The Quest

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My quest for a 12-month ski season may have come to an abrupt stop.

I tossed the pup into the truck and took a drive out to the High Uintas yesterday on a scouting mission, looking for something white to justify some turns for September. When will I learn that Tony's always right? :roll: Nothing. Nada. OK, OK...I saw about 2 tiny patches on the northwest-facing slopes of Hayden Peak, but hardly anything worth trudging skis to. There's more snow left in parts of the Wasatch, most predominately on the northeastern side of Mt. Timpanogos, but the snow on Timpy is about 4,000 vertical feet of hiking above the trailhead and I'm not sure that a schlep of that magnitude is justifiable. Maybe I'll get lucky and we'll have a surprise late-September snowstorm at elevation.

Yesterday was hardly a waste, however, as the Uinta landscape was some of the most beautiful that I've seen out here. Unlike most of arid Utah, the High Uintas were a mix of lush (by our standards, anyway) pine forests, glacially-carved lakes, and towering rock summits. Gorgeous! I swung into Mirror Lake and let Zach swim for a while, retrieving sticks from the frigid snowmelt water (the air temp up there at 10,200 feet was a nippy 62 degrees while it was a typically toasty day in the 90s back home in Salt Lake). He spent nearly the next hour in the truck shivering.

Of course, dunce that I am, I forgot my "real" camera at home. #-o I snapped a few pics with the crappy camera function of my Treo, and I'm attaching the better few of those below.
 

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you dont think there will be any snow left in the little cloud area, even if it like 10 feet wide, atleast i wont require much hiking
 
awf170":3ih4z554 said:
you dont think there will be any snow left in the little cloud area, even if it like 10 feet wide, atleast i wont require much hiking
Click to expand...

Not likely, although I haven't been up there in recent weeks to check it out. Little Cloud faces primarily west. There may be something in the bowls below American Forks Twin Peaks, however, although anything that may be there will be littered with rock debris.
 
Admin":8bnzbzru said:
There may be something in the bowls below American Forks Twin Peaks, however.
Click to expand...

thats what i kinda meant... i just was talkin about anything in that area, 7-17 it looked pretty awsome, but its been really hot out there though, right?
 
awf170":388zrg3v said:
but its been really hot out there though, right?
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Typical summertime, daytime temps in the Salt Lake Valley in the 90s or occasional 100s. Knock about 20 degrees off for the temps up in the mountains. Blazing sun every day.
 
Hey Marc -
A+ for giving it a shot! Ya never know! :wink: Cool pics!

I skied in Spetember once -- in New Zealand! What fun if we could pull it off in Utah! :D Have you skied in AUgust/September in Utah before?
 
people do funny things when we're desparate don't we? august turns are work, september turns are luck.

desparate as i was, ready to start skateboarding again, i found some snow on a hike about a week ago. it looked like 3 maybe 4 quick turns. a few days later (aug 18) i decided to hike my ass off again just to strap in on snow and maybe slide a little bit. to my surprise i found a 10'-12' wide chute for about 12 turns hiding away on a northern exposure. HEY! that's what i'm looking for. only 5 miles in too! either way, i got my fix and some good excercise.

hiking that long for those turns should hold me off for another good month. the snowpack was probably about 3' deep and will most likely hold up through early september. i'm betting on snow falling in other places by the end of september, so hopefully i'll be making some fresh track(s) by then (or soon after). still quite a hike, but hopefully i'll make it a 12 month year.
 
i'd wager on new snow more than id bet on old snow... Just my guess! I'm always up for some frosted grass with a couple inches of windblown on top. makes for a groomed sensation... until you hit a rock
 
It's definitely time to check out http://skistreak.com, also based in Utah. In 2004 he got a few turns in Pipeline Bowl in August. There was more snow this year, but also a hotter summer. Timberline closed last week, and with a 155 month streak I don't think he'll give it up without a gallant effort. My guess from the other postings is that he'll go for Mt. Timpanogos.

If you're willing to hit the road, perhaps your friend mapadu knows which 14ers in Colorado might have a few scraps left. Also, the gullies I skied at Mammoth August 7 survived the entire summer in 1983, though we know that was a bigger year than this one.

I'm taking the easy way out. 13 days to Las Lenas!
 
