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!

Grand skiing on Grandeur Peak

Grandeur Peak and the west ridge.

So the skiing might not have been "grand" for the most part, but it was still a grand adventure. Grandeur peak is the mountain to the lookers left of Mount Olympus as part of the Salt Lake City skyline. It is a very popular summer hike but very seldom gets enough snow to ski it. However, with all the snow we've been getting in the valley, I figured I'd give it a go.

Reaching the summit with little visibility

The route I wanted to climb and ski was the west ridge. That is the main ridge leading to the summit in the picture above. I thought it would be cool to ski from the summit all the way down to the valley floor. The trailhead for this starts east of the 3300 exit off of route 215 at a public access hiking trail. There was a fairly used skin track in the beginning section of the ridge, where there was some pretty good snow for those looking for a really quick tour. The skintrack broke off fairly soon, and I continued on breaking trail up the ridge. At some parts there was over 2 feet of snow from wind loading that made the trek up tiring and difficult. In other parts, it was almost complete ice and rock. The ridge never exceeded an angle of 30 degrees in places of loading so I judged it was safe to ski. Three hours later I reached the summit in a white out with heavy winds and snow. The ski descent went as followed: low angle deep snow for the first section, the worst/rockiest slope I've ever skied for the second part (should have walked down it), and good skiing with a few rocks for the bottom section. Not the best skiing overall but definitely an adventure, and one of my projects completed.

Skiing down to the valley

GH

Westwood attempt 1/26

Today Justin, Greg and I considered a trek up homicide chute. But lack of snow (thank you week of 40's in the mountains and single digits in the valley) drove us towards the more easily accessible Westwood chute.

Justin and I peeling skins at the mouth of Westwood

If you are looking for a fast tour with a really short approach and some decent turns Westwood is normally a great choice. Unfortunately, due to the warm weather, after thorough assessment we called it off due to conditions. The ski down from Westwood left us with some dust on crust turns. Even with less than ideal conditions and our line left un-skied we here at Hippy Turns still know how to have a good time (as seen below).

Justin gettin' some style points

Although it was difficult to leave her with un-skied, Westwood we will meet again.

The Scythe

All of us managed to forget to set our alarms this morning, so it wasn't until 12:30 when we got up to Grizzly Gulch Trailhead. Forgetting to adjust my brand new Dynafit Mercury ski boots to my bindings put me back another half hour. The plan was to head up the summer road and meet  Justin and Koby at Catherine Pass (they have Alta passes). From there we would see what looks good and get some good turns. It took about an hour to get to get up there, past a few pissed off Alta ski patrollers. Turns out they still don't like you going up their trails. Justin and Kobe weren't feeling too hot, so I continued up towards Mt Tuscarora solo. It was about a fifteen minute boot-pack from Catherine pass up to the summit. Up top I spent a good time trying to get a good look at Seagull chute and other chutes running down Tuscarora Bowl. Due to some big scary cornices, I didn't want to get too close, but Seagull chute is definitely on the hit list for upcoming trips.

Summit of Tuscarora

 From Tuscarora I met two other skiers and continued along the ridge with them to the top of Mt Wolverine. Right as we were approaching the summit, the clouds started clearing away for the first time all day and we could get some good views of the sun starting to come down.

Salt Lake City in the background with the sun coming down

The plan was to drop south down to the parking lot and meet up with Kobi and Justin waiting for me at the car. However, that's a hard thing to do when your standing on top of Wolverine Cirque. Lucky for me, the two skiers I had met on the ridge offered me a ride home if I chose to drop into the cirque, a pretty easy decision. Right from the summit of Wolverine starts "The Scythe", a long thin chute that I've wanted to ski for a while now. Looks like today would be the day. Without too much snow so far this season, it made the descent a bit spicier. It started with 10 feet of down climbing to a sketchy opening to put my skis on. From there, a few tight turns to a mandatory little drop that got my blood going a bit. It was jump turns until the chute bent skiers left into the Cirque. The snow in the chute was pretty hard, but there was good powder to be found in the apron. Overall, the chute was a blast; The Cirque never lets you down. By the time I threw on the skins and made my way to Twin Lakes Pass it was about 4:30. I made some fun turns down the new snow in Grizzly Gulch while the sun was setting. After a late start and sketchy snow, it ended up being a great day of skiing. Lets see whats in store tomorrow. 

Looking down into The Scythe

Overall I was very impressed with my new boots. Big thanks to Sports Loft for doing great work on them. Also big thanks to Keith and Dane at Ski 'N See for the ride home!

Wolverine Cirque

GH