Bountiful Peak (again)

I finally convinced my younger brother Boog to come out on a ski tour last Saturday. The crazy snowpack this year has forced us to meadow skip this winter. We would have ventured into the steep stuff, but noone had brought an avalanche helmet.



At the beginning of the winter I had Lone Peak, Coalpit, Lisa Falls, and Kessler on my list of objectives. Lisa Falls Couloir is probably the only one that is safe right now (has anyone skied it yet this winter?), but with the thin snowpack, might not go right now.

Anyways, Boog (Jeff), Greg (Boog's med-school buddy), Nate and I went up Farmington (again) to ski. I have to admit, I sorta hate the long flat skin to the goods, but we only saw 2 other skiers and they were leaving right as we got there so it is kinda worth it. There must only be a few of us who ski up there. We had an interesting assortment of ski rigs. Greg had F1's, Trabs & dynafits, Boog had some Head alpine boots, my loaner pocket rockets/naxos & I was somewhere in the middle with my bluehouse/dynafit/megaride combo. Nate had basically the same setup as Jeff.

We gained the ridge, let the wind nearly blow us over, and made some great turns down through some trees. We made a few laps through the trees, skied one last run off of our parking lot ridge--we should probably give it a name or something--and had to leave so Nate could go on a date. I hope she was a hotty Nate! By the end of the day, we were all in various stages of bonking, so it was time to end it anyway. There are some rad looking chutes off the summit of Bountiful Peak that will have to wait another day.

I'm trying to get some ski time in my legs to do the CROWBAR, powderkeg & maybe Jackson Hole next month. We'll see--not sure how much I want to commit to on my heavies. Wish I had the coin for some rando race skis & boots right now, but maybe next year. Can I get a sponsor? Please? We'll see.

One more Tami Knight cartoon:

C'mon Ullr!

It's mid January. Where are you Ullr?


Despite the lack of snow the past 7-10 days, the reason why I love ski touring: powder turns a week after a storm. Farmington Canyon isn't exactly the best for ski touring, but has some fun terrain if you know where to look. I made a couple of quick runs off the ridge that drains down to deep creek up Farmington Canyon. The bushes on the hillside made some pillows there were fun skiing. A steep skin track out, back down to Farmington Creek, then back to the car.

Still some soft fresh snow to be had if you're willing to sweat a bit.


It was pretty warm up there. My thermometer measured 37 at 4 pm. It is nice to get out of the soupy valley air and up in the clean mountain air during these inversions. For 1/16, the snowpack is really meager though. Just enough to ski at 8,000 feet. Sorta brushy, but no rocks and some soft protected powder.

Brushy, but fun.



Blech. We have to live in that soup.

Targhee Rando Race Report

I don't know why I've gained an interest in randonee racing the past year and a half, but there is something about it that is just...awesome. Despite my heavy stuff
and lack of physical aptitude towards the activity.

I've really been looking forward to the Grand Targhee Ski Mountaineering Classic. For a while this last week I didn't think I was going to make the trip. Then, on a whim, I asked a guy (Jared aka SLC Samurai) I didn't personally know, but whose blog I read, if I could catch a ride with him up to the race. He was super cool and said yes.

On the drive to Driggs Friday night the temperature was fluctuating between 0-5 degrees F and had been in the negative teens earlier in the week. Luckily, for the race we had bluebird skies and temps in the + teens & twenties all day. Couldn't ask for better weather for a race.

I raced the heavy metal category (reserved for heavy ski setups) with about 15 other guys. The race category looked pretty serious with many $3k (or more) ski setups. Those guys are really fast too.

From the start of the race, the race category guys basically ran out of the start while all of us HM guys started plodding away. The first climb basically goes right up a groomer all the way to the top--no switchbacks and a few steep sections that tested the skins pretty good. I felt great on the first climb. I tried not to overcook it on the first 2k vertical of the 5k vert that we would climb during the race. I made it to the first transition with about 6-7 other HM dudes, ripped skins and tried to hustle down the first descent as quickly as I could. I think I need more practice on DH skiing because my quads were toast at the bottom. Another transition to put skins on and climbed up to 9,800 feet again and amazing views of Les Tetons behind the resort.