Tony Crocker":1miiq8d2 said:
If you're willing to hit the road, perhaps your friend mapadu knows which 14ers in Colorado might have a few scraps left.
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That's always a possibility, but part of the challenge was to make all of the turns home-grown.

Maybe I can catch a pile of zamboni shavings outside of the E-Center... :roll:
 
I have to disagree on the wait for new snow in September. Anything out here that gets Sept. snow is going to be very high up, and it won't be over grass. Marc is going to need some luck with October in that regard, although Brighton's track record is as good as anybody's (which is still not that great).

And Labor Day does give a 3-day window for an extended road trip if necessary.
 
Given weather trends, almost anyone who wants to do this is going to have to travel some. The only people who can stay close to home are the tele and AT guys in the PNW. It's no accident that most of the people on http://turns-all-year.com/indexyrs.html are based there.

If you browse the Utah-based http://skistreak.com site you'll see LCC has snow in August only about 20% of the time, so his usual past strategy was to fly to Portland and ski Timberline on Aug 31/Sept 1. Those days may be over. The lean 2001 and 2005 seasons have removed the permanent snowcover from the Palmer snowfield, and it's not obvious to me that it will be restored by a couple of good years, given its elevation and south exposure.

As for this year, you have some knowledgeable resources available: skistreak in Utah, hamdog in Montana and mapadu in Colorado. My guess (and this is theoretical, trust the eyewitness research of the 3 above more) is that you should inquire about the San Juan backcountry out of Telluride, Durango, Silverton. Those areas had a big snow year, and there are some 14ers around there above where people usually ski. The paved passes in that area only go up to about 11,000, so you'll also have to research any dirt/gravel summer roads that go higher. Mapadu's part of Colorado (Front Range, I-70 corridor) had a below average season.

While we're at it, here are your chances for October at Brighton from 58 years of data http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/cgi-bin/cliMAIN.pl?utsilv :
5 years 58 inches or more October snowfall (9%)
FYI last year's 77.5 was the record high.
9 years 37-46 inches (15.5%)
9 years 25-31 inches (15.5%)
8 years 17-22 inches (14%)
27 years 14 inches or less (46%)
 
As the editor/head honcho of this actively read site, you should probably contact people at Silverton with regard to your quest. That August 12 picture confirms that the San Juan summer snowpack is at least as good as Sierra or Wasatch this year.

With regard to the September freshies, I've seen those amazing pics the last 2 years, but I'm still skeptical. If it happens again you'll have to have connections with the operators set up ahead, then drop everything and get down there for the day or two the snow is there.

The source of the September/October snow is tropical storms from Mexico. I would expect Wolf Creek to get the maximum amount of snow from those. Wolf Creek has received at least 3 inches precipitation between Oct. 15 and Oct. 31 in 7 out of the last 19 years. Before Oct 15 some/much of that precip is going to be rain, even at 11,000 feet. I do not know whether Wolf Creek was open for October skiing in all 7 of those years. I think it's a safe bet that it was NOT open in the other 12.
 
I agree with awf170. From that pic Pipeline Bowl rates to be similar to August last year http://www.skistreak.com/2004/aug/ . Quote from June 2004 report: "Pipeline Chute is the angled chute high above Pipeline Bowl. It continuously slides into the bowl, creating deep layers of dense pack which last well into summer."

I think October will be more problematical. To my Brighton and Wolf Creek analysis I can add that Mammoth has had October openings in 8 of the past 25 years. But you can always fly to Denver and ski the man-made strips at Loveland.
 
awf170":14scp6zf said:
i bet this snow has atleast a week left in it so you can your turns in

http://www.snowbird.com/ski_board/photo.php?photo=132

sure youll probably only get 5 turns... but its sept.
Click to expand...

It actually looks more promising than that.

We drove up canyon last evening to the Albion Campground. For those who only know Alta in summer, this is underneath the first few spans of the Supreme chair. Now, right underneath the chair no more than 50 yards up from the road there was a tiny patch good for no more than 2 or 3 tight turns. In Devil's Castle, there's a bit more, but it's short, access is across the scree field from hell, and it's got a heinous double fall-line.

However, good ol' Gunsight still has a continuous 300 verts or so of cover on Aug. 23! If it can hang on for another 10 days that'll be a September cakewalk.

There's still decent snow in the several bowls below A.F. Twin Peaks at Snowbird, more than is visible in those photos.
 
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