TR: Training for Utah (edited)

Back in May I made a thread about taking time off from school to go ski for a season. Lots of discussion as to whether or not it was a good idea. I had a wildcard thrown in and was offered a job making awesome money and relevant to what I was studying. I was hesitant to even take it but pulled the trigger. I started working in early September. Did nothing but worked, but was excited to start working shift so if have tons of skiing time. They were goin to send me to china on dec 6th for two weeks of training. Just after thanksgiving bossman called a meeting and said that the customer was going to drop out contract so most of us were getting laid off. So bittersweet, but I made some lemonade and pulled the trigger on moving West.

Right, you wanted to see some skiing.

If you're getting rad in the woods, and no one is around to see it, are you really getting rad?

I first reached out to Chris when he posted a TR about a BC trip he had done. I got a bit of beta from him in hopes of getting out there last year. Unfortunately, It never actually snowed ever again so it had to wait.

With snow in the forecast and only a week left on the EC, I decided it should be good to head up there. I sent him an email with a few more questions and invited him to come along. About 10pm last night, he said he would finish up some work he had to do and meet us there at 8:30.

We met at my buddy's house, piled in Chris's truck and were on our way.

We parked in the general area we thought the trailhead was in and floundered around a bit until we found it.

There was lots of deadfall down, so it took a bit of time to pass around it. Sometimes we were right back on the trail, other times we'd lose it for a bit.

Finally, we got to the base of the slide. Stopped for a quick sandwich and got ready to skin up.


The skin track started on lookers left, but we crossed the entire side to lookers right. It was really steep here. Probably 45`. Crossed one at a time, no whumphing or shooting cracks. Phew.



From there, we did switchbacks up lookers right.



Views were nice.



A snowball harvesting the pow.



It mellowed out a bit to the point where we could go straight up. Sortof*



Across the top of lookers right of the slide



Into the wormhole



*Had some issues with the skins staying on. Solution? Keep one ski on, throw the other, wear skin like a scarf. Only sorta postholing the skin track.**



Told you the views were nice.



Chris peeling some skins.



No action shots on the first run. We were too busy getting rad.

**More permanent solution of the temporary solution: Tie the tail clips to my heel piece.



Back up for round two.



And, ACTION!

Yours Truly





Hank





Chris



NEAT!



Hank getting RAD



Chris gets rad, too.







How neat is that!?



Twas a good time. I like mountains, I like uncrowded slopes, and I'm not a fan of bumper-to-bumper traffic backed up all the way to the Stewart's in North Creek and parking at the ski bowl to get a shuttle to the main base area. I guess that means we made the right choice. I think we're gonna go back again on Monday with a few familiar faces when it gets buffed out with this 3-6" in the forecast for the weekend.

I was going to get some lift served the next day, but I got a call from my brother saying there was water coming through the ceiling. Oops.


The plan was to had back up on New Year's Eve with a couple more friends. I said I would meet them at the trailhead at 10.

I had some issues with my bindings, got my car stuck for a half hour (in the wrong house, nonetheless) and ended up an hour and a half late. Matt's car was already in the trailhead parking lot, but Matt was gone. He was at the wrong trailhead.

Figuring they would be alright, and us having no contact with them, Mike, Harvey and I headed up to the slides again. This time there was a few more inches of blower and a couple was kind enough to break trail for us.

There was a bit of wind slab forming on skiers left, but the rest was good to go.



Up Up Up


Mike coming Down Down Down






We did two laps and headed out.

On our way out, we saw Matt's car still at the trailhead at 4:15. We headed to the local bar, got a few beers and decided we would head back to make sure his car was gone. At 6:30 it was still there, and pitch black out.

We went to hanks house to make a plan. He said a guy in their group of four had called at 3:50 saying they were at the summit, it was socked in, and asked where the slides were. There are some slides up there, but they are extremely steep, none of them had Avy gear, and we didn't know how to get to them.

We talked to the ranger and they said they will swing by at 8, if the car was still here they would go up and search. We decided we were going to skin up under headlamps and see if we couldn't meet them on their way down. We got there and the cars were gone. Sorry things didn't exactly go well, Matt.

At 8 30 we finally headed home, I dropped off mike and turned around to head back north for a New Years party. That went well.

New Year's Day.

Tom and I toyed with the idea of heading out for a tour or getting some lift served. But his skis were falling apart and he had no money for a lift ticket.

At two, we were driving home and decided it was WAY too nice out to be hungover inside. We headed north again for a quick lap up.

The skintrack was well set and it was pretty late, so we moved quickly. Left the car at 2 30, back at 4 15.

Snow had a layer of sun crust on the top but still skied better than the resort. No action shots, but I can't get enough of those views...



Neat-O!


1/3: Gore

Tom, Connor, and I headed to Gore to poke around a bit. We headed to a zone that used to ski awesome but is super overgrown and covered in deadfall now. It was a bitch to get to, but once it opened up it was some good fun.



And then we headed to a cliff line I found last summer that we never had enough snow to hit last year.

Tom on Top


Tom coming down


Tom getting FACESHOTS.




Tom called his summer job
And asked if they needed any help at work, they said yes and they were leaving for Boston in a few hours. We headed out and he drove to work.

1/4; More Gore.

Last Day at Gore for the season. Hank leaves for school tomorrow, I leave for Utah tomorrow, and there was still some good snow to be found. Will leaves for school tomorrow as well, but he's at Westminster and my apartment is less than a mike from him. I'll be seeing him soon. Hopefully in some deep snow, too.





POV edit from Hank yesterday coming soon.

"like"

Keep the shoe laces!

Looks like a ton of fun, and work! kudos, great pics too. Thanks for posting.

MAN those are some great shots.  Awesome effort and results!

All of the shots were actually taken on my iPhone. Camera quality on this thing is solid.
I'm taking in the big boy camera next time, though.

rad fer sher!  nice report !

Thanks for sharing Tbatt... That was wonderful!

Earning your turns is so rewarding... And addictive.  

Keep the TR's coming, we're starved for snow up here...

TD

Nice

You can spice up your approach  next time and come in from the north. There are a couple spots to sneak down next to those rocks in your 1st pic

Excellent!
Don't know exactly where you were but I can take an educated guess from the shape of the lake below. All those wonderful slides in our back yard, you just need to take the effort to climb them.

Telemark Dave wrote

Thanks for sharing Tbatt... That was wonderful!

Earning your turns is so rewarding... And addictive.  

Keep the TR's coming, we're starved for snow up here...

TD

Did my 3rd day up there (all in the last 5) today. Got up a little late and only took one run. We weren't planning on going up (a bit dehydrated from last night...), but it was WAY too nice out driving home from Brant Lake, so we headed for the hills. Left the car at 2:30, back to the car at 4:15. Skiing wasn't nearly as good as it was yesterday, which was about as good as it was on Friday. More tracks, though.

But it sure looked purrdddyyyy.





Maybe one more day here, and a day or two of liftserved, then I'm off for my big adventure. Moving to Salt Lake City on Sunday.

skimore wrote

You can spice up your approach  next time and come in from the north. There are a couple spots to sneak down next to those rocks in your 1st pic

I was eyeing that pretty hard. Definitely looked skiable in spots.

Good luck Ted!  Always have enjoyed reading your posts even though we haven't met.  Hope you post some TRs over here just to make us jealous!

Danzilla wrote

Hope you post some TRs over here just to make us jealous!

It's in his contract.