A short bootpack put us up on top of Peaked Mountain and Pete Swenson and Brandon French (top 2 finishers) came cruising down while I was making my way up. Jealousy and envy set in. Targhee had a bunch of snow during the week, and I had a couple of powder turns at the top of the run, and lots of thigh burning chowder turns down the 35+ degree lower section of the downhill. I wish I could say I made it down without stopping to give my wimpy legs a rest, but I can't. It was challenging skiing! After the transition at the bottom I almost instantly started feeling like my legs were wading in mud. I couldn't get a very quick turnover or steady cadence going and really suffered on the last uphill section. I lost a basket on my pole too, so that didn't help. I did manage to repass a few people though, so apparently, some were hurting worse that I was. We kinda had a death march going on up there for a bit. Or maybe it was the view to my right that was distracting me:



At last I gained the ridge again, locked down the hills and tried to hustle to my cheesburger and Mtn Dew that were waiting at the finish. And chips. And water. And candy. I finished in 3:00:10. 45 minutes behind the heavy metal winner, and 1:23 behind the race winner. Not impressive but someone needs to bring up the rear right? That is an important job.

Cripes that was hard. Awesome race though and a great experience. Kevin, Nate, Mike, Greg and anyone else that has AT gear, you all should sign up for one of the 2 Utah races this March. My weekend companions Jared and Joey rocked it and Jared took 7th overall. All of the other racers were super cool and it was a fun event to be involved in. In hindsight, I wish that I would have tried to push on the last climb a bit more. Even though I passed a few people there, I felt like I also lost alot of time. All well. 5k vert in 3 hours would be good any other day of the year, but in that race, doesn't seem that good. So some disappointment, some success, and an awesome day.

Cold One

My eyelashes were freezing. It had to be zero or lower. Add in the wind chill. Brrr. Alta Guard showed 5 degrees at the base this morning.

I really wanted to get up to the mountains and see how the snow is coming along and didn’t really have a chance until this morning. As always the hardest thing about a 4:30 wakeup call is making the feet hit the floor. Setting foot to floor really is the crux. SLC seems too far away on workdays, so Farmington Canyon/Bountiful Peak is usually on tap for midweek jaunts.

The Watcher says he likes to watch the world wake up. After many mornings of starting out with a black sky then seeing the eastern horizon pink up, then the sun creeping over the distant ridgelines, I agree. The mornings are beautiful and a great time to be out. Today was no exception. Beautiful, clear morning. And I didn’t see any mountain lions. Maybe I’m alone on this, but when I’m skinning in the woods by headlamp by myself, I think “What if I see a mountain lion?” I’m terrified of coming upon a cat, or even worse, a cat coming upon me from behind. Irrational? I don’t know. I’ve never seen one but they still haunt me—I know they are out there somewhere. I go through scenarios and what I would do in my head. Then, after scaring myself nice & good, I throw on my earphones and forget about the cougars.

The coverage is coming along nicely. There was a lot of windjacked snow and exposed rocks & bushes, but there are some pockets of really good snow also. The difficult part is avoiding what lies beneath-- toothy rocks and stumps waiting to end your ski season prematurely. I don’t want to have a early end to the season before it even really gets started, so I’m trying to take it easy until we get a bit more snow. Today was mostly an exercise day with a tiny bit (600 ft?) of good turns. Oh, and some R&D for my Regallo wing (NPW) kite.

That kite pulls like a mother! The wind was perfect this morning. I may need an assistant (any volunteers?) to attempt it with the control bar & skis. I just flew it on handles today and had to plant my gluteus in the snow to avoid being pulled down and losing my kite.

I'm going to traverse the ridge all the way to Thurston Peak this winter then ski into Mountain Green. Who's in?


Wind Jack on the leeward side.




