yak
New member
I just crawled back from my Utah trip. Here's a quick account and some shots. (You can click on the pictures for more detail.)
Matt and I got to the PowMow condo's by 1:00, and were on the slopes by 1:30. It was storming pretty good, so we stuck to the Hidden Lake chair and banged out some low angle shots in the aspens.
By Sunday our group had grown to 7. We awoke to a bluebird day with 4-6" on top of Friday's snow. We banged out a few loops on the Lightening Ridge snowcat shuttle, knocking off the fluff on the exposed face.
We then decided to hike James Peak and get a fresh line before the good shots got tracked. Here's me having a bad hair day on James Peak.
Here's a shot from the Paradise chair of our tracks down James (viewer's left of the trees)
We then did a couple runs down the backside into Powder Country and caught the shuttle bus back up, mostly boot to knee deep softies in the shadier aspects, with firmer stuff under the exposed areas. Here's part of our group waiting for the bus.
Monday was our touring day with Scott Levine of PowMow Backcountry Tours. (He also owns the condo we rented). It was a partly cloudy day, about 18 degrees. After we did a beacon range check and a beacon search, we started up Ben Lomond mountain. It was my first time skinning, and despite all my training, I was immediately uncomfortable with the pace, but I settled into a groove and managed to never be more than about 50 yards off the main pack. I was actually able to gain ground on the lead group on the steeper faces, as some of the guys on tele gear were having problems with the switchbacks. My new setup rocked - I felt like I could grip on anything!
We split the group at the saddle about 600 feet below the summit. My knee was complaining, so Matt, myself and Lee, our second guide, decided to jump into the nice tree-lined shot we were eyeballing on the way up. We were rewarded with soft creamy turns on lightly settled pow.
We skinned back up to our starting point as the sun finally broke through, revealing a sparklingly beautiful day.
After a second run down a nearby line, we skinned back up a ridge and rendezvoused (sp?) with the rest of the team. We then shredded this nice virgin slope on our way down to the valley.
Our total for the day was 5100' of vertical climbed and skied, and we were all pretty beat at the end of the day.
But that didn't stop us from jumping into the car and heading to Snowbasin for 2-fer Tuesday. The snow in De Moisy and Middle Bowl Cirque was definitely more wind-effected than PowMow, and the steep stuff was really dense.
We worked our way from Strawberry over to JohnPaul, took the can up to Allens' Peak, did a couple of runs down No Name. Here's a shot of the gazex avalanche control thing at the top, or as we dubbed it, the Throbulator.
The snow was deepest in No Name, but just as dense as the rest of the mountain, so you had to have a really light touch on it. Here's a couple of the boys coming through one of the funnels.
I decided to give my knee a break and settled into the sun at the base with a cold chocolate stout at about 1:30.
Back at PowMow on Wednesday, since it hadn't snowed since Saturday, we decided we needed a different approach to freshies. Here's a shot of our high-speed quad coming in for a pickup.
It was my first time heli-skiing, and the three of us had the chopper to ourselves, with just another pair of skiers as a second group. We worked a sunny aspect lower down the ridge from James peak for 4 runs until the sun started to bake things. Here's part of our playground for the day.
We then did 3 runs off the backside in the shady aspect, with lots of trees. It was incredible - we didn't want the day to end. We capped a perfect day with Guiness and cigars on the deck.
Wednesday night coughed up a meager 2-3 inched of fluff, and we spent Thursday searching for freshies inbounds. We found deep untracked in Cobabe Canyon, although the round-trip took over an hour to ride Paradise, Hidden Lake, then the platter, then hike, but that's why you can find untracked at PowMow days after the last storm.
Thursday night intensified, and on Friday morning we started out in 6-8 inches of fresh snow, and it snowed all day in varying intensities. By afternoon, we were finding knee-deep stuff, and by closing bell, we were thigh-deep and face shotting in some of the hollows. We capped it with a run down the back into Powder Country and thumbed back up to the base.
I didn't bring the camera on Friday, as I decided that it would only slow us down. We ended up racking up 28,000 feet of pure pow.
