through the gully. Not exactly what I wanted to be doing above a 50 degree chute into a cliff. From the bottom of the gully we enjoyed a few hundred feet of steep skiing in variable snow before inching up to the rap station. The anchors are almost directly about the drop-off on skiers right and can be a little scary to get to. There is another anchor about 40 feet above it on skiers left for those who don't feel comfortable approaching the main rap but not very necessary. Our 30 m rope worked perfectly for the current amount of snow and the rappel went smoothly. From the bottom of the cliff, the route raps around skiers right of some large cliffs and we enjoyed our turns in damp snow down the apron as more clouds rolled in. We skied by many of the awesome lines in Hogum Fork as we made plans for future link-ups. Opting for the exit out of Hogum Fork, we skied for as long as we could and then bushwhacked out for about an hour until we reached the road. The NW Couloir was definitely one of the craziest lines I'd ever skied and inspired me to get on some more technical routes in the future.

The main rappel in the couloir

Skiing out the apron

GH