Holy Toledo 3/3

After spending the last week surfing throughout the coast of California, I was eager to get back up into mountains. While surfing is extremely fun and I thoroughly enjoyed all the time spent on the beach; I gotta admit that it was nice standing up and riding a line for more than 10 or so seconds at a time.

I decided to take a cruiser up to Toledo Peak and get some turns in before work. Parking at the Chapel lot at Alta, it took about an hour to summit. The snow on the north facing aspects looked much better so I chose to drop into Holy Toledo. Holy Toledo goes right off the backside of Toledo bowl into Big Cottonwood. It's fairly wide for the most part, but I was able to find a tighter variation for the top section.

After enjoying the great north facing snow, I made my way back up to Cardiff Peak to return back to Little. The south facing snow was soft and enjoyable corn. No complaints with that either. I made my way back to the car just in time to avoid the snow getting too warm. Psyched to get back on skis again and enjoy the Wasatch mountains!

GH

Monte Cristo Direct 2/5

It had been almost a week since I had last gone skiing. Sickness had me staying on the couch all throughout the weekend and the beginning of this week. I was itching to get out for another adventure and to enjoy all of this fresh new snow. Finally I felt good enough to get out and explore a bit yesterday morning, despite the cold and windy conditions.

With all this built up energy for adventure, Koby and I set our sights on getting after Monte Cristo Dirrectissimo. We pulled all the gear the night before, and then logged a few hours of sleep before setting out early to get on the trail.

The line

It has been pretty interesting seeing all of the traffic heading up Mt Superior these last few days since the snowfall. For this reason I've always called it the Mt Superior Highway, but I really enjoyed another person’s comments on it yesterday, in which you have to go through downtown Los Angeles to get to Superior. None-the-less we were happy to have a well established skin track and booter the entire way up.

We battled through the strong winds throughout the ridge and made it to the summit of Superior in less than 3 hours. Our line drops Southwest, while all the other traffic drops southeast to the classic south face descent. We were very tempted to ski the headwall, where one can get the classic ‘end of the world photograph, but thought that it was best to save that for another day. There was low risk of anything sliding but if anything did go it would be very high consequence.

It was a windy one

As we were getting ready to drop, I heard something funny coming from behind me and looked over to see a slide carrying two members of another party down a north facing slope of Monte Cristo into Mill B South. We had been watching these two ascend the slope for some time now, and were relieved to see the two of them pop to the surface when the slide settled. One had pulled his airbag but still got partially buried. A few yells down to them, and we confirmed they were ok and didn’t need any assistance. Still a bit of a scare to see something like happen so close to you. A further reminder to stay safe out there and always travel at a safe distance from each other in avalanche terrain.

PC: Random dude atop superior, post-slide

We put our sights back on the run in front of us. The psych was high. I dropped first and enjoyed about a thousand feet of thigh deep powder getting to the anchor, howling at every turn. The snow was so light and there was plenty of it. There had been one other to ski this way, and whoever that was cut out the Monte Cristo Gully. More than two-thirds of this decent was untracked..

I inched up and clipped in to the anchor, some old nuts and a peton on the skiers right side of the couloir. I hear that sometimes this first rappel can be avoided with a deeper snowpack but I’ve never seen it that filled in. Koby came in and followed up to the anchor while I got the rope out and started setting it up. The first rappel was only about 15 meters, leading to a snowfield that has a slung tree on the right hand side. I went first since I had done the line before and knew where the next anchor was. The next rappel was about 30 meters and took about the full length of the rope.

We made it through both rappels quickly and found ourselves in front of even more fresh snow. The snow got a bit heavier near the bottom, as expected, but still plenty deep and a lot of fun. As I was cruising to the end of the run I had to make a quick stop, avoiding a 40-50 foot waterfall drop off, blocking us and the road. We had to backtrack a little bit and make our way up the walls of the couloir to exit.

I still can’t get over how much fun this morning was. It was the most snow I’ve skied all season so far, and to do it on such an awesome run just added to the overall experience. Days like this just show me how much fun backcountry skiing is, and reaffirm why I love the activity so much. 

GH

Grivel Condor Pole Review

Last week at the Outdoor Retailer show we had the opportunity to check out some new and old gear from all sorts of companies across the outdoor industry. This place could be called an amusement park for adults, or at least those with the same interests as us. It’s hard to go wrong with an almost endless amount of booths displaying some of the best products around, topped off with free beer..

After walking around for hours and hours, we were psyched to see so many great new products. However, the product we were most impressed by was the Grivel Condor Pole.