Here's a shot from Lightening Ridge that shows the layout of the mountain and where our condo was.
Later, Jack
Matt and I got to the PowMow condo's by 1:00, and were on the slopes by 1:30. It was storming pretty good, so we stuck to the Hidden Lake chair and banged out some low angle shots in the aspens.
By Sunday our group had grown to 7. We awoke to a bluebird day with 4-6" on top of Friday's snow. We banged out a few loops on the Lightening Ridge snowcat shuttle, knocking off the fluff on the exposed face.
We then decided to hike James Peak and get a fresh line before the good shots got tracked. Here's me having a bad hair day on James Peak.
Here's a shot from the Paradise chair of our tracks down James (viewer's left of the trees)
We then did a couple runs down the backside into Powder Country and caught the shuttle bus back up, mostly boot to knee deep softies in the shadier aspects, with firmer stuff under the exposed areas. Here's part of our group waiting for the bus.
Monday was our touring day with Scott Levine of PowMow Backcountry Tours. (He also owns the condo we rented). It was a partly cloudy day, about 18 degrees. After we did a beacon range check and a beacon search, we started up Ben Lomond mountain. It was my first time skinning, and despite all my training, I was immediately uncomfortable with the pace, but I settled into a groove and managed to never be more than about 50 yards off the main pack. I was actually able to gain ground on the lead group on the steeper faces, as some of the guys on tele gear were having problems with the switchbacks. My new setup rocked - I felt like I could grip on anything!
We split the group at the saddle about 600 feet below the summit. My knee was complaining, so Matt, myself and Lee, our second guide, decided to jump into the nice tree-lined shot we were eyeballing on the way up. We were rewarded with soft creamy turns on lightly settled pow.
We skinned back up to our starting point as the sun finally broke through, revealing a sparklingly beautiful day.
After a second run down a nearby line, we skinned back up a ridge and rendezvoused (sp?) with the rest of the team. We then shredded this nice virgin slope on our way down to the valley.
Our total for the day was 5100' of vertical climbed and skied, and we were all pretty beat at the end of the day.
But that didn't stop us from jumping into the car and heading to Snowbasin for 2-fer Tuesday. The snow in De Moisy and Middle Bowl Cirque was definitely more wind-effected than PowMow, and the steep stuff was really dense.
We worked our way from Strawberry over to JohnPaul, took the can up to Allens' Peak, did a couple of runs down No Name. Here's a shot of the gazex avalanche control thing at the top, or as we dubbed it, the Throbulator.
The snow was deepest in No Name, but just as dense as the rest of the mountain, so you had to have a really light touch on it. Here's a couple of the boys coming through one of the funnels.
I decided to give my knee a break and settled into the sun at the base with a cold chocolate stout at about 1:30.
Back at PowMow on Wednesday, since it hadn't snowed since Saturday, we decided we needed a different approach to freshies. Here's a shot of our high-speed quad coming in for a pickup.
It was my first time heli-skiing, and the three of us had the chopper to ourselves, with just another pair of skiers as a second group. We worked a sunny aspect lower down the ridge from James peak for 4 runs until the sun started to bake things. Here's part of our playground for the day.
We then did 3 runs off the backside in the shady aspect, with lots of trees. It was incredible - we didn't want the day to end. We capped a perfect day with Guiness and cigars on the deck.
Wednesday night coughed up a meager 2-3 inched of fluff, and we spent Thursday searching for freshies inbounds. We found deep untracked in Cobabe Canyon, although the round-trip took over an hour to ride Paradise, Hidden Lake, then the platter, then hike, but that's why you can find untracked at PowMow days after the last storm.
Thursday night intensified, and on Friday morning we started out in 6-8 inches of fresh snow, and it snowed all day in varying intensities. By afternoon, we were finding knee-deep stuff, and by closing bell, we were thigh-deep and face shotting in some of the hollows. We capped it with a run down the back into Powder Country and thumbed back up to the base.
I didn't bring the camera on Friday, as I decided that it would only slow us down. We ended up racking up 28,000 feet of pure pow.
Here's a shot from Lightening Ridge that shows the layout of the mountain and where our condo was.
Later, Jack
