Chuting Gallery Survivors
Although it was never intended to be skied in its entirety, the 90+ lines and accompanying check boxes make The Chuting Gallery a logical steep skiing ticklist for the Wasatch. It took about five years of collecting lines to write the book and since then about ten people have collected the entire set. Skiing/riding them all in one year has still yet to be done, but I wouldn’t doubt that it is possible with the right year, right person and right strategy. Hint: don’t save the hardest for last.
I’m always psyched to hear when somebody has finished the entire set and made up a commemorative baseball cap to acknowledge the achievement. It seemed like a fair Chuting Gallery style trade – devote a couple of years to skiing sketchy lines and risking your life in return for a hat. ;)
So far, here are the finishers that I know of. Please let me know if I’m off or if there are others.
Andrew McLean circa 2008
When I published The Chuting Gallery in 1998, I had skied all of the lines except for Ciochetti’s Ribbon. I first heard of Ciochetti’s from Lorne Glick who was driving cats at Alta, but didn’t get around to skiing it until about ten years later.
#2 Noah Howell – April 1, 2011
As Noah wrote in his noahhowell.com blog “I’ve always been a slow reader, but I never imagined it would take me 13 years to finish a flimsy paperback,” Not only does Noah have an excellent sense of humor, but he is the guy that came up with the concept of skiing the whole set. Extra style points for finishing on April Fool’s Day.
#3 Adam O’Keeffe – 2017
A skinning, grinning mild mannered madman with a self professed fear of heights. Better known as “A-OK,” Adam made quick work of the collector’s edition and has gone to to add many of his own. AOK in Backcountry Mag.
#4 Caroline Gleich – April 8, 2017
Caroline not only skied all of the lines in short order, but raised the bar by making an excellent award winning film about the journey as well.
#5 Luke Hinz – May 2, 2019
Luke set out to complete all of the lines in a year, but the conditions didn’t cooperate. He also made a project out of sharing his experience on-line and donating funds to the Utah Avalanche Forecast Center.
#6 Jason Borro
In an unheard of feat of self restraint, Jason skied every line in The Chuting Gallery without posting a single photo of video of it, at least that I know of. In his spare time, he started and runs SkiMo.com, which is the best ski shop in Utah, if not the world.
#7 Mike Meru – April 28, 2020
Not only did Mike do the whole project on a splitboard, he also had severely broken his back a few years earlier in a freeriding fall. Double hats off and a good summary in Snowbrains.com
#8 Michael McKinney
Another skier who made quick work of the book by doing them all in three years, plus a broken ankle. Mike & Friends made an excellent video of the journey as well.
#9 /10 Will Thomas & Logan Turra – May 3, 2020
The latest survivors and also the first to make it into a team affair by doing the bulk of the lines together. They followed up with a very funny recap entitled 14 Tricks For Making Steep Lines Steeper: Misadventures From “The Chuting Gallery, a Guide to Steep Skiing in the Wasatch”
Between low snow and high avalanche danger, 2021 is not shaping up to be a great chuting season, but you never know. On most of these lines, skiing and snow are just an excuse to have a good time, which is what really matters.
Category: Chuting Gallery
Some great honest and humble people on this list.