Box Elder -> Pfeif -> Superior

Bart and I chose 3 11k+ peaks evenly spaced, climbed them, and then skiied them. Bart might have some pictures later.

Stats:

Peaks Skiied: Box Elder (TNF), Pfeif (Westish off the top, then North), Superior (Northish into Cardiff via chute)
Vertical Feet Ascended: 12,600 (including a vehicle assisted ride from Tanners to Alta)
Vertical Feet Descended: 10,500
Put in: Dry Creek TH, Alpine, UT @ 06:00
Take out: Cardiff Fork, Big Cottonwood Canyon # 15:40
Miles: ???
Total Time: ~ 9hrs
Arrival on Box Elder: ~09:00
Arrival on Pfeif: ~12:00
Arrival on Superior: ~14:30
Bathroom Break: 1 at Alta Lodge
Hrs. of Sleep the preceeding night: 5
Hrs. of Sleep night after the tour: 11
Number of Bindings Mounted preceeding night: 1 pair
Number of Boot Liners molded preceeding night: 1 pair
Number of Skins trimmed preceeding night 1 pair
Food Consumed: 1 PROBAR, 1 Cliff blocks, 1 Nutella Sandwich, 1 Apple, 1 Orange, 3 Gus, 1 snack size bag of skittles
Hydration: 1 bottle energy drink, 1 camelback bladder
No. of rides Hitched: 2 -- 1 from Tanners to Alta, 1 from Cardiff to Barbacoa
Scent of weed in our benefactor's truck: yes
Snow conditions: blue ice to legitimate pow (all of the North aspect of Superior into Cardiff fork)
Weather: Bluebird.
Skis: 160 cm, 62 mm waist, Dynafit SR 11 (Me), 167, 73 mm waist, Dynafit ST 7 (Bart), 176 cm, 100+ waisted, Bluehouse Districts (Sam)
Bindings: Dynafit Low Tech (me), Dynafit TLT Speed (Bart), BD O1s (Sam)
Boots: Dynafit TLT Pro Race (me), Scarpa F1 (Bart), Scarpa T2s (Sam)
Tights: yes (Guy who pick us up in Cardiff: "Hey, were you guys cross country skiing? Me: Ummm, kind of. I guess we did start in Alpine.")

This trip inspired me to make a post on Light and Fast (or is it Fast and Light) gear, which I intend to get to at a later date. Suffice it to say that we did some real skiing and I was never wanting for fatter longer skis. I hereby prophesy that the trend toward fatter waisted skis will reverse itself in the year 2010. . . . :)

Hut Trip

I had the privilege of staying in a stinky hut for 3 days in the mountains of Idaho with 10 other guys who share two passions: biking and skiing. Although biking is what more or less originally brought us together, we focused on the skiing. Here are some photos:

Getting ready for the haul:

From February 24, 2009

The hut:

From February 24, 2009

Boulder Mountain backdrop:

From February 24, 2009

The male model:

From February 24, 2009

Elevation by Alex:

From February 24, 2009

On Ben(ded) knee.

From February 24, 2009

Um guys, can you wait for us?

From February 24, 2009

Skinning through the old growth.

From February 24, 2009

From February 24, 2009

From February 24, 2009

The Crew:

From February 24, 2009

With Open Arms:

From February 24, 2009

Pfffft . . . boarders . . .

From February 24, 2009

The male model skis too:

From February 24, 2009

Hey Ohran, what are you doing?

From February 24, 2009

The Lonely Road.

From February 24, 2009

Denied on Valentines Day

Our plan today was to catch the bus up Big Cottonwood Canyon, get off at Spruces, climb Reynolds, ski the north side of Reynolds, climb up to Millcreek ridge, head towards Gobblers, and then exit Neffs. We placed a car at Neffs and generally followed our plan. Here's Sam skiing off Reynolds.



Here's Bart skiing off Reynolds.



Here's Alex "skiing" off Reynolds.



And then we headed up to the Millcreek Ridge towards Gobblers.



We had the discipline to pass by the Wilson Chutes. When we got to Gobbler's shoulder however, we looked into Alexander Basin and followed our hearts. It was, after all, Valentines Day. It was deep. Here's a series of shots of Sam doing his freeheel thing.



On Districts:



Which way is up?



And here's Alex "skiing" his Basin and pulling Gs only a boarder can pull:



I jinxed us when we got to the bottom, saying, "That run was so good, we're going to pay for it." As we made our way out of Alex's Basin, we immediately began paying our debt as we headed up a steep ridge that we affectionately named "Cluster Ridge." For the record, we officially claim the first ascent of Cluster Ridge. We are certain no one has ever ascended it because it is impossible that there is anyone in the world that dumb. Suffice it to say, it was a time eater.