Grivel products were brought to the OR show with Liberty Mountain, a distribution company out of Utah. Among the Grivel stand, there were several products that stood out including some ski backpacks I regret not getting, lightweight carabineers, nifty ice screws, and the condor ski pole.

This was the first time I had seen the Condor, although I hear it has been around for several years throughout Europe. After messing around and inspecting the display model at the stand, we were more than curious about how they would hold up in the mountains and jumped on the opportunity to try them out.

Justin making his way up Tanners Gulch

The next morning we were headed up Tanners Gulch; Grivel Condor in one hand and BD Whippet in the other for each of us. After Plan A of ascending some sketchy couloir and skiing the Southeast Face of Sunrise Peak failed, Plan B was a go. This consisted of spending the next hour until the snow got to optimal condition testing out the Condor in steep uphill travel and its self-arrest capabilities. Here is what impressed us throughout the day:

Retractable Blade: One of the greatest advantages of the Grivel Condor is that the blade has the ability to retract into the handle. By unscrewing a knob, the pick will loosen and can be moved inside the device. This can come in handy if the pick is only needed for uphill travel and self-arrest capabilities aren’t necessary for the downhill. No sense in skiing with a metal blade in front of you when you don’t have to.

Hand guard: We were pretty amazed how nice it was having a hand guard for travelling on all fours through steep uphill terrain. Having the hand guard prevents your gloved hands from taking a dive into the snow with every step. We thought it created a much more fluent process for travelling up the steeps, as well as keeping the hands a bit warmer. The larger handle with a hand guard also gives people the option to use it as a cane for more mountaineering-style traversing.

Rotating Basket: This was another aspect that both of us were greatly impressed from. The Condor has a rotating basket that tilts in each direction. This proved to be very helpful when moving through firmer conditions. It was much easier to get solid contact in the snow with the rotating basket, especially when traversing and going up steeper terrain.

Twist Lock vs Flip Lock: The Grivel Condor comes with a twist lock style for adjusting the pole length, while the Whippet comes with a flip lock system. There have been some past issues with a twist lock system and the flip lock was supposed to address this. However, it seems like the lock system in the Condor is pretty solid, and we’re yet to notice any issue with it. We’ll keep you posted!

Blade: Upon first inspection, it looks like the Condor blade is quite a bit smaller than the Whippet, but after measuring, we found that the blade is only about a quarter of an inch shorter. The one thing the Condor blade does lack is the fin section on top of the Whippet. This can be useful in catching more snow when self-arresting in softer snow. However, when we spend some time comparing the self-arrest capabilities of both poles, we noticed very little difference in the two, as both poles were effective in hard and softer snow.

In conclusion, we’re very excited about acquiring the Grivel Condor and getting to use it more and more throughout the rest of the season. The pole makes uphill travel a lot smoother with the addition of a hand guard and rotating basket. Having the option to retract the pick also makes it a lot easier to opt for the pole when you’re not sure whether you’ll end up needing the blade. Although we hear it can be quite difficult acquiring these poles within the states, maybe we’ll start seeing more of them throughout these next few years.

GH & JT

Spring skiing in January - Tanner's Gulch 1/22

It was some springtime conditions up Tanner's Gulch this morning. An early start, river crossings, battling wet slide debris, sunny skies, and great corn skiing. Sure sounds like spring skiing to me.

Koby, Lucy, and I set off early for Tanner's Gulch, a south-facing slide path up LCC. We battled some icy conditions and frozen wet slide debris on our way up through the bottom section. None-the-less we were psyched on the beautiful morning, and to still have a good ski run in front of us despite the low amount of snow filling in most of the lines I wanna ski.

Shouldering the skis for a quick steep section

Just to get an idea of some of the debris we were going through

Beautiful morning

Near the top of the bowl, Koby had to turn around in order to get to a meeting, but still got some great skiing in on his way down. Lucy and I continued up the final chute section as the snow continued to heat up, getting to prime corn conditions. We ended up accidentally taking the 'scenic route' up a section of this chute, making a little side trip to the ridge separating our line from a parallel couloir leading up to Dromedary Peak. However, from this ridge I was able to scope out this other sweet looking couloir that leads up to the Southeast face of Sunrise Peak (O'Sullivan). Hopefully I'll be getting up to ski that sometime this weekend. It looked so fun!

Booting up the chute

The 'scenic route'

This weekends adventure hopefully!

