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