There are several different ways to approach the Hypodermic Needle. One of which is parking at White Pine, crossing over to Red Pine, then Maybird and finally Hogum Fork via Small Pass. A quick ski brings you to the bottom of the needle. I've also heard of people approaching directly from Maybrd, but I wouldn't know the beta for this. Lastly there's the annoying hellish bushwhack up Hogum Fork. After a bit of discussion, we ended choosing to go right up Hogum.
At 2am the next morning I met up with Jon Chandler, Jamie Dillon, and Joe Lohr as we piled in my car and headed up to the mountains. We parked at a trailhead on the right side of the road less than a mile up from the powerhouse. At the trail head there's a sign that reads "Little cottonwood trail". We were going off a collaboration of info we got online and almost instantly got lost, crossing the river way too early. For the better route we should have continued along the trail going up canyon for 5 or 10 minutes until a small trail leads right towards the river, where two logs can help you cross. Despite getting off trail, we managed to find some skier tracks shortly and were able to follow them up to where they met with most of the traffic coming out of Hogum. We made our own skin track/boot pack for most of the way up Hogum, using the wasatch backcountry app to navigate our way.
Sometime between 3 and 4 hours later we got to the apron of the needle. It was just starting to get light at this time, and looking up at the huge steep walls of Hogum Fork quickly got us fired up. Behind us to our left we could see the NW couloir of the Pfiefferhorn, to our right some great views of the LCC south facing slide paths, and in front of us the Hypodermic Needle.
There was a skin track leading up most of the way up from skiers who dropped into Coalpit. When it got to the intersection of the thinner steeper section of the chute we verged left half to see what we would be skiing on and half because we weren't sure where the other skin track was going. We made full use of the whippets and condors we had making our way up the headwall of the chute. Topping out we had some amazing views of the Salt Lake valley and surrounding mountains, not to mention a perfect view of the NE couloir of Lone Peak, a line that might just be #1 on my hit list for the wasatch right now. It's looking good!
We hung out for a bit up top and grabbed a bite to eat before switching to ski mode. Jon dropped first to get into a good position to snap some pics. I'm excited to see how they came out. Knowing his photography skills I'm sure they're awesome as always. I went next. The first few turns were the steepest up top, about 50 degrees. Maybe this is just because it lacked the cornice that it normally has, but I expected it to be a little bit steeper/harder. After hearing so much hype I was expecting to get a bit scared. But definitely no complaints here, this is still a freaking amazing line! The snow was hardest up top from the wind getting to it. After 25 feet of this it transitioned into soft powder still untouched from the last storms. And this is what I enjoyed the rest of the run: amazing snow down a sweet line.
Making it out of Hogum Fork wasn't nearly as bad as it had been last spring exiting from the Pfiefferhorn. We were able to piece together openings for almost the entire way through and skied until we were only a 15 minute walk from the car. After enjoying some delicious snacks such as mint chocolate cupcakes and crackers with goat cheese at the car, quality of Joe, I had these guys drop me off at Alta where I was teaching kids to ski for the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow off to Moab for some tower climbing!
GH
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