Triangle Couloir - Wow

Triangle Couloir from the road

After Spanish Fork Peak on Monday I thought I would be content for the week. Turns out those good skiing feelings don't last very long. The next day Andy and I started thinking about the next line. We decided that if conditions permitted we'd give the Triangle a go. It's been high on the list ever since Bart and Jared skied it a few years ago and even though we've tried multiple times, we've always come up empty.

Today I thought we'd probably get up there, get sketched by the conditions and turn around. We parked at the Y turnout and were greeted by a handful of coworkers who had just skied the Y.  They raved about stable powder, I was encouraged.  From the parking lot, we followed the skin track all the way down to the base of the triangle. The access almost felt too easy. There was even a bridge to get us over the creek! Before we knew it we were looking up into the chute.  The snow was soft, consolidated powder, sitting on top of a harder layer but as far as we could tell the stability was okay.

The entrance

About to start the roped climbing, photo by AD

We booted/skinned the first 1000' to the base of the actual climbing. Andy got the first lead and made quick work of it. I took the second, shorter lead and it took me a long time. The ice petered out right as the rock wall squeezed down. This left a narrow chimney with crappy ice that was awkward to climb with skis on my back. Luckily the protection was good.

Andy on pitch 1

Seconding pitch 1

Pitch #2, the squeeze lurking, photo by AD

View off the other side

Once we were done with the roped climbing we realized we had about 45 minutes before our turn around time; Andy had to go hang out with Lars. I started coiling rope as Andy gunned it to the top. I barely caught him before we topped out but we made it with a few minutes to spare.  It's nice climbing with someone you're familiar with and who has the same agenda as you. We didn't need to talk, we both knew time was an issue so he put the booter in while I sorted gear. Teamwork.  On the way down the rope work was equally efficient.  No real talking, just moving. I guess there's something to be said for knowing your ski/climbing partners. 

The skiing was fantastic.  We had consolidated powder from top to bottom.  Even though the upper turns were thoughtful and controlled, they were great.  I thought Monday was the best day of the year but today might take that honor. 

Andy near the top

Rap #2

Hurrying home with heavy packs, photo by AD

The lower section, photo by AD

Boulder field just east of the chute

Spanish Fork Peak, The fix I've been wanting

I've been a little grumpy lately and I think it's because I haven't had a nice big dose of skiing in the past couple days.  Funny how that works.  On Presidents' day Mark Hammond posted pictures of Spanish Fork Peak and it looked amazing. After seeing these, Andy and I (who are always fans of Utah County) figured we had to go ski the prominent burn on the west side of the Peak.  I thought it'd fill my ski needs (which seem to be increasing).

We drove the short hour down to the neighborhood of the base of Spanish Fork Peak and skinned directly from the car. After breaking 5600' of trail, we found ourselves standing by a massive cairn on the summit under blue skis.  It was beautiful. We ate some food, drank some Coke and then headed down a west trending ridge until we were on top of the burn.  From here the skiing was fantastic, even better than expected.  We had powdery turns for 5600' though the burned trees and then a little half pipe gully all the way back to the car.  It seems like the low elevation snow is making access to a bunch of these peaks in the Wasatch pretty easy, almost too easy.  I wonder why more people aren't checking them out?

Yesterday was a magical day and I've had my ski fix for now.  The problem is I don't think it'll last too long...

Andy heading up

View to the North

Wind feathers, photo by Andy

Andy gaining the summit ridge

Traversing to the summit

Andy in the burn

Lower

Even lower

Also, the last of the Citizen's Series Skimo races will be tonight at 7 at Brighton.  Don't forget to fill out the following questionnaire for a chance to will a new pair of La Sportiva skis!  

Vertfest/Ski mountaineering topics

I'm heading up to Seattle for the weekend to race at Vertfest and then give a clinic on ski mountaineering.  Beside the importance of pre-race Pei Wei here's a list of potential topics; I figured I'd bring the list and let the group decide what they want to discuss.  We'll be on the snow and there should be a few rock outcrops to practice on. Anything else I should add?  Suggestions are appreciated!

Airport Pei Wei!

Rappel
     - deadman
     - v thread
     - natural anchors
     - equalizing
     - 6mm cord
     - prusiks-back up
     - fireman's

Knots
       - edk
       - water knot
       - double fish
       - munter
       - clove hitch
       - prusiks

Gear
     - placing pins
     - nut/cam placement
     - sharpening tools?
     - spinner leash
     - adz vs hammer
     - ice climbing with ski boots
     - whippets
             - uses:  ice removal, easy ice climbing, "dry tooling,"
     - ski crampons
     - skins- mohair vs nylon
     - skis

Glacier travel
      - rescue
             - prusiks
             - 2:1 pulley
       - Kiwi Coil

Clothing?
     -layers
     -soft vs hard shell
     - gaiters

Cornice Drops

      - stomping
      - cutting

Ski cuts

Nutrition?

Transitions
      - efficiency
      - skis on pack
      - ripping skins

Training
       - intervals
       - long days

Rainier through a window

Freeriding on Race Gear?/The Whipple video

Who says you can't freeride on race gear?  Here's Jared on Sportiva RSR skis/bindings and SCARP Aliens.  

How did the landing go?

Also, if you're bored, here's a very amateur video of one of the ski days Josh and I had last week.   

The Whipple from Jason Dorais on Vimeo.

The Whipple Couloir and the Waldo Chute - Forcing a weather window

First of all, congrats to the US Ski Mountaineering team for all their recent success over in France.  Andy wrote about the most the Teams race here. He and parnter Tom Goth were 20th even after a few skin disasters!