I took Trenton to the ski hill for his first time of the year. Big improvement from last year. Pretty soon, he'll be shredding all on his own.




Non-action shot of the kite. Too hard to take one during flight.

So Long Grandpa.

Bountiful Peak Reconnaissance

I really wanted to get out and skin & ski some today, but didn’t want to do the drive to Alta again. From my bedroom window, I can see a smallish north-facing ridge that runs off of Bountiful Peak. I’ve looked up at that ridge so many times in the last two weeks. It has to be one of the only places that holds significant snow. Time to go check it out!

After I woke up a bit late, stopped at Smith’s for some moleskin to cover my blister from Monday (Dang boots. Any solutions to prevent blistering on my heels anyone? Kieth?) and fussing around with chains for our “truck” (read: mini-van complete with kid car seats) it wasn’t exactly early any more. I made it to the parking area at around 6:00. It was obvious I wasn’t going to make it far that morning on skis, and further, there wasn’t much snow, so I decided to run up to that ridge instead for some reconnaissance for the future.

Running in the dark with the wind blowing through the trees is a little eerie at first, but then it starts to sound like music after a while. The constant rhythm of shoes touching ground, the breathing, the wind through the trees—I like it. I had my ipod but couldn’t bring myself to turn it on. I don’t get to hear nothing very often and sometimes it is rather nice. No mountain lion sighting either, so that is nice.

I followed the Bountiful Peak road up to Farmington Lake, then bushwhacked up to the top of the ridge.

Looking down from the top of the bushwack.


Then I ate some snow. I didn’t bring any water. On the descent, I had first tracks almost the whole way down. Totals: 8.5 miles 2,500 vertical gain & loss. A little different than what I planned to do, but it turned out nice anyways. I really hope we get some more snow soon. Sounds like we will this weekend

Not much snow there!


Paul Bunyan's golf balls in alpenglow.


It looks like the valley is in its first inversion of the winter and the air looks so dirty from up high.



Redneck shooting target. In a no parking zone no less.

La Primera Excursión Del Invierno

First Light.


Initially, I decided to wait until we got a little more coverage to take the skis out. Well, we got a little bit more (7”?) on Saturday, so I decided to go up to Alta this morning and check it out. The crux of any early ski morning is putting foot to floor when the alarm goes off. Usually this is easier to do when you are meeting someone, but today was a solo trip – no takers yet. Then the stoke starts to take hold and the rest of the morning is really fun. I was skinning by 5:45. The road winds a lot more than just going straight up, but as I’m not super familiar with the area, and knowing that the snowpack is still meager, I took the road. Is that the long way to Catherine’s area? It seemed like I gained hardly any elevation on the meandering road until I was looking up at my run.

After getting to the ridgeline, it was clear that when I was in church yesterday, it was game on up on the mountain. Alot had been tracked out already on Greely, High Rustler, etc. It was fairly tracked out where I went, but I was able to spoon some other tracks and ski some pretty good snow. Not bad for mid-November. All that hiking and only had time for one run. Arrg. I was back at work in K-ville by 9 though, so there wasn’t a ton of time this morning.

3 seconds before turning on rocks with a little bit of snow.


. It felt great to get out and stretch the legs a bit. BTW, my new Dynafits are awesome on the uptrack! Garmont MegaRide/Dynafit combo is apparently way nicer for locomotion than Naxo/Nordica Beast combo I had last winter. Who would have guessed?

From the bottom of “So Long” it was tenuous at best to get back to the trail. With all the rocks and stumps I was skiing over, I decided I wanted to end the morning in one piece so I took the road back down to base. There really isn’t much snow up there. Apparently, they are opening this Friday, but I’m sure it will be limited to a few runs.


In other news, one of our adventurous little girls got the first stitches in the family. We had 4 people restraining a two-year-old. She was not a happy camper. My Bro. sewed her up good though. Thanks Steve!



The 5 x 1 walking formation. Don't mind me ladies, I'm just pulling into my driveway.