Moab Ski to Bike to Climb Trifecta 4/19

About two months ago I had talked to my buddy Hayden about doing a triathalon style, epic day in Moab of skiing, biking, and climbing. We put the 19th on our calanders and recruited some friends to join us for sections of this adventure. This is how the day went:

Saturday morning we got up at dawn and left the Geyser Pass Trailhead in the La Sal Mountains. The approach up to Pre-Laurel Peak took about 2 and a half hours and we topped out in a whiteout. We opted to drop into 'the funnel', or some line that led us into the funnel. The skiing was much better than we expected and we ended up having some great turns.

Nearing the Summit of Pre-Laurel Peak. PC: Carl Heath

Arriving back at Geyser Pass Trailhead, we hoped onto our bikes and started down La Sal Pass Road towards the town of Moab. For almost 20 miles the road is downhill and super enjoyable. We cruised down this section, enjoying the great views along the way. From town we met up with another biker and continued on to our destination of Castle Valley, a 50 mile bike ride from the trailhead.

The gang. Getting ready to bike right from the Geyser Pass Trailhead

We met up with more friends at the Castle Valley Campground, racked up, and started the hour hike up to the base of Castleton. My friend Dana and I climbed the Kor-Ingalls route while Hayden and Charlie made their way up the North Chimney, each 4 pitches of great climbing. We topped out all together with the help of headlamps and enjoyed some gorgeous night views from the top of the tower.

Castleton Tower. PC: Carl Heath

This trifecta of awesome activities was a ton of fun, and I was psyched to have completed all and to have had great company along the way. It's something I want to go again and also improve on next time. This ski to bike to climb has plenty of room for improvement. One way to do this would be to ski from the tallest point of the La Sals, the summit of Mt Peale. I also see potential in a loop traverse, from town to town. Maybe that will be a goal for next Spring!

Ellingwood Couloir of the Middle Teton, East Ridge of the South Teton, East Hourglass of Nez Perce, East Face of Teewinot 4/11-4/14

Well this write up is long overdue... Two weeks ago Brett and I took a trip up to the Tetons to get in some steep skiing along with scouting out a few lines for future trips. We were more than psyched about how things turned out!

Friday evening we arrived at Taggart Lake Trailhead around six after the 5 hour drive from Salt Lake. The plan was to camp up Garnet Canyon for two nights and ski whatever we wished for those two days, with endless possibilities. After packing up and getting everything ready we hit the trail at seven, with some gorgeous views of the Tetons as we approached Garnet Canyon.

Crossing Bradley Lake on Friday Evening

The skinning ended up being a lot easier than I expected. After crossing over Bradley Lake we began the uphill approach into the canyon, with more than enough snow to keep the skins on the entire time. Several hours later, in the dark of night, we started looking for potential campsites. We found what appeared to be the safest and most comfortable spot, tucked behind a large boulder somewhere between the meadows and the platforms. We dug out a trench platform for the tent, boiled water, cooked up some mac n cheese, and got to bed before midnight.

Basecamp

The 4 a.m alarm sounded and we were up getting ready. Although we weren't too pressed on time stability wise thanks to the cooler temps, we were psyched to ski and that kept us moving at a steady pace throughout the morning. We started moving up the left fork as a beautiful sunrise started to illuminate the surrounding mountains. Our plan was to summit the Middle Teton via the Southwest Couloir and ski either the Ellingwood couloir, East Face, or Southwest Couloir. We passed underneath the Ellingwood Couloir on our way up and admired how fun it looked. As we neared the top we came up with our plan to ski Ellingwood and then if we were feeling good go back up the South Teton.

Heading up the left fork of Garnet

Brett ascending the Southwest Couloir of the Middle

Great views of the Grand from the summit of the Middle

From the summit of the Middle Teton we snapped some pictures of the Grand Teton (scouting out the Ford-Stettner Couloir), and threw the skis on. The first few hundred feet of our line drops into the East Face for some steep and fun turns. As the east face continue skiers left into the Glacier Route, we approached the entrance into Ellingwood and got a glance of our descent. It looked sweet!! The couloir is somewhere around 1500 feet and steep the entire way. During the crux of it I would say the angle gets to around 50 degrees. We skied this run out to the bottom and collapsed under our tired legs, psyched none the less.

Epic hop turn to start out the run

East Hourglass Couloir in the background

Enjoying the steep skiing in Ellingwood

Ellingwood couloir

We took 20 minutes or so to enjoy some lunch of crackers, cheese, trailmix, and snickers before throwing the skins back on and making our way back up to the saddle between the Middle and South Tetons. From here we followed the Northwest couloir up to the summit of the South, enjoying some fun scramble terrain near the top.