New snow is great but it always puts a damper on my skiing plans.  Josh Anderson and I headed towards the Whipple Couloir on Friday under clear skies only to be greeted with 30mph winds and heavy snow an hour into the day.  We pushed on to the entrance but with zero visibility turned back. Since the storm was forecasted to last a few days I thought I'd be relegated to skiing mellow powder runs.  I went to work that night expecting to get off in the morning, sleep a bit and then ski the new, boring, blower powder.

Over Friday night no snow fell.  The storm stalled to the west and as I was driving home at 7:30a the Oquirrhs were drenched in sunlight and, although the Wastach was still in the clouds, it looked like it might clear.  The new forecast predicted the snow to start early in the afternoon.  I figured if I wanted to go ski something interesting I'd have find a partner and go right away.  I called Josh and immediately he said yes.  20 mins later we were heading back up towards the Whipple. 

Josh Anderson looking for the entrance to the Whipple under clearing skies

Thanks to whoever put a skinner in right to the entrance of the Whipple and then decided not to ski it.  They left us with first tracks down the supportable crust and avy debris. Beautiful.  Regardless of how mediocre the snow conditions were, it was worth skipping sleep to be in such an amazing location.

Josh high in the Whipple

Lower

Even lower, photo by Josh

As we kept skiing lower, the snow kept getting worse.  Our supportable turned into breakable which turned into bushes.  At that point we looked to the east and started talking about the Banana Couloir (Waldo Chute on wasatchbackcountryskiing.com).   Two days earlier I had been on Kessler with Jared and we chatted about skiing it at some point in the near future.  Josh had also looked at it from Kessler a few weeks earlier and although we weren't sure, thought it might be up and over the east side of the Whipple. 

Jared pointing at the Banana from Kessler

The lack of sleep still hadn't caught up yet and we figured we could climb the 1000 or so feet up to the ridge to look for the Banana and if we couldn't find it, retrace our steps back up the Whipple and out Neff's.  We wallowed, skinned, scrambled our way up to Peak 8775 laughing as we watched the thick clouds slowly roll in.  

Heading up from the Whipple to Peak 8775

Google earthing our location in a whiteout

Once we summited peak 8775 the storm was full on.  We couldn't see more than 50'.  I thought there was no way we would find the Banana and was ready to bail but Josh convinced me to traverse south a bit more and have a look around.  We pulled our phones out and luckily the AT&T signal was great (I get NO signal in my house and have to talk out side!) so we looked at Google earth.  The trees were scattered and as we moved from one to another our blue dot followed. Trusting our location (standing under a lone tree and seeing your dot line up is pretty convincing!), we skied until we were lined directly up with the chute and cautiously dropped into the storm.

Screen shot showing us about to enter the Banana

We saw next to nothing of the Banana but from the few glimpses I happend to get, it was as stunning as expected.  Rock lined and wide enough to make big turns but narrow enough for a little ambiance.  From the base, the bushwhack out was relatively easy.  We skied alongside a stream, crossed it a few times and 30 mins later popped out at the S curves. 

After a hitchhike to the Park and Ride and a shuttle service by Amanda (THANKS!) we were at Lone Star eating some fat burritos.  Given only a couple hours of blue skies I'd say we did pretty well for ourselves.  Also, I'm always bringing a phone from now on!

Josh entering the Banana

Wasatch Citizens Series Race #7 - SkiMo psych is building!

I normally don't get too excited about writing race reports but today is different.  We had our 7th race of the Citizen's Series last night and it was a good one.  Layne Caldwell, Jared Inouye, and Teague Holmes set up a great course with two short 250 foot climbs.  The format was a relay and teams were required to have one guy on race gear and one on fat skis.  To start, the 60 or so participants formed two lines (race gear in one and fat skis in the other) and then paired off.  From there it was a tag team effort to see who could finish 7 laps the quickest. 

People went fast, it hurt, some people crashed, blah blah blah.  The race was an amazing workout on a well thought out course but I couldn't care less about that right now.  I'm most excited about the enthusiasm of everyone. There were a lot of fast guys and gals out there and everyone seemed to be psyched to be out skiing and competing.  Living in a relatively large city so close to such a skier friendly resort (Brighton) offers all of us a unique opportunity to help spread the SkiMo psych to the masses.  I think it's catching on.  I heard a few people say, "these races are my favorite thing about Salt Lake City!"

The race enthusiasm carried over to Molly Greens where pies (thanks Layne for buying) were given to the winners.  Vollie stepped it up again and gave out two tourlight probes and a XLM shovel to a few lucky new comers.  Christian and Jim Knight in coordination with Powerbar gave out over a hundred Powergels.  It seems like the swag will keep coming so come race, eat at Molly Greens, win something and be part of the light and fast movement! 

The next race is Feb 19th, 7:00PM. As always, the Ski Trab demo skis will be there so show up a touch early if you're interested in using them.

The line up to pick teams

A blur of racers as their partners watch

Winners of the woman's division

Men's winners

Thomas Fork - Touring paradise

Recently I've been blown away with some amazing mellow touring.  Normally I don't like going to the same place day after day but this close to town drainage has kept me interested for the past 3 days in a row.  It has been paradise for the following reasons:

1. The trailhead is 10 mins from my house.

2. We felt safe going there during this time of higher avy danger

3. 1000' of luge track skinning at the start keeps the crowds away

4. Total vert gain is 4200'

5. The Valley air has been clean

6. Someone put in a PERFECT skinner in

         -All corners are at right angles

         -Never too steep

7. Amazing rimed trees above 7500'

8. The snow is fast, uniform, dense powder

Self portrait with Triangle Peak in the background

Where in the Wastach does the skinner look like this? 

Beautiful rime

Yesterdays tracks with Tom Goth