current conditions
Top 10 in 10 – NE Couloir of Lone Peak
#6 – NE Couloir of Lone Peak. Yow! What a spectacular line! If the NE Couloir of Lone Peak were closer to civilization it would be skied on a daily basis. But, as it is, the King of Couloirs is guarded by a long approach and today it looked like we were probably the first people […]
Top 10 in 10 – Coalpit
#5 – Coalpit Headwall The Coalpit Headwall has a lot going for it – it is north facing (softest of the soft), huge, has a fairly moderate angle, has tons of variety and more often than not, some portion of it will have good skiing. There are many ways to approach it, all involving pain […]
Top 10 in 10 – NW Couloir of the Pfiefferhorn
#4 – NW Couloir of the Pfiefferhorn The Pfiefferhorn is the Wasatch’s version of Switzerland’s famous Matterhorn peak. Like the Matterhorn, the Pfieff is triangular, sharp, jagged and can be seen from all around the mountain range. In a splendid act of geological creation, it has a splitter couloir that runs right from the summit all […]
Top 10 in 10 – Stairs Gulch
#3 – Stairs Gulch Although Stairs Gulch in Big Cottonwood Canyon is a major classic, I’ve only skied it a few times in the last fifteen years as it is so big, dark and scary. Stairs has a long history of fatalities and I’d suspect that far more accidents have happened there than any other couloir in […]
Top 10 in 10 – Argenta
#2 – Argenta The Chute du Jour this morning for the Top 10 in 10 quest was Argenta in Big Cottonwood Canyon. This is a perennial Dawn Patrol favorite as it is so close to the road that the asphalt often gets covered, or at least dusted when Argenta avalanches, plus it has a huge variety […]
Wasatch Top 10 in 10 – The Y Couloir
As a compulsive list keeper, I’ve had a Post-It note stuck to my monitor for a few years that said “Wasatch Top 10 in 10.” The idea is/was to rack up a bunch of Wasatch classic ski descents back-to-back in ten days in a chute skiing feeding frenzy. The problem has always been that I […]
PNW Practices Random Acts of Avalanche Destruction
One of the defining moments in my life (Ski Career 1.0) was sitting in a cabin at Alpental outside of Seattle watching it rain so hard that the windows looked like a braided river crossing. It was the middle of February and not only were the slopes barren mounds of mud, but there were gushing […]
Monday posting delay due to great skiing
Absolutely KILLER weekend of skiing in the Wasatch! Photos and details on the ECT Pit test coming later today. Andrew
Bush Whacked Skiing Video
Unfortunately mankind cannot live on steep chutes alone and low angle powder skiing through the trees is a fact of life during periods of high avalanche danger. One way to spice it up is to chase after someone while filming with a handheld camera. Eighteen seconds into the little video below, I blow my line while following Dylan […]
Meadow Skipping – From the Top, with Feeling
Ninety-nine percent of enjoying backcountry skiing has to do with knowing where to find good, safe snow. It only takes a few times of hiking all day only to ski endless windjack to send skiers scurrying back to the resorts. The current Wasatch conditions are especially tough as the snow has barely filled in to […]
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