Cluster Ridge led us to the top of a Gobbler subridge. We did not fully ascend the subridge because as we topped out, we got throttled by blowing snow, blowing snow and more blowing snow. We de-skinned and descended what would otherwise have been an epic run off the Northeast face of Gobblers. Sorry, no pictures of this run exist. You can imagine it though by looking at a blank white piece of paper.

When we got to Porter via a tight terrain trap, we had a little pow wow about whether we should try to make Neffs where our car was parked, or simply ski out to the Millcreek Road and hitch hike home. It turns out that we did both.

None of us had ever followed Porter to Neffs and we could only guess where we should go. That combined with the fact that I'm a notorious bad route finder and we were still in blizard conditions didn't help. And if you call a 3 inch slab an avalanche, then we kicked off several. After a 1.5 hr attempt to ascend Cluster Ridge II, we pulled the plug and skiied out Porter.

Lucky for us, we immediately got rides out of Millcreek, and some BD employee dropped us off right at our cars. It was a tough day, somewhat disappointing, but as always, well worth it. Thanks guys.

Stats:

Start: Spruces thanks to a $4.50 bus ride from UTA
Finish: Millcreek
Diversity: nicely balanced -- 1 splitboarder, 1 telemarker, 2 AT'ers on F1s and Dynafits, 2 white guys, 2 Japanese/Chinese guys
Vertical up: 6200 ft
Vertical down: 8500 ft
Miles: unknown
Time: ~ 7 hrs
Visibility: ok to not ok to really not ok
Trailbreaking: top of boots to high thigh
Skin failures: a few
First ascents claimed: Cluster Ridge I, Cluster Ridge II
Number of times I saw Bart on his back: 3
Number of times I saw Sam upside down: 1
Stages of hypothermia experienced: sewing machine legs, feeling of hopelessness and desperation, minor irritability
Highest moment: #1 skiing into Alex's Basin, #2 finding a ride out of Millcreek
Adequate food: no
Food consumed: 1 nutella sandwich, 1 bag cliff blocks, 2 PROBARS (Maple Pecan and Koka Moka)
Mission accomplished: no
Worth it: yes
Understanding Valentines: Karen (me), Rosie (Bart), Sammie (Alex), Recommendations Accepted (Sam)

For Sale: Scarpa Spirit 3s

Scarpa Spirit 3s for sale. Lightly used. Some scuff marks. Used this season only.

Size: 27.5, Street shoe size ~10

Price: $200

Great all around touring and skiing boot.

Crested Butte Randonee Race

I got to participate first hand in the COSMIC racing scene on Saturday in Crested Butte, CO. Here are some notes:

• Pete Swenson has done a great job at growing the sport of ski mountaineering racing/rando rally -ing/randonee racing in Colorado. There was a big turnout in CB.
• The CB Rando Rally climbed to 11,900 ft. and descended down Mt. CB. The technical descent definitely gave the race its "ski mountaineering" status. Total ascent of ~4800 ft. Icy bump skinning. Booting up a rocky ridge.
• Gunnison/CB has to be the heart of US ski mountaineering racing. They have great terrain, great access, and most importantly, some really fast people there, like from another planet fast. On the second pitch of the first climb, there was a group of about 8-10 with a couple other groups of 4-6 behind. I was killing myself to stay in the first group (I'd say between 55-70 fpm) when all of the sudden Brian Smith launched a full on attack, sprinting out of the group up a hill. B. Smith ended up winning with a time of just under 2 hrs.
• Unlike other races where the first group separates and the race order is essentially established, the field was so deep that there was competition throughout the whole race. People were rallying past one another, getting passed in transitions, every second counted.
• I was a bit disappointed to finish out of the top 10 and pretty much got destroyed, finishing 20 minutes behind the leader. (Edited to add: ACTUALLY, now that I see the results, I feel a bit better.) That said, I couldn't have been happier frothing at the mouth in a line of 15 fast guys in skinsuits in F1s drilling it up a 40 plus degree pitch. It was like I had been separated from my flock at birth and had finally found my family.
• I had gear issues. I went through 4 skins. I had to stop a couple times to put my spare skins on -- first the left, then after a few hundred yards, the right. On the final climb my spare skins were dangling off my skis from my toe down, making it hard to go up, let alone go up fast. When they completely failed, I put my skis on my back and started booting it.
• My F1s kept popping out on the downhill. I think I'm going to have to install shims that prevent the "flex out."
• Avg pace for me was about 39 fpm. By contrast Targhee was 50 plus fpm. The difference is a bit puzzling, but might be attributed to terrain, gear, fitness -- don't really know.
• When I rolled into Gunnison at around 11 pm, it took me over 15 minutes and a variety of high-decibel producing methods -- telephone calls, door buzzer, counter bell, screaming, and finally rapping on a glass door with a hard object -- to wake the worker who was loudly snoring in the back room.
• Bad driving to race ratio: 5:1. Left SLC at 3:30 on Fri.; back in SLC at 6:30 on Sat.
• I'm now motivated to grow the rando racing scene in the Wasatch. Who's in?

