Kessler Peak - West Couloir

This mornings destination was the West Couloir of Kessler Peak. With the warm temps we've had all this week, I opted for the early start to avoid messing around on the slopes during midday. I got to the trailhead before 7:30 and started up Argenta Slide Path. About 3 hours later I was at the top of Kessler. While it's hard to notice that theres any sort of couloir, the route starts right from the summit and drops west down the bowl on the opposing side of Argenta. Theres a band of exposed rocks that may make skiing right into it from the summit difficult, but it is easy to go skiers right to avoid them. It starts as a treed-in bowl, then a gully, then a chute, then an open bowl, another chute, a winding gully, and then a drop off... I had read in Andrew Mclean's guidebook "Chuting Gallery", that there's a cliff you avoid to skiers right, but didn't expect to have to take off the skis and do some downclimbing to get through. Makes it more adventurous though. The route then follows the gully into Mineral Fork where you can cruise out the canyon easily. According to my odometer, the parking for Argenta is about 1.3 miles up from Mineral Fork Trailhead. During the descent, I found fresh snow in the open and tree-proceted sections of the couloir. The tighter parts were full of icey debris but not steep enough to make it a problem. I could imagine that with better conditions this line would be almost equal to all the other great lines down Kessler Peak.

Beautiful day up in the Wasatch

First tight section of the couloir

Second tight section

If the snow was a bit softer this would make a fun drop. Icy landings makes a fun down climb skiers right

Enchanted forest of aspens on the way into Mineral Fork

GH

Apollo Couloir 3/8

Apollo Couloir runs off North Olympus right to the valley floor. It is a run I've wanted to check out for a while and with bad visibility at upper elevations, we decided to give it a go. After parking at the same trailhead for the West Slabs (Medusas Face), you continue up the trail past the creek leading to the face to the next gully heading up the mountain. There was a lot of avalanche debris at the entrance of the couloir, making it difficult to get up. Forgetting to bring skin wax led to a lot of snow sticking on our skins, and the quick transition to boot packing. Apollo Couloir has steep rock walls on the skiers left side and the west face of Olympus on the right. It was a really nice couloir and ended up being good skiing as well (minus the debris at the bottom). On our way out we tried to continue down the gully instead of branching out the way we came. This led us to a forest of shrubbery that was almost impossible to get through with getting stuck every few minutes. Eventually we found our way back to the car right as the clouds were rolling in.

Moving through the debris

Gaining the top of the couloir

First turns

Nico making turns

Justin making some turns

Half way down

Greg finishing up the bottom of the chute

Y Couloir 3/6

After not skiing for the last two weeks during our spring break climbing and surfing trip in california, we were eager to get back into the swing of skiing. While we were away we also got some more snow, enough to fill in the Y Couloir. The Y is a long couloir running off the south side of Little Cottonwood, west of Hogum Fork and leads up to Thunder Ridge.

The Y Couloir (Taken from tetonsandwasatch.com)

After parking at the Lisa Falls Trailhead follow a system of trails leading towards the couloir and you will  find one of the several river crossings. Once past the river, simply continue south towards the entrance and you will come out right at the base. Such an easy approach is one of the reasons the Y is so popular. The rest is quite simple, 3,200+ of boot-packing. At the first fork go right and at the second fork go left.

Booting up

Broads Fork Twin Peaks with Lisa Falls running off of it

We were lucky to have a group of skiers in front of us who laid out the booter. We stopped at the end of the couloir about 50 feet before it tops out on the ridge. If you continue the extra 50 feet you come to great views of tons of skiing terrain. However, deep snow and a large cornice blocked us from continuing. The skiing through the couloir had a mixed variety of deep snow, windcrusts, and a bit of slush as the temperatures warmed. We enjoyed the 3200 feet of 40 degree couloir skiing through its entirety. Since the Y leads to several other descents were planning on this winter, I'm sure we'll be up it again soon enough.

Justin making some deep turns up top

Half way down

Greg coming out of the tightest part of the chute

Justin at the bottom

Greg finishing out the run

Justin taking a water break

GH

Tuscarora, Wolverine, and Patsey Marley 2/16

It was a beautiful day. No clouds in the sky and temps around the 40s. We decided we were going to bag three peaks today and ski some chutes along the way. Koby and I headed up to Catherine's pass from the Alta side while our other partner, Orie, headed up from brighton. Our plan was to meet on top of Mount Tuscarora. Once we got on top of Catherine's pass, it was just an easy 20 min boot up the north ridgeline to the summit. When we made it up, Orie was their waiting for us. Our first line of the day was going to be Seagull chute. It starts right from the peak and winds its way down a rock lined couloir before it empties into a nice apron. 

