4-28-2011 South Faces, Bighorn and Lone Peak

Andy and I talked a Zak and Adam into joining us for a huge day(didn't really have to talk them into anything, they're normally down).  Unfortunately, the warm weather scared us out of giving it a go.  Instead, we decided to head up a line we've talked about quite often but never skied on the south side of Lone Peak.  Snow was firm and fast and before we knew it we decided to detour up to the top of Bighorn.  The skiing off the summit was breakable crust, fun.  It makes me laugh. 

Andy and Zak (lower right) off of Bighorn

 From there we headed over to LP.  There was a lot of debate over a few different ski lines.  We ended up playing around on Question Mark Wall and then headed out the way we came.  It was too hard to pass up a few thousand feet of fun corn/slush skiing.

Andy about to ski off QMW (Got a couple but missed the best shot on the way down, lame.)

Andy

Adam, Bighorn in the background

4-27-2011 NW, Pfeif, no rope!

CJ, Has and I got a nice 9:00 start in sunny weather.  The plan was to leave the ropes and harnesses in the van and head for the rarely filled in NW couloir of the Pfeifferhorn,  We had the privilege of breaking trail most of the way and right around Red Pine Lake we were caught by A Okeefe.  He wanted in on the ropeless descent and the breaking, who were we to say no?

The boys on the ridge

Weather stayed pretty amazing throughout the day, mostly sunny, still.

The upper section was a bit icy but throughout the majority of the chute we found nice heavy powder.  I haven't skied with many tele skiers but Has and CJ skied!  REAL tele turns throughout the entire NW, even through the steep icy choke that's normally rappelled.  Almost made me want to buy a pair of those heavy awkward boots and bindings, almost.  

Has rallying

CJ towards the choke

Adam skiing the rappel

The lower apron was ridiculous.  Deep, fun.  Overall, an amazing day.

4-26-2011 John Swain Powder

I haven't skied with John for probably a month, I'm glad he came today.  I didn't have car that would make it up the canyon, John did.  I didn't have tip attachments on my skins, John had one extra and some duct tape.  I didn't have mittens, John did.  Andy claims he's my daddy but today John was.  The skiing was pretty amazing, powder is fun! 

Swain

Photo by John Swain

 This good day ended with Barbacoa and some blueberry pie!

4-24-2011 The Great Chimney

Today turned out to be a spicy little Easter.  Having been recently turned back from the Great Chimney we figured we better go give it another go. If we would have known how steep and icy the "skiing" was, maybe we wouldn't have gone.  The climb up was pretty fantastic though, I wasn't expecting to climb any real ice since the weather has been warm but...

ICE!

Photo by Andy

Looking down after the steepness eased a bit

After getting through the ice bulge/chimney we turned right and headed up an icy chute.  Andy measured this at anywhere between 58 and 62 degrees.  Turns out that is STEEP, especially when it is NOT soft.

Andy and Lars, hard to tell but this is 60+ degrees

We were a little scared to ski this icy death trap (happened to have a double fall line too) so we built a mini anchor and skied the top part belayed.  Once off belay we made approximately zero turns until we rappelled past the ice bulge. From there the high 40 degree to low 50 degree slopes felt tame.    

Knifeblade anchor

Lars, 60+ degrees

Lars, no rope, a bit of fear(Andy's photo)

Andy

Lars past the ice, still steep but less icy and much less scary

Down by noon with enough time to enjoy Easter! Once again, Lars earned an A for climbing.

4-23-2011 N. Ridge, Pfeifferhorn

photo by Jared
Annotated by Andy

Lars was in town, what a treat.  We decided to head up the N ridge of the Pfeif and then down one of the unnamed chutes to the NW.  Our idea of hitting a few other lines in the area changed once weather rolled in.  At least part one went as planned.

Lars gaining the ridge 

The start of the roped climbing

Lars nearing the crux

Andy's leg, our line below him, and a bit of air

Andy pulling past the last of the difficulties

Andy and Lars close to the summit

 Once on top we chatted with few guys from the county, ate some food, and got psyched to pick our way down terrain that was unknown to us.  A little bit of gear and two 60 meter ropes led us to a nice NW facing shot that provided a mostly clear exit.  An icy choke with rocks down the middle of it was the only interruption.  It led to a little bit of "freeride" practice.

Lars

Andy about to jump off a rock, guess how that ended...

Lars heading home

For some reason grades were given out today.  Lars gets an A- for his climbing and an A for his "freeride"skills.  Not bad.

4-22-2011 Great Chimney Attempt #1

Not much to say about today.  We started in the dark, got lost, ended up geting bagels at 8:00AM.

The Boys happy to be separated from the base of the Great Chimney by a rather large cliff band

4-21-2011 Most of Suicide, Homicide

I little morning ski with Adam was just what I wanted today. I made it about 3/4 the way up Suicide chute when I realized I didn't have my beacon, stupid.  After a quick ski down I rejoined Adam as we wallowed through the last few hundred feet.

Adam, thigh deep.  It got deeper.

 Getting around the cornice turned out to be a little harder/sketchier than expected.  We finally decided to "chimney" up with some rock on the right and icy cornice on the left.  I was pretty steep and the whole time we were blasted in the face with spin drift.  I got pretty nauseous from the cold, I guess I'm not used to high wind and spindrift to the face.

photo from www.tetonsandwasatch.com by A. Okeefe

Adam, laughing? 

The ski down Homicide was great for the upper 2/3 and then turned into debris.

Adam

More of the same

Another by Adam

Another good day!

4-20-2011 Twins Fail, again

We both knew there was a good chance we'd be bailing on the day.  I thought it would be more of a weather issue, I was wrong. After ideal skiining conditions we were at the base of Bonkers and decided to dig a bit. We dug an isolated column, an extended column and a Rutschblock and didn't really like the results.  Not wanting to quit skiing at 7:00 AM we decided to head up a "safer" route and reevaluate once we were a little higher.  Once again we performed 3 tests and once again didn't like the results so we left. Oh well. Too cautious?

Jared digging through the weak layer consisting of  a few inches of slush

 The results of the 2nd Rutschblock...

Debris 

On the way out this moose walked with in a hundred feet of us.  I thought we were going to get trampled.

Moose

4-16-2011 The Y (Coalpit/Needle fail)

For the second time this week I found myself eating and sleeping instead of finishing plans.  Tanner, Zak and I followed an amazing preset booter all the way up the Y this morning.  The top was as filled in as I've see it all year, absolutely no rocks showing.

Tanner gaining the ridge

Once we looked south towards the Coalpit headwall we saw this.

White

After sitting around for a little while the could cover just got thicker.  We all remembered reading about a small storm coming and weren't too psyched about skiing in a white out so we decided to turn around and ski out the Y.  

Zak Foy 

An hour later we were at Five Guys eating cajun fries and burgers while watching the clouds clear. Lame.

4-15-2011 Freeride on Timp

Andy's calling this the Bart Couloir

We were going to ski on Cascade today but Andy looked at the south end of Timp on the drive down and became fixated on one of the west facing lines.  This may be the first time I'm glad he was looking at the mountains while driving.  We bush whacked for a bit, changed plans to a more shaded chute after rocks came whizzing by every few minutes and eventually found some high quality corn to ski.  On the way down, Andy saw a little wind lip and suggested we take a few pictures in honor of Bart G.  We miss our freeriding friend.  A little skiing followed by a pizza buffet = perfect.

Thick! Photo by Andy

Andy

Photo by Andy

Andy on corn down to the County