I awoke this morning debating what to do when Bob Dangerous called. He had been up to the bottom of Great Scott yesterday hiking and reported "nut deep snow." After some discussion, I abandoned my plans to skin up Collins Gulch at Alta and opted instead for Peruvian Cirque at Snowbird. Why strike out in search of snow when you already know where there definitely is snow?
We met up at the Park-n-Ride lot at the base of the canyon, I threw my gear into the back of his pickup, and up we went. We parked at a condo complex off of the Alta Bypass road, for snow was really sketchy for the bottom couple of hundred feet. From our parking spot, we were able to skin right up the Peruvian road.
Or, should I say that I was able to skin. Bob, lacking skins to fit his Volkl Gotamas, shouldered his skis. Yes, I said that he shouldered his skis. His boots were in a bookbag-style rucksack to which one couldn't strap skis. In fact, this is how he endured the entire ascent. I'm thinking of changing his nickname to "Bob Masochist." Had I known, I would've brought an appropriate pack for him. That's just plain nuts!
But, upward and onward we trudged, with the snow deepening with each turn. I was breaking trail, which became much more burdensome above the Peruvian Chair. Nobody had been up there with skis, and I mean nobody, unlike the other ski area next door. The silence was deafening, for we had the whole place to ourselves.
Once we reached "The House," in the middle of Peruvian Gulch, Bob switched into ski boots for the final assault. By now the snowpack was deepening exponentially, and by the time we got to the base of Great Scott, sure enough -- there was a good 2.5 to 3 feet of snow on the ground.
And this stuff was the most dense snowpack I've ever encountered. My God, was it heavy! It's great base-building snow, and thankfully prevented us from bottoming out, but my oh my, was it dense! I struck upward on a tacking skin track, while Bob bootpacked it right up the middle, finding the snow to be much deeper than he'd anticipated. Looking at things from below, the snow in the chute right to climber's left of Great Scott seemed to have the deepest, smoothest cover, as a slight roll-over in topography seemed to trap blow in. I de-skinned while I waited for Bob after a total of 2,382 vertical feet of skinning, and as we both stood there we got a big "thumbs-up" from Rich Duckworth operating the downloading tram cabin.
Bob headed down first while I filmed, all in complete view of the ascending tourist tram. He skied it beautifully. I was on Volkl Explosivs, considerably narrower than his Gotamas, and executed 9 tentative, slow-motion turns in the dense snow before my first crater of the season. Another seven turns, another crater.
We continued on downward through the gradually thinning snow, my quads in one giant knot by the time we got low. We were, however, able to ski right back to the gate by the truck.
October, baby! \/
Photos are below. I shot a few moments of amateurish film, which I'll upload to the server this evening in an unedited form.
We met up at the Park-n-Ride lot at the base of the canyon, I threw my gear into the back of his pickup, and up we went. We parked at a condo complex off of the Alta Bypass road, for snow was really sketchy for the bottom couple of hundred feet. From our parking spot, we were able to skin right up the Peruvian road.
Or, should I say that I was able to skin. Bob, lacking skins to fit his Volkl Gotamas, shouldered his skis. Yes, I said that he shouldered his skis. His boots were in a bookbag-style rucksack to which one couldn't strap skis. In fact, this is how he endured the entire ascent. I'm thinking of changing his nickname to "Bob Masochist." Had I known, I would've brought an appropriate pack for him. That's just plain nuts!
But, upward and onward we trudged, with the snow deepening with each turn. I was breaking trail, which became much more burdensome above the Peruvian Chair. Nobody had been up there with skis, and I mean nobody, unlike the other ski area next door. The silence was deafening, for we had the whole place to ourselves.
Once we reached "The House," in the middle of Peruvian Gulch, Bob switched into ski boots for the final assault. By now the snowpack was deepening exponentially, and by the time we got to the base of Great Scott, sure enough -- there was a good 2.5 to 3 feet of snow on the ground.
And this stuff was the most dense snowpack I've ever encountered. My God, was it heavy! It's great base-building snow, and thankfully prevented us from bottoming out, but my oh my, was it dense! I struck upward on a tacking skin track, while Bob bootpacked it right up the middle, finding the snow to be much deeper than he'd anticipated. Looking at things from below, the snow in the chute right to climber's left of Great Scott seemed to have the deepest, smoothest cover, as a slight roll-over in topography seemed to trap blow in. I de-skinned while I waited for Bob after a total of 2,382 vertical feet of skinning, and as we both stood there we got a big "thumbs-up" from Rich Duckworth operating the downloading tram cabin.
Bob headed down first while I filmed, all in complete view of the ascending tourist tram. He skied it beautifully. I was on Volkl Explosivs, considerably narrower than his Gotamas, and executed 9 tentative, slow-motion turns in the dense snow before my first crater of the season. Another seven turns, another crater.
We continued on downward through the gradually thinning snow, my quads in one giant knot by the time we got low. We were, however, able to ski right back to the gate by the truck.
October, baby! \/
Photos are below. I shot a few moments of amateurish film, which I'll upload to the server this evening in an unedited form.
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01 Snowbird 051030 down low.jpg39.5 KB · Views: 5,495