Koby and Orie standing on top of Seagull Chute

Justin enjoying soft turns down Seagull

Orie boarding the apron with seagull chute above him

After finding some soft turns in Seagull chute, we hiked up Wolverine's bowl to get to the top of Mount Wolverine. Once on top, we deiced to drop The Scythe. It started right from the peak and dumps you right into the Wolverine Cirque. The entrance was full of rocks so we had to side step our way into it. Once in, we enjoyed 1000' vertical of chute skiing to the bottom. 

Getting ready to drop the Scythe from the top of Mount Wolverine 

Looking into the Scythe

Justin making his way out of the Scythe

Once at the bottom of the the cirque, we parted ways with Orie and started to make the final climb up Patsey Marley. On the top we enjoyed great views of the valley and had one more run ahead of us. We skied down the west ridge of Pats and enjoyed some soft turns all the way down to our car. The day was over and we bagged three peaks, gained about 4300' vertical throughout the day, and skied about the same vertical. It was another fun day for hippy turns!

Orie saying goodbye

Enjoying the views from atop of Patsey Marley before skiing down to the car

JT

Jaws, Hallway Couloir, Two Trees - Trifecta

It was an early start today. The plan was to leave for grizzly at 6 and meet up with Nico and Hayden who had plans of finding some good snow up in Days Fork. I figured I'd head up with them and get on some fun chutes. The early started ended up paying off on the way up. As we were nearing False Flagstaff we punched put of the clouds and caught some amazing morning views.

After we reached the ridge of Days fork (False Flagstaff) I split ways with Nico and Hayden and went east to scope out some chutes. After scouting out a few, I opted for Jaws chute, a fun line running northeast into Days Fork. The headwall of the chute was steep and rocky so it took a few turns to the leftside in a no-fall zone to enter. Throughout the chute there was plenty of deep snow and even more down the apron. A fun line especially with all the snow.

Hippy Turns down Jaws

From the bottom of Days I headed west back up Upper Days to the ridge coming off of Flagstaff. I was hoping to try and find the entrance to Hallway Couloir and scout it out for another trip. After finding it very easily, almost directly under where the skin track I was on topped out, I figured today was a good day for it. From the start you have to work your way in from skiers left, and then it continues for a long thin shot with tall rock walls on both sides. At the end of the chute, the run continues down "tube" for another 1000 feet or so until it reaches an old mining structure.

Hallway Couloir

Hallway in the center

Hallway is definitely one of the classics. Including the tube its almost 2000 feet long, and has huge walls and tight skiing. From the bottom of the run, it was a fairly long walk up Cardiff Fork to Cardiff Peak. It didn't help that I got completely off track and had to break trail for most of it. After finally reaching Cardiff Peak I decided to check out Two Tress with better viability. The other day Juistin and I dropped two trees with about 7 feet of visibility and spent most of the time trying not to get lost. The snow wasn't nearly as good on a southern aspect, but still a sweet run and a fun option for the exit. 

Looking down from the top of Two Trees

The day totaled about 5000 vertical feet of chute skiing and checking a few lines of my list.

GH

Suicide Chute 2/8

View from the parking

We wanted to get another day of chute skiing before the storm came in later this afternoon, so we set off bright and early for Suicide chute, a line running southeast off of the south ridge of mt superior. We headed up the apron right as the snow started falling.

Boot-packing up the chute

 It took about a half hour to get to the mouth of the chute. From there we threw the skis on the pack and boot-packed the rest of the way. The snow was deep under a strong crust, and it was hard to fight threw it to the top.

Stoked to drop it!

We gained the top of the chute an hour later at about 10,000 feet and threw on the skis. We were able to find some really good turns for most of the run down. Sheltered by large cliffs on both sides, the chute had collected a fair bit of wind-blown snow and didn't have as bad of a sun crust. After a lot of fun skiing down the chute, and some icy debris through the apron, we made it back to the car a little after 10.

First turns

Greg hitting some good snow

JT midway through the chute

JT's variation of the exit

GH

Hippy turns got spoiled- Brundage cat skiing trip 2/2

Last weekend we planed on checking out some new chutes in the Wasatch but at the last moment three spots opened on on a cat trip in idaho. Big thanks to Drew Kadwell. So we headed up to McCall for the weekend. When we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to see that there was two feet of fresh snow on the mountains and a snow cat ready to take us up. We had two great guides, skied endless pillow lines, and got some great shots. ENjoy! 

JT

The Hut

Greg finding some freshies

JT waist deep

Greg throwing in a hand drag

Justin getting the tree tap 

Koby going big

pillow lines for days

Slasher

Hippy Turns!