Brett making his way up the Northwest Couloir of the South Teton

About to summit

We opted to drop in the East Face/East Ridge. To get to this you continue a hundred feet or so east to a false peak where you can see your line. The first few turns were steep, probably over 50 degrees and any fall here would be very high consequence. We picked our way through this upper cruxy section and it started to mellow out a little bit further down. Many of turns later we arrived back at our base camp, psyched on the successful day. It was about 2 p.m. and it was gorgeous out. One of the highlights of the trip for me was sitting out in this beautiful area that afternoon, boiling water and soaking up the sun. We cooked an early dinner and were ready for bed before eight, just as some snow started falling.

East Face/East Ridge of the South Teton

Steep skiing at its finest

The next morning we woke up surprised to find that there was a solid 6-8 inches of snow on the ground, and it was still coming down. We got ready at a much slower pace this morning, but finally put on the wet boots and stepped out into the winter wonderland. Still not too sure what our goal for the day would be, we made our way up canyon as we watched sluffs pour off the huge walls of Nez Perce and the Middle Teton. Every 20 seconds or so snow would, and we would watch it either dissipate from the wind or softly hit the ground. We made our way up the apron of Nez Perce, thinking of getting in some powder turns just throughout the apron. However, we crept up to the enterance of the Hourglass couloirs and the East Hourglass particularly looked like there wasn't very much activity on the walls. Everything we did see looked plenty manageable. Thus it was decided, head up East Hourglass Couloir and continue to evaluate what the snow was doing.

A winter wonderland in Garnet Canyon

What seemed like a million switchbacks later we approached near the top of the couloir. The very top was guarded by what looked to be some 5th class climbing and not the best place to be when snow is sluffing into you. We found a good place to switch to ski mode near this and got ready to drop just as it started to clear up. The run was amazing. About 40 degrees the entire way down the couloir and so much fluffy snow that covered us with each turn. It was impossible to not howl our way down this one. Even the apron had great skiing and we continued to get faceshots all the way to the bottom of our run.

Brett enjoying the great snow down East Hourglass

As we got back to camp and started packing up a party passed us that had just got turned around on the Stettner Couloir. We chatted for a bit and I asked about the conditions in the Stettner. Sounds like it's looking pretty good this season, definitely an objective for the next few weeks!

The snow got pretty heavy as we exited Garnet Canyon, and really tested our tired legs which were already supporting heavy backpacks. Eventually we made it back to the trailhead and were offered some beers by the party that skied past us. Hard to resist this, we relaxed in the parking lot and chatted with them for a while before eventually stuffing our gear and making our way to town.

Over pizza we discussed our options for our last morning. We were both psyched to go take a look at the East Face of Teewinot in the morning. Unfortunately this meant a 10:30p.m wake up, just a few hours away. We managed to get a few hours of sleep at the Taggart Lake Trailhead before waking up to a chilly night. Not having bikes, we were forced to walk 4 miles on the road to the Lupine Meadows Trailhead down the closed road. The moon shining down on the Tetons was inspring as we made the walk in about an hour and a half. The entire time my gaze was focused on the North Face of the Grand in all its beauty. A road branching of this main road brings you right to the bottom of the face. From here, 5600 feet verticle to the summit. We slogged up more than half the face with nothing too eventful occuring. Both tired, there really wasn't too much discussion. Shortly after making our way out of the trees the cold air really took over and forced me to fully layer up, and I was still cold. We put in a booter for another thousand feet or so. As we neared the top, somewhere between 500 and 1000 feet away, we started to notice that a few wind pockets were getting more responsive. As the face got narrower and moved it's way through an upper rockband we decided to call it. Even a small slide could have higher consequences up here if it knocked us off our feet and we didn't want to push our luck.

Teewinot East Face

Making our way up Teewinot in the freezing cold

Confident that we made the right decision, we transitioned to ski mode right as the sun started rise to the East. We enjoyed about 5,000 feet of skiing to a magnificent sunrise. The walk back to Taggart Lake was less than ideal, but some breakfast burritos in town made up for it. A quick drive to Salt Lake and I made it back for my 4 o clock class. We were both psyched on the weekend and psyched to come back in just a few weeks for some more steep skiing.

Psyched on a sweet weekend

Cold Fusion Couloir 4/7/14

 Brett and I spent the car ride back from leading a trip in the Uintas thinking about what we wanted to ski the following morning. Later that night we finally came to the conclusion of checking out some of the terrain on Timpanogos, specifically the Cold Fusion Couloir.

Picture Stolen from Google Images?

Not too sure how long it would take us and having to get back for work at 1, we gave ourselves plenty of time. Reading trip reports of it taking really fast people 8 to 8.5 hours, we met up at 1am at Bretts house and did the hour drive to Mutual Dell Campground up American Fork Canyon. We parked at the furthest parking lot, crossed through the gate, and started up the Bear Canyon Trail sometime around 2:15.