Lucy topping out the chute

We topped out the chute, snapped some pictures, and switched to ski mode at the perfect time. The snow was warm enough to give us great skiing conditions, but not to the point of any wet slide danger. I dropped first, battling a bit of hard choppy snow in the shaded upper section, which soon transitioned to much softer snow a little further on. Lucy followed and laid out some sweet tele turns down the chute. It's definitely inspiring to see someone charge so hard on tele, or any ski for that matter.

Top of the line

Lucy getting ready to drop

Looking back up the top chute

Enjoying some corn

Lucy sending it

The rest of the run consisted of great corn skiing and tons of smiles. The snow had softened up a lot in the bottom couloir section as well, which made it a bit easier to cross over the debris. With tired legs, we made our way through the shrubs and rocks at the mouth of the Gulch down to the road. A quick hitchhike later we met up with Justin at the park n' ride, who thankfully agreed to give us a ride home.

With no snow in the forecast, it looks like there might be quite a few more 'spring' days in the Wasatch coming up. It's a bummer that this winter's not shaping out to be the greatest for snow fall, but the least we can do is make the best of it. Hard to complain when you're still getting great skiing!

GH

Pinball Alley 1/18

After Greg went scouting up on Superior yesterday for potential lines that could go, he set his sights on Pinball Alley on the south face Superior. It had a single track going into to it and after further scouting from the bottom of the chute, he decided that it could go. It had enough snow in it to fill the tight couloir but not too much that it became unskiable. With high hopes of being able to ski Pinball Alley in these prime conditions, Greg and I headed up Superior today.

Boot Packing up Superior 

Once on the summit of Superior, we skied the top section of the south face and traversed into the top of Pinball Couloir. The couloir is no more then a ski length wide throughout and at it's crux, the slope angle is about 60 degrees depending on the snowpack. Today the snow conditions were ideal in the couloir and it skied awesome. You could make hop turns throughout it and didn't need to straight line any point. We had a great time skiing this classic line.

Our Decent Route

Looking into Pinball Alley

Greg skiing out of the couloir

Until next time!

JT

South face of Superior 1/17

The southeast face of Mt Superior is one of those lines that never lets me down. Every time I go up there I always end up finding great skiing, and have an overall awesome day. It's less than three hours to the summit, and the face spits you out close to your car, with about 3,000 feet of magnificent ski terrain in between. Not to mention the great views you get the entire way up.

South face of Mt Superior

Hiking up

However, this time I actually didn't think the skiing was going to be that good. After a week of sunny skies and temps up to the the 40's, I was pretty confident that I would be battling some sort of strong crust for most of the descent. I set out with the goal of scoping out two other lines up there that I was curious weather or not they had enough snow yet: Monte Cristo Direct and Heart of Darkness. After making it to the summit in a little over two and a half hours, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was still a good amount of fresh snow up there. Where there wasn't fresh snow, the snow was soft and untracked, which made it possible to gain speed and throw in some big turns down the face.

A bit of scrambling on the ridge

Psyched!

3,000 feet later and I was back at the road, psyched on the conditions, great Wasatch weather, and the company of skiing with some new friends I met on the way up. Now that conditions are starting to stabilize, at least on some south facing terrain, it looks like it's time to take advantage of this and get on some steep terrain. About time!

Ben on his way out of the first choke

Great run

GH

Cliff lines on Cardiff 1/15

Looking for a quick tour before class. Justin, Magnum, and I headed out Wednesday morning to take advantage of all the fresh snow before it warmed up in the afternoon. We headed up Cardiff Fork without too much of an idea of what we wanted to ski, just happy to be outside. The possibilities were skiing Two Trees, Little Superior, or finding some cliffs in Cardiff Fork to mess around with. After a great last few powder days up at Alta, we were psyched on getting the adrenaline going again. Cliffs it was.

Taking off in the morning, all smiles

Justin fell into a bit of snow as we took our skins off

Cardiff Ridge (Picture taken two days later)

After accessing the conditions we opted for a double set of cliffs that ran skiers left. Justin went first as we snapped some pictures of him on the first hit. Then went Magnum, and I took up the rear. Following the cliff lines we enjoyed some great powder turns on our way out. One of our favorite parts of the day was the whole process of scouting out our line, accessing conditions, and then sending. It's one thing to stomp cliffs in the resorts, but in the backcountry there's a whole other aspect of fear and risk that has to be countered. It makes it a bit more exciting, and a lot more rewarding when you end up having a great line.

Our line of choice, the double set. (Picture taken 2 days later)

Justin going big on the first hit

Magnum post-send

Getting some freshies on our way out

GH