Grand skiing on Grandeur Peak

Grandeur Peak and the west ridge.

So the skiing might not have been "grand" for the most part, but it was still a grand adventure. Grandeur peak is the mountain to the lookers left of Mount Olympus as part of the Salt Lake City skyline. It is a very popular summer hike but very seldom gets enough snow to ski it. However, with all the snow we've been getting in the valley, I figured I'd give it a go.

Reaching the summit with little visibility

The route I wanted to climb and ski was the west ridge. That is the main ridge leading to the summit in the picture above. I thought it would be cool to ski from the summit all the way down to the valley floor. The trailhead for this starts east of the 3300 exit off of route 215 at a public access hiking trail. There was a fairly used skin track in the beginning section of the ridge, where there was some pretty good snow for those looking for a really quick tour. The skintrack broke off fairly soon, and I continued on breaking trail up the ridge. At some parts there was over 2 feet of snow from wind loading that made the trek up tiring and difficult. In other parts, it was almost complete ice and rock. The ridge never exceeded an angle of 30 degrees in places of loading so I judged it was safe to ski. Three hours later I reached the summit in a white out with heavy winds and snow. The ski descent went as followed: low angle deep snow for the first section, the worst/rockiest slope I've ever skied for the second part (should have walked down it), and good skiing with a few rocks for the bottom section. Not the best skiing overall but definitely an adventure, and one of my projects completed.

Skiing down to the valley

GH

Westwood attempt 1/26

Today Justin, Greg and I considered a trek up homicide chute. But lack of snow (thank you week of 40's in the mountains and single digits in the valley) drove us towards the more easily accessible Westwood chute.

Justin and I peeling skins at the mouth of Westwood

If you are looking for a fast tour with a really short approach and some decent turns Westwood is normally a great choice. Unfortunately, due to the warm weather, after thorough assessment we called it off due to conditions. The ski down from Westwood left us with some dust on crust turns. Even with less than ideal conditions and our line left un-skied we here at Hippy Turns still know how to have a good time (as seen below).

Justin gettin' some style points

Although it was difficult to leave her with un-skied, Westwood we will meet again.

The Scythe

All of us managed to forget to set our alarms this morning, so it wasn't until 12:30 when we got up to Grizzly Gulch Trailhead. Forgetting to adjust my brand new Dynafit Mercury ski boots to my bindings put me back another half hour. The plan was to head up the summer road and meet  Justin and Koby at Catherine Pass (they have Alta passes). From there we would see what looks good and get some good turns. It took about an hour to get to get up there, past a few pissed off Alta ski patrollers. Turns out they still don't like you going up their trails. Justin and Kobe weren't feeling too hot, so I continued up towards Mt Tuscarora solo. It was about a fifteen minute boot-pack from Catherine pass up to the summit. Up top I spent a good time trying to get a good look at Seagull chute and other chutes running down Tuscarora Bowl. Due to some big scary cornices, I didn't want to get too close, but Seagull chute is definitely on the hit list for upcoming trips.

Summit of Tuscarora

 From Tuscarora I met two other skiers and continued along the ridge with them to the top of Mt Wolverine. Right as we were approaching the summit, the clouds started clearing away for the first time all day and we could get some good views of the sun starting to come down.

Salt Lake City in the background with the sun coming down

The plan was to drop south down to the parking lot and meet up with Kobi and Justin waiting for me at the car. However, that's a hard thing to do when your standing on top of Wolverine Cirque. Lucky for me, the two skiers I had met on the ridge offered me a ride home if I chose to drop into the cirque, a pretty easy decision. Right from the summit of Wolverine starts "The Scythe", a long thin chute that I've wanted to ski for a while now. Looks like today would be the day. Without too much snow so far this season, it made the descent a bit spicier. It started with 10 feet of down climbing to a sketchy opening to put my skis on. From there, a few tight turns to a mandatory little drop that got my blood going a bit. It was jump turns until the chute bent skiers left into the Cirque. The snow in the chute was pretty hard, but there was good powder to be found in the apron. Overall, the chute was a blast; The Cirque never lets you down. By the time I threw on the skins and made my way to Twin Lakes Pass it was about 4:30. I made some fun turns down the new snow in Grizzly Gulch while the sun was setting. After a late start and sketchy snow, it ended up being a great day of skiing. Lets see whats in store tomorrow. 

Looking down into The Scythe

Overall I was very impressed with my new boots. Big thanks to Sports Loft for doing great work on them. Also big thanks to Keith and Dane at Ski 'N See for the ride home!

Wolverine Cirque

GH

Kessler Peak 10,403 ft- Argenta Slide Path 1/18

Kessler Peak- Gods lawnmower lookers left and Argenta slide path lookers right

The conditions looked good so we decided to try to bag a peak and get some steep and deep turns on the way down. We set our sites on Kessler peak. We parked at the base of the Argenta slide path and followed a skin track right up the face of it. It took us about four hours to reach the summit.

On top

Koby, Nico, and Justin celebrating the summit

After reaching the summit of Kessler, we skied down the north ridge to the top of the Argenta slide path. We skied a couple of fun chutes that led into Argenta. Nico and I opted to drop the lookers right chute that required a mandatory drop over some rocks. Then Greg and Koby dropped into the lookers left chute and enjoyed some deep turns. We then enjoyed 3400 vertical feet of skiing to the bottom.
JT

Justin making a turn after a tight chute

Greg skiing lookers left chute 

Nico getting freshies

Slasher

Suicide chute attempt in the morning, foothills by night 1/16

At the mouth of Suicide Chute

Work got canceled for me today due to lack of business at The Canyons so this was a green light to head into the mountains and check some ski lines off our list. A group of us got together in the morning and decided to give suicide chute a go. We skinned up the south face of Superior and got up to the mouth of the chute to realize that the wind loading from last night was a lot worse then expected. We had to make the tough decision to call it and instead we skied a gully coming off of little Superior. It wasn't what we set out to do that morning but we still got some good turns in.