EDITED TO ADD: Crested Butte Rando Rally Results

MEN’S AT RACE DIVISION

1 SMITH BRIAN 02:00.1

2 SWENSON PETER 02:01.0

3 SCHEEFER TRAVIS 02:05.0

4 WICKENHAUSER BRIAN 02:07.5

5 BROWN JON 02:08.4

6 O’NEIL PATRICK 02:17.6

7 JONES JAKE 02:18.3

8 LAROCHELLE BRAD 02:20.3

9 BIGGERS JOHNNY 02:21.1

10 INOUYE JARED 02:22.1

11 STUBBE JASON 02:23.6

12 RICKERT JESSIE 02:24.2

13 RIEPE BRIAN 02:34.1

14 WIENS DAVE 02:35.2

15 SMITH TODD 02:45.0

16 HUCKSTEP AARON 02:45.4

17 JENNINGS MICHAEL 02:46.5

18 KILCOYNE JAMIE 02:50.5

19 NOLAN MIKE 02:54.4

20 CICORA BRIAN 02:57.3

21 ORAM ALAN 03:00.1

22 TAYLOR MARK 03:07.3

23 JENKINS WILLIAM-SANDY 03:10.5

24 ELLIOT IAN 03:12.1

25 GARCIN RICK 03:43.1

26 BRON SKI PETER 03:53.4

27 ZIMMERMAN ROBYN 03:54.4

28 NORTON SEAN 04:17.8

29 EASLEY NIC 04:38.1

30 LUKENS TRAVIS DNF

Kessler Trifecta

Kessler peak holds down the south end of Cardiac Ridge in Big Cottonwood Canyon, serving as a nice counter-balance to Mt. Superior on the north end. Looking for a quality tour, and inspired by the Chuting Gallery's suggestion of doing the East Col. and then Argenta, the idea of doing the "Kessler Quad" was hatched. As conceived, the Kessler Quad involves climbing and skiing 4 challenging lines that run off the top of Kessler -- the East Col., God's Lawnmower, Argenta, and the West Col. One day I'll get the Quad, but today I had to settle for what turned out to be a satisfying three course meal (I'm still thinking about food for reasons I will explain below): the Kessler Trifecta.

First Course: God's Lawnmower

God's Lawnmower is an unnerving swath off the north face of Kessler. It doesn't take a whole lot of imagination to understand why it's named what it is.

We ascended through the trees to the climber's left of the Lawnmower. The skinner was good and we were able to move fast, until we hit the NE sub ridge. In hindsight, we should have taken a different route because the knife-edge ridge was steep, sketchy, scrambly, and sugary. Most of all, it ate lots of time. Here's Bart on the scramble:

From January 31, 2009

Once we weaved through the cliffy entrance, the descent was nice consolidated pow. It's hard to describe nailing a steep, open descent, in near perfect snow conditions -- pole plant, initiate turn in air, free fall 2, 4, 6, 8, then 10 meters, whufmph, get absorbed by the snow, emerge, pole plant . . . . The real thing is better, trust me.

Second Course: Kessler's East Couloir

A little over 2 hours after we left it, we found ourselves back on the Cardiff trail. It was 9:15 am. We needed to be back home (not the car -- a distinction clearly made by my wife) by 2:00 pm. We proceeded up the Cardiff trail and were happy and relieved to find that someone, Cardiff Brad as it turns out, had put in a nice skinner in towards the East Couloir.

From January 31, 2009

Cardiff Brad cursed us for finding "his trail" and accused us of "ski running" and we took it because we were really grateful for "his trail." When it ran out, we packed up the skis and clawed our way to Kessler's south shoulder, which again took too much time. Our scramble finally brought us to this:

From January 31, 2009

The East Col. was untracked. The snow was protected in the chute, and therefore nice, and the sun had taken the edge off the snow in the apron, making it nice too. Here's Bart skiing the lower chute:

From January 31, 2009

The chute dumped out onto the apron, which led into a nice powder run back to the Cardiff trail. