Liz, Gold, and I skied Canyons. A bunch of wind, snow throughout the day, and whiteout conditions at the top of 9990 prevented us from our planned day of hiking to McDonald’s Draw in the Canyons sidecountry. We wound up hiking 9990 and playing around on the cornice, bowl, and Red Pine Chutes. The snow was actually pretty good until an ice storm moved in. We called it a day and headed home soaking wet.
I wrote up my summary for Ski Day #43 assuming my week of powder skiing was finished. But after waking up early and not feeling as sore from my Thursday crash as expected, I met up with The Mongoose, Powderhound Matt, and Ferrari for a little Canyons sidecountry touring. We hiked 9990, skied down to the saddle, bootpacked Dutch’s, traversed past McDonald’s Draw, and skinned to the top of West Monitor. We reached the top a couple hours after hopping on the Cabriolet from the parking area.
We got some great turns down the face. Then we skinned back up through the aspens and dropped into a little powder field before re-entering Canyons. Awesome day.
Great Week in Review updated:
Gold and I skied Canyons again today. We hiked a couple times. Our first hike was to the top of Dutch’s Draw, my first time skiing that area this season. The second was back to Corn Bowl and into the lower half of Cinder Chutes. The snow was great on Dutch’s, a little set up on Corn Bowl, and deep in Cinder Chutes. Aside from a pretty good tumble I took on some rocks, it was a great day to cap off an awesome week of skiiing.
Great Week in Review:
Gold and I did some hiking and sidecountry skiing at Canyons on Wednesday. We hiked to Corn Bowl three times. Following this route each time:
Avoid beginners on Chicane -> Tomstone Lift -> 9990 Lift -> Hike 9990 -> traverse to Squaretop -> hike Squaretop -> hike across Squaretop -> traverse to Corn Bowl -> sidestep up to top of Corn Bowl -> ski Corn Bowl and runout -> skate red pine road
Each lap takes a little over an hour. I can’t remember the last time I fell asleep so early.
We skied some awesome powder. And we didn’t start a single avalanche. Best backcountry skiing day of the year.
Gold and I skied Solitude on Tuesday. It’s been a couple days since the last storm, but we managed to find some great turns traversing a good ways out into Honeycomb. One of my best Solitude powder days of the year.
I had an awesome Monday Funday at Brighton. It snowed a foot during the day on Sunday and we found plenty of good stuff to ride on under Great Western, Crest, and Mili. I rode with Freys, Jimmy, Wu, and Crazy Naked Joe. We found a really cool cliff area in Evergreen and proceeded to lap the run, hitting as many drops as possible until calling it a day.
2011-2012 Ski Days: 40
Brighton: 4
Canyons: 26
PCMR: 1
Solitude: 9
I skied Canyons by myself, but managed to link up with some fellow backcountry travelers on the hike to Squaretop. We skied a line skier’s left of Squaretop. I carry an extra beacon in my bag and made sure to send another guy down with one as we dropped into some sketchy avalanche terrain.
There was a good amount of surface hoar that hissed under my skis as I made turns. No avalanche activity. A couple sluffs of new snow sliding on top of the surface hoar.
Good day. I talked to a guy at the top of 9990 that was wearing an ABS float pack. I’m now more determined than ever to pick up a float bag.
I skied Canyons by myself. For the first time in a long while, the Utah Avalanche Center downgraded the danger of Southeast facing slopes at 9,000 feet from Considerable to Moderate. South and Southwestern facing slopes have been listed as Moderate for a few days, but there aren’t many areas in Canyons sidecountry that have the same aspect.
So yesterday, I made my way up 9990, hiked to the peak, skied down to the saddle, hiked Squaretop, and traversed over to the Southeastern facing Corn Bowl. I was alone, but managed to find a couple other skiers with avi gear headed to nearby slopes. I followed some recent tracks down Corn Bowl, through the section of aspens and into the runout below Squaretop Pines. Pretty good run. The snow was a little set-up, but still untouched and fun. I even found some great turns in the runout and through the low angle aspens below Red Pine Lake.
Not a bad first day in Canyons sidecountry. Hopefully the avalanche conditions improve as the unstable snowpack slowly settles.
I skied Canyons by myself. I brought my gear and hiked 9990 a couple of times. The first time I dropped into the Dutch’s area and carefully made my way down. The second I made my way to the area between Red Pine Chutes and Squaretop. The visibility sucked, the snow sucked, and everything was completely tracked out. Not really worth heading into the sidecountry just yet.
I got to check out a couple of the slides on Squaretop, a slide on Dutch’s, and some smaller stuff in Red Pine Chutes. There was a pretty good slide on the north side, south facing slope above Desolation Lake.
I skied Canyons by myself. Looking to get some exercise, I hike 9990 three times. I jumped the cornice, skied some pow, and made my way down Red Pine Chutes. Pretty good snow.
Gold and I skied Solitude! No new snow. We hung around waiting for the patrol to open Honeycomb for the first time since it snowed five feet. It never opened, but we skied some good runs on Summit Chair. I even jumped my first legit cliff of the year… with my skis on this time!
It started snowing late Monday night and I went to sleep anticipating an awesome pow day at Solitude. The snow stopped unexpectedly in the night so Liz, Sam, and I settled for skiiing Canyons on Tuesday morning. It snowed 4″ overnight which resulted in a lot of dust on crust. We ripped some pretty good groomers though.
Liz and I skied Brighton on Monday Funday! Little Cottonwood was closed until 1:30 or so on Sunday, sending a lot of traffic over to Big Cottonwood. The 27″ of new snow was pretty tracked by Monday morning. We found some good turns in the trees. Brighton is fun.
It snowed 20″ over 24 hours and we skied some powder at Canyons. We stood in line next to Red Pine Lodge waiting for the patrol to drop the rope to Tombstone. Following a pretty intense Chinese Downhill, we skied some great powder runs under Tombstone. We nearly called it a day after a pretty good run on Deshutes, but we stuck it out just long enough for the patrol to open 9990. We lapped skiers left of the lift for the rest of the day. Best powder day of the year so far! Edit coming soon.
Sam and I skied Canyons in a blizzard for a couple hours. A lot of snow coming down as we skied our first runs of the season on Ninety Nine Ninety. A complete shit show leaving the parking lot and around Park City all night long.