Cold Fusion and Warm Limestone
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.
Three miles into the four-mile approach with the object of desire looming in the background.
PB&J Tabin Style. I hope his patient's eyeballs look better than his sandwiches.
By chance, we met Chad and Rob near the summit. Chad dropping the first turn with 3,000' to go.
Huck on the edge of the Utah Universe.
The line was originally known as “The Forked Tongue Couloir” but was later renamed (at least by some people) to memorialize the theory of cold fusion which has strong ties to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.
Since the road leading to Cold Fusion goes right through American Fork Canyon, it’s fun to catch a quick route on the way out. After the four-mile approach to go skiing, the four-meter approach to go climbing is much appreciated.
GT gettin' it on at the Division Wall.
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Category: Trip Reports
Good to meet you up on Timp on Sunday. I hope it softened up a little more for you guys on the descent (it was good for us, but 30 more minutes of cooking would have been nice). As we approached the cliffs on the descent and started to wonder whether we would be downclimbing, I though to myself “Shrewd move, giving an offhanded disclaimer as you send 2 lawyers over a cliff.” But then we found a chute through and stopped cursing your name.
-Rob
Ah, good old American Fork canyon. Like my personal playground most the time, when it comes to backcountry skiing. Traffic has picked up considerably in the last two years though!
Wow Rob looks bad-ass. Tele or AT? Is the chute you are talking about the one in the approach photo that juts off to skiers right? 3000 vertical!! FK!! I don’t think there is anything close to like that this late that is reasonably accessible here in Colorado. Maybe Ill move to Utah and destroy your secret spot even more :p
thanks for the beta as you finished. i would have been sitting up on top for two hours waiting for the sun if i had stuck to my original plan of the usual 6am start. although the extra 15 degrees on monday vs sunday did provide a seriously manky bottom 1,000 feet.
You know how to do Memorial Day the right way! Hiking, skiing, climbing and PB&J !!
Looks like a great way to spend Memorial Day. A somewhat similar line in Colorado would be the tuning fork on Torreys. It’s maybe only 2,000 feet of vert but typically holds snow until mid-June.