Greg making some turns

After our morning adventure we decided to head down to the foothills to take adventure of all the low elevation snow. We ended up skiing a small peak to the south east of the U. We got to the top just in time to watch the sun set. We enjoyed some great views and some fresh snow on the way down.
JT

The approach 

Chip enjoying his first tour 

topping out

Chip and I on top

Skiing into the city

More Snow! 1/12

Another cold morning in the Wasatch. Justin, Koby, Magnum and I headed up to Butler Fork Trailhead for a quick tour. Taking a left up the west fork of Butler, we continued to Circle All peak.The four of us made it to the top in about an hour and were excited to get some good turns down the south facing slide path. From the top we could get a good look at Kessler Peak across the canyon, definitely one of the next destinations once the snow settles a bit more. We traversed the ridge to the skiers right side of the path where it looked like the best snow in safe terrain was. After the first few turns we knew we chose the right line. Tons of deep snow throughout the entire run.

Magnum and Justin headed up the west fork of Butler

View of the top section of our run from Circle All Peak

Kessler Peak (Gods Lawnmower on the left, Argenta Slide Path on the right) 

After the first few turns, so much snow!

Justin waist deep

New Snow! 1/11

A fresh blanket of snow covered the valley, and it was time to go skiing. After hitchhiking up big cottonwood due to lack of a 4-wheel drive car, I got dropped off at spruces trailhead and headed up Mill D North to see what I could find. The wind and cold temperatures were too much to deal with out of the trees so I decided to enjoy some sheltered runs off of Tom's Hill. Once I saw that my water bottle was frozen shut I thought it was about time to call it a day. I headed out on a south facing slope back down to spruces where I was able to catch a ride back to the valley.

GH

Tom's Hill run on a snowy afternoon

Toledo Chute 1/7

After taking a day off yesterday, it was definitely time to get out of the inversion in the valley and head back up to the fresh air. After waiting until about 10:30 for the others to get up and figuring out everyone in the house was sick as dogs, I was headed up the canyon solo by 11. After parking near the chapel across from alta and throwing on the skins, it took a little more than an hour to gain the ridge of Toledo bowl. From there about a half hour to gain the summit. On my way up I saw that there was three possible lines of descent. 

The largest and most obvious one (the actual Toledo Chute), is on lookers right. To the left there was two variations of the line that both looked fun. I decided that I would scope out the center line on my way down and drop that if it looked good.

From the top it took a few turns to even get a look at the middle chute The line looked good and the snow was in good enough condition in the chute so the middle variation was a go. With soft snow, tight jump turns, and decent exposure, the line was a blast.

Once I got out to the bottom of the chute it was a different story. The soft snow quickly turned into a hard wind and/or sun crust. It led to quite sloppy skiing for the rest of the ride back to the car. However, no skiing is bad skiing so even the crusty exit was enjoyable.

I was definitely not looking forward to returning to the inversion in the Valley. Gotta get back up ASAP.

GH

Grizzly cliffs jumps and flips 1/5

With plenty of fresh snow still waiting to be skied, Koby Justin and I decided to head up Grizzly Gulch again and see what we could find. We were happy to find plenty of really fun lines and cliffs on the North side of the ridge heading up to Patsy. There was also a backcountry jump nearby that got Justin's attention. After taking several laps down and getting some great turns, we headed back out to the parking lot. On the way out, we came across a few more cliffs and jumps we couldn't resist. Fun day just messing around.
GH

Casual Koby

finding fresh snow

Justin gettin cliffy

Backflipssss

Back to Utah

After spending the last semester abroad in Switzerland, I wasn't able to get into the Wasatch until the 2nd of January. After the 40 hour drive from New Hampshire to Utah, it was a pleasant surprise seeing that it looked like there was more snow in the beginning of January then there was all last season. I knew exactly where my first stop would be - Grizzly Gulch. Without even dropping my stuff off, I headed right up Little Cottonwood for a long-awaited welcome back tour up to Patsy Marley. I was once again pleasantly surprised to find plenty of fresh snow through the trees on my way down. It's going to be a good season.
GH

Not a bad view for my first day back in Utah

Preseason - November 11th Pow

With the first big storm of the season giving 60 inches of fresh snow, Justin Koby and Magnum headed up Mill D North to start off the season right.

Justin scoping out his line.

Waist deep powder

Intro

After arriving in Salt Lake 2 years ago to go to school at Westminster College, three of us backcountry skiing enthusiasts have been exploring everything the Wasatch and surrounding areas has to offer. From fall climbing trips to chasing February powder to skiing late into summer, we've had some crazy adventures in the backcountry. This blog is meant to show what were doing throughout the year and share some of the experiences we have.

Despite the low snow last year, we were still able to get out there and make the most out of what we had. We ended up having a lot of really fun days and exploring some new areas we had never skied. Here are a few of the many highlights from last year-

Four of us getting ready to ski a North Chute off Superior

 

Fun Spring days up on Superior Southeast face. Video - http://vimeo.com/39675363

 

Among the many lines down Wolverine Cirque




Desert Skiing?




Pipeline Couloir









Gannet Peak attempt, still got some good turns.