She may be sleeping, but she's still alive, no doubt about that.
Yesterday, Brother Sam, Andy, Lars, and I skiied was has been dubbed the East Ridge of Timp, the ridge in the picture below.
We got a relatively early start. Andy and Lars slept at the trailhead. I drove down from SLC at 5:00 a.m., stopping in Lehi at McDonalds for the "Deluxe Breakfast." Usually, a banana or a PROBAR does it for me, but for whatever reason, I was starving by Lehi and spontanteously stopped at McDonalds. 3 pancakes, 1 hashbrown, 1 sausage, some rubbery eggs molded into a square, a biscuit later, and probably close to 1000 lard calories, I felt better. Sam and I left the trailhead around 6:30.
As we left, we noticed a hippyish looking guy on 3-pin Voiles, wearing a harness and some climbing gear. For whatever reason, we didn't make conversation, and just went about our business. Later in the day, as I was hitch hiking from Sundance, he stopped, turned around and gave me a ride back to my car. It turned out that this guy was one of the legends of Timp that I've heard about over years. He's summitted Timp over 200 times and has pioneered most of the first descents. On the day we crossed paths, Dan had skiied a line requiring two raps. I think it was one of these lines in the pic below.
I had been scoping out Roberts Horn and asked if he had ever skiied it. He said he had, but was a bit irritated that someone had skiied it a week before him. Nice job Matt T.! See the Roberts Horn line?
Dan pointed out some lines he'd done over the years. He calls this "Trepidation." I understand why.
Back at the ranch, Sam and I made good time up the cirque. We joined Andy and Lars at the top, made our way to the Emerald Lake and traversed up the glacier and into the clouds.
Although visibility was zero, we made it to the saddle, and started the southern traverse. I've been up there a few times and using my
impeccable route-finding skills (I've taken a lot of flak lately for getting lost a lot), made it to our drop in point. And just as we did, the clouds lifted.
The view from our vantage point was amazing. Here's looking South to some lower cirques, then Cascade, and then Nebo in the far distance (or was it North? . . . whatever).
And here's looking West. Bart has been wanting to climb and ski this line. It's looking good.
And to the east was the East Ridge. It's big. It's long. It's steep. It's exposed. It's beautiful. Here's Sam dropping the knee over Sundance (which looks dead pan flat) and Deer Creek.
. . . To be Continued
2 comments:
Sweet!
Everyday I look up at Timp and wonder about skiing it. I'd love to drop the west face above Battle Creek someday, then just walk down the canyon to my house.
i've been coveting that line all damn year. how were conditions? any crux points down low? how was the south traverse? crampons required or anything? i guess you have a part II coming, i'll wait.
about 5 years ago i hiked up the primrose cirque solo, to do ski the south summit down into dry canyon and orem (all totally awesome). about halfway up the primrose, some guy (i'm sure it was your new friend dan) passed me.
we chatted a bit, and he told me he was on his way to do roberts horn, and he was excited to be the first to ski it. he'd been waiting for years for it to fill in properly.
i told him my friend ben and his black diamond crew had done it the week before. he was crushed. after he skied it, he ran into none other than ben and rick s and their wives down low in the promrose cirque. they had just watched him tele down the horn.
"that's a big line to ski solo" said ben. "that's what i do" said dan. dan was taking solace that he was at least the first to tele descend the horn. he was crushed a second time when ben told him that they had a tele guy with them when they skied it the week before.
sorry dan. but it sounds like you don't need any kudos from the rest of us beaters. you OWN that mountain.
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