Teewinot - Worst snow of the year

Andy and I both have the week off so we headed up to Jackson with big plans.  On Monday afternoon we pulled into the ever classy (seriously, it's pretty nice) Motel 6 with laundry baskets full of climbing gear, ropes, skis and started packing.  A 2AM wake up found us at the Bradley Tagert trailhead on Nate Brown's bikes(thanks!), with huge packs, starting to ride over to Lupine meadows just after 3.  The plan was to start on the summer trail until the junction and then head into Glacier Gulch.  We've both been on that trail many times but for some reason we found ourselves lost 15 mins in.  An hour later, after mashing through isothermic snow,  we saw faint remnants of a trail and thought we were back on track.  Turns out we made a full circle without realizing it and were stumbling across our own tracks from earlier in the morning.  Good thing we woke up early...

We fought conditions for the next few thousand feet up to Delta Lake.  It was nothing but slop.  I had thoughts of pulling the plug but we figured it would get a little firmer up high. Unfortunately, we continued to have bluebird skies instead of the showers and thunderstorms which were 80% likely.  The sun was not going to do good things to our already soft snow. At least we hit Glacier Gulch in time for a little golden hour,  amazing. 

Just above Delta Lake

Morning light on the Grand and Owen

Trail breaking continued to be problematic all the way up the Southwest couloir where snow consisted of a thin breakable crust on top of more mushy snow.  We fought this up to the notch.  A short down climb and traverse over the East Face and we were on the summit, riding it like a horse.  Pretty sure Andy even spanked it (the summit).  

Andy down climbing to the notch above the E Face

The notch

Summit Ridge

Heading to the summit, photo by Andy

Andy, spankin'

Skies were still blue and it was HOT.  Anything the sun had touched was mush.  Traversing back on top of the East Face it was very clear we needed to get off the mountain, everything was starting to fall down.  We skied what was probably the worst snow of the year while bailing on our big plans.

Andy about to enter the SE

A little farther down

Even lower, the chute continues. Photo by Andy

Defeated

Even though we came up well short of what we had hoped for and the skiing was horrible, it was still a great day.  The location in Glacier Gulch may be the best in the Park.  Weather looks like it'll stay hot or stormy for the next few days so the tentative plan is to go back on Monday and give it another go!

Deseret Peak – With split boarders?

Last Saturday I woke up at 3AM to go ski Deseret peak with Tanner, Jake and a couple split boarders.  Turns out split boarding is SLOW (not the actual riders, but the process).  Luckily Tyler and Joe are pretty cool and like to straight-line chutes. We followed the summitpost.org directions, which had us driving the dirt road towards Loop Campground.  We made it past the first winter gate and were expecting to drive all the way to Loop but ran into a closed gate once we made it to the Medina Flat and the Scout Camp signs.  This forced us to park at Medina and walk the road through the Narrows and up to Loop (roughly 2 miles).  From there, the trail that heads south out of Loop camp ground had us staring at a prominent couloir on the north end of Deseret.  It wasn’t until we were close to the notch that we got a view to the south and saw the Twin Couloirs.  

From there it’s pretty straightforward, take your pick of the two and head up.  The true summit is a short traverse back to the north from the top of the Twins.

The crew heading up

The Stansbury Range to the North from the summit of Deseret

Jake on the summit ridge

Perfect corn from the summit ridge forced us to ski to the SW into one of the many drainages before we headed back to the top of the Twins.   

Jake

Tanner

 Opting for the sun softened East couloir over the still firm West,  we skied/rode a bunch of half thawed wet debris to the base of the chute. At this point, the split boarders said, “we need to just straight-line it and be done with the debris.”  Joe took the lead and did just that.  We all followed, bouncing through the last bit of debris and onto nice Deseret style corn all the way back down.

Jake entering the West Twin Coulior from the east

Joe entering from the west

Tyler mid chute

The trailhead's only an hout from SLC, not too far for a nice change of scenery.

S. Superior - Lucky, Learning lesson's the hard way

Last Thursday Jared and I were all geared up and ready for some steeper ski mountaineering but the new snow had us head toward more "conservative" terrain.  We figured we'd ski the N face of Superior and then either hit Monte Cristo or the S Face of Superior and Suicide Chute.  On the way up we noted 2 small, several inch deep, drifts that broke out on wind loaded northernly aspects.  After getting up Superior we ski cut the N side with no results, we figured any of movement we got would be manageable.  

I skied first, pulled into a safe zone and watched Jared ski by in deep new snow until he yelled "Avalanche!" I watched for a second until he skied out of it.  Looking at the crown it was only 3-5 inches deep.  We laughed.  

Jared, N Superior

Just getting his feet and starting to ski out of the slide

After this little run in, we figured N faces weren't the safest option we figured we better take S Superior out and be done for the day.  Everything we had seen move was on the northern aspects, the new snow had bonded fairly well on S faces, and once again, we figured if anything moved it would be manageable.

I skied first, cut the slope, was happy with the results and went a few hundred feet pulling off in the left side of the far left chute high on Superior.  It's looked like the snowpack got a little boney towards the end of the chute so as Jared skied by I yelled to be little cautious.  Next thing I know he's going cartwheeling over the exposed rock at the end of the chute.  I quickly turned my beacon on and asked myself if it was safe follow.  It was so off I went.  I remember looking at the crown (don't remember how deep) as I skied by, noting that I was skiing on the bed surface and then coming to the rollover where the snow ran out and I was left staring at exposed rocks.  I remember them being big, sharp and all pointing up.  I looked at my beacon and it wasn't picking anything up, for a second I thought Jared's beacon wasn't working.  That's when I started yelling, luckily I heard a response.  I saw Jared down another 100 feet and a little off to the right.  After side stepping through the steep rocks I stepped onto snow again.  Immediately another slab broke loose.  I yelled franticly for Jared to get out of the way until it was clear the slab got funneled away from him.  Jared told me after the fact that he saw the 2nd slide coming but couldn't  do a thing about it.

