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 |
Thanks for Sharing, I'm aspiring to do the cold fusion as a mellow re-entry back to my ski mountaineering past. It gets harder to find company as I get older. Y'all still playing in the mountains these days?
ReplyDelete