Right from the start we got into a good pace and made the 2 mile hike to the intersection of the Timpanokee Road in less than an hour. Continuing on the road, we made it to the base of Cold Fusion couloir in around 2.5 hours. Still feeling really good we started up CF with the skins on, and were able to keep them on the entire way of the false summit above the line. We moved really effeciently the entire way up, only spending a few minutes each break grabbing some water and always having one of us breaking trail. Every 10 minutes or so our view changed thanks to a beautiful sunrise. At first the city lights illuminated the night. As the sun started to rise the gorgeous views of the south side of LCC ridge came into view. We topped out our line, 5-6 miles and 5k-6k vert later, in a little over 5 hours.

Making our way up with a gorgeous sunrise as inspiration

Managed to capture the rare occurrence of Brett eating it on a kick turn. What a gem, sorry Brett!

The South side of LCC Ridgeline

We had to throw the skis on the pack for the final 100 or so feet to the false summit

Sunlight at last

Topping out

We threw down the skis on top of the false summit and made our way over to the North Summit of Timpanogos. This involves nothing more than some easy class 3 ridge scrambles and avoiding the monster cornices above the east side. On top of North Timp we signed the summit registrar, took some pics and headed back to our skis at a leisurely pace.

Gotta sign the summit book

The other summits of Timpanogos, containing many classic ski descents, in the background

Brett returning from North timp to the false summit

On our way back to the skis we took some more time to inspect the Grunge couloir, dropping east off the saddle between North Timp and our false summit. It's such a sick looking line, inspiring me to come back and check it out!

The Grunge couloir from the saddle

Grunge couloir, taken on the exit

We threw on the skis and made a few turns on the rocky and windscourned terrain before getting into the actual couloir. From here the snow was superb. It was soft and playful, with very little wind crust getting in our way. We howled down the 3,000 feet couloir, enjoying some cliffs and little chutes on the outside of the couloir, until it entered into a gully skiers right and made our way back to the Timpanookee road. On the way back we only had to throw the skins on for about 15 minutes to get up one section, and skated the rest of the way. Arriving to the car, we glanced at the time and it was 10:20a.m. 8 hrs car to car, not bad at all. Now off to Chipotle for some victory burritos!

Looks similar to the shadows I saw atop the Grand Teton at sunset, psyched for some upcoming Teton trips

Psyched to ski!

Hop turns for the first few turns

Enjoying soft snow in the couloir

Powdaaa

Stoked on the great skiing we just had

North Timpanogos, taken from the exit

Adventure skiing through Coalpit Headwall/ Coalpit Gulch 3/24

Two hours into the morning I thought Brett and I had made a mistake in even coming out this way. The last two hours we spent wandering in circles throughout Hogum Fork, trying desperately to find the way and had barely made any progress. Sinking into every post hole and battling thick brush, I wished I was back at home sleeping or eating a nice breakfast. Anything but trekking through this shit. Although I had just come up here about a week ago and everything went smoothly, for some reason I couldn't seem to find the 'trail'. About 2 and a half hours in we threw the skins on and it started to go much more smoothly from here. We reached the base of the needle in a little over 4 hours and threw the skis on the pack shortly after. Luckily for us, some much faster skiers passed us and made the booter uphill. It was like walking up a staircase for 2,000+ feet, pretty simple.

Making out way up the apron of the needle, thanks for the booter!

Nice backdrop of the NW couloir of the Pfiefferhorn

Looking down on our run, psyched!

Topping out the chute a little after 9, we enjoyed the already warm sunshine and had some conversations with the other party before they dropped into the needle. We switched to ski mode and made our way over to the top of Coalpit Headwall. It was looking good! 5,000 feet of great skiing lay between us and the road. The snow was still sheltered on the North aspect and it made for some great turns. I dropped first and hollered my way down the headwall. Brett followed and enjoyed the same great snow I just got down from. The two of us made our way into the winding couloir section of our run, Coalpit Gulch. It winded it's way through a gully, until it cliffed out above a waterfall. It was a pretty exposed scramble on some dirt and brush to get to the anchor. Getting through that, we set up the anchor and rappelled alongside the falls. From here we made a few more small downclimbs and exited the gulch right where the rock climb pentapitch starts.

Brett getting in some turns on the lower headwall

So psyched!

Making our way through the gulch

Still psyched!

Hey, there's no more snow

An exposed move to the anchor to spice things up

Brett finishing up the rappel

A bit scrambly of an exit

We ran/stumbled through the screefield and across the river in order to get to work on time (we ended up making it). It was adventure skiing at it's finest. We had some great snow up on the epic headwall section, halfpipe skiing down the gulch, and some sketchy piecing together through the bottom. What a sweet line.

GH