Note the crack well above Jared

When I first got to him, I gave him a quick once over.  He could talk, he was breathing although it was a little fast, he had a good pulse.  He told me he thought he broke some ribs and maybe his right femur.  I looked at his leg and saw blood dripping from the seat of his pants.  Having just got done working with the trauma team at the hospital for the past month I couldn't help but think the worst.  After discussing our options for a second Jared thought he'd be able to work his way down since his leg was starting to feel a little better.  With the fear of a femur fracture still in my mid, I offered to rig a splint up.  A shovel handle padded with a coat applied with a skin around the thigh and one below the knee.  He thought it was helping so I watched as he began to slowly move.  We were 2000' above the road and it was going to take a little while to get all the way down.

Thinking there was still a possibility that Jared's condition would deteriorate, I decided to call Alta Patrol and see if they could send someone to meet us at the bottom.  Only problem was I didn't have their number.  After calling a few friends to ask for the number and getting nothing but voice mails I decided on 911.  They asked if I thought we needed a helicopter.  I said no but help at the bottom would be appreciated. They were kind enough to mobilize an ambulance and talk with ski patrol and let them know what happened.

As Jared kept working his way down he started telling me he thought his leg was just a muscular injury.  After sliding on his side for a while he decided to stand and give skiing on the good leg a go, he just dragged the bad leg.  This seemed to work well and we were able to keep heading down to the mini crowd of EMS personel that waited.  We thanked them for being ready but declined transport now that Jared had been able tolerate a little weight on his leg.

After getting to the hospital he was rushed in, stripped naked and found to a have a few lacerations (head, leg, butt) one needing stitches, a muscle that avulsed from his femur, cracked ribs,  and a partially torn hamstring.  Nothing that won't fix itself.  It might take a month or three but he should be good as new in a bit.

Reviewing his gear showed a hole in his helmet and a cracked beacon.  Things could have been worse...

Thoughts:
1. We're lucky
2. It's easy to talk yourself (at least me) into thinking that nothing bad will happen.  We've skied all sorts of stuff (maybe we shouldn't have) in moderate danger thinking ski cuts, cornice drops and what not will keep us safe.  Maybe a little more respect is needed.
3. Transporting and injured partner is not easy.  Luckily Jared was able to get himself out almost completely on his own.  It still took a while but if he were unconscious it would have taken forever.
4.  "Manageable" sluff or slides are manageable in some situations, not all.
5.  No body wants to die skiing, not worth it.
6.  Although we were scared to ski for a few days, I can feel myself wanting to get back out and start pushing it again.  It's going to take a little effort to remember the lessons from that day.
7. Wear a helmet!
8.  Be careful!

Also, Jared lost a High 5 with an RT binding and a ski pole.  If these are found I'm sure he'd love to have them back!

Timp, East Ridge -There is still snow to ski!

The avy report from this morning said this is the worst snow year in over 60 years.  Looking around Utah County I believe it.  It also said, "Yesterday it seemed like winter had been cancelled due to lack of interest."  SHAME.  There's stil plenty to be had, maybe not winter skiing but the spring season is here!  

Andy, Swain, and I headed to Mt. Timpanogos yesterday in search of a little corn on the higher aspects.  Andy and I  both had to work until 3:30 the night before so the 6AM wake up felt awful.  2 1/2 hours of sleep for this season's snow seems like bad idea but just isn't.  We picked up Swain and were a little slow getting to Aspen Grove.   A 7:45 start had us all concerned we'd be bailing before we got anywhere due to heat.    

Entering Primrose

Although there wasn't a lot of it down low, firm snow made for great travel conditions, there were only a few spot where the iciness lead to booting.  John was smart/nice enough to bring/share a set of si crampons with me.  To me, these conditions seem appropriate for the ski crampon. It's noticeably easier to walk in them than boot or fight the skinner, they weigh nothing, and are easy to put on, why not use them? 

Firm snow had us booting the steeper sections

Perfect smooth snow and lots of it!

Topping the headwall and heading towards the snowfield we figured the snow would be turning to slop. Luckily, high clouds and a little breeze kept the warming in check.  The plan was to either ski Primrose once the snow got sloppy or head over and ski the west face (less sun exposed in the morning) off of the South Summit.  Since conditions stayed good longer than expected,  we figured we better go at least check out the East Ridge.  We thought is might be perfect corn.

Andy at the Saddle

Heading toward the South Summit

A quick traverse from the S. Summit led to an unexpected rock hard East Ridge.  At least it wasn't going to wet slide on us.  There are a series of cliff bands to navigate which look inconsequential until you were right above them, definitely big. Hundred feet?  We spent a fair amount of time traversing back and forth above them until we could find sneak passages.  This was first time this season that skiing produced, what felt like, a little adventure.

Swain at the top of the East Ridge

Andy above one of the many cliff bands

Swain, more E. Ridge

One of the sneak passages

As we got lower, the snow finally started to soften and we were treated with corn half pipes and wind lips the whole way out, almost...

Although the last 400 meter was a walk through bushes we learned that SKI SEASON IS NOT OVER! It feels like it's just beginning now that the Avy danger is starting to settle out.  Who needs winter?  Spring ski's better anyway, right?

East Ridge in the background