Silverton, CO was great as always, and it was fun to see some friends, do some skiing and enjoy the fantastic mountains. The first day we skied a very aesthetic little couloir known as “Crown Royal” as I think it goes off of Crown Peak. Conditions were mixed, but the chute was a 5-star beauty with some wild little rock fins standing out like Easter Island figure-heads. Continue reading ‘Silverton Mini TR’
Archive for the 'Trip Reports' Category
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I was so excited about my new avalanche airbag pack that I forgot to take photos of the skiing today, but it is amazingly good in the higher reaches of the Wasatch. Egress and exits are lumpy but aside from that, it was great. A friend dug a pit at about 10k and reported a 40″ base which is pretty good for this time of year. Conditions today were soft bouncy powder and many of the trailheads were packed. Game on for 2010/11? Maybe.
This trip began two years ago as a brain-child of Noah Howell. Noah had heard vague rumors of a remote, rugged mountain range called the Revelations and had tried to fly in there from Talkeetna but was thwarted by the weather. In the big AK picture, the Revelations are about 140 miles west/northwest of Anchorage and form an almost perfect equidistant triangle between them, Talkeetna and Anchorage. You can fly there from either Talkeetna or Anchorage, although Anchorage has more planes to choose from, better weather and better down-time distractions. Continue reading ‘Revelation Mountains – Alaska’
Well, okay, it is really more of a photo gallery with captions, but it hits the highlights of the trip.
This was my third trip to the Ultima Thule Lodge in the Wrangell-St. Elias Mountains and I was there with Eli Potter, Aria, Hombi, Reto and the Claus family to do some skiing and discuss the 2011 Wrangell Ski Week. The conditions were about as good as Alaska gets with only one true down day out of the entire outing.
This area had a bit of a low snow year, and between that and being there towards the end of April, there wasn’t much snow at the lodge, although there was plenty of snow up higher in the mountains.
Two videos in two days? Yes, that’s what living in the shadow of the Sundance Film Festival will do for you.
This one is a video of a single run, Peak Solidarity, in the Wrangell-St.Elias Mountains. Before skiing this peak I happened to see it in a photo book and of the entire book, this is the one that really stood out as it is such a beautiful, classic pyramid peak. It has a 5,000′ plus ridgeline that snakes all the way up it, but aside from that, it is steep and intimidating all around. Continue reading ‘Solidarity Peak Video’
After seeing an inflated PackRaft in Alaska Mountaineering & Hiking last year, it was love at first sight and I ended up buying one. PackRafts are burly little personal rafts that are capable of carrying things like skis, bikes, packs or bloody chunks of moose on them. Deflated and folded up, they weigh in at about four pounds and are about the size of a small two-person tent. There are a variety of paddles available, but I went with the four-part carbon model which is light and compact.
When getting into a new sport, I usually over-estimate my abilities and under-estimate how difficult it will be, which has led to lots of exciting times, especially with kite-skiing. But, Rick Angell came up with the novel idea of trying a mellow float & bike on the lower Provo river, which turned out to be an excellent idea. Continue reading ‘PackRaft Practice Outing’
Memorial Day in Utah goes a long ways toward easing the pain of triple digit temps here in Ahhhgust. I can’t remember a Memorial Day with bad weather, but then again my memory is so bad that that’s not saying much. In any case, you can ski, climb, bike, hike, fish or mix & match just about anything this time of year.
Geoff Tabin took a break from saving entire countries from blindness and along with Huckleberry, invited me out for a lap on the Cold Fusion Couloir off of Mt. Timpanogos. Cold Fusion is a beauty of a line off of the NE side of Timp that holds snow well into the Spring. It’s fun in many regards, but especially cool as you are skiing on a ribbon of snow surrounded by the rocks of American Fork Canyon along with big vista views of the Salt Lake Valley below. Continue reading ‘Cold Fusion and Warm Limestone’
No, not the one in New York, but the lesser known one in Alaska. I drew this topo a few years ago to see if I could still remember which end of a pen to use, and recently a couple of friends had been asking about skiing the peak, so here it is. And a few photos are here as well.
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I haven’t had time to sort through the 1,200+ photos and hours of video from this two-part trip, but here are a few highlights. Detailed trip reports to follow. Continue reading ‘Wrangell and Revelation Quickie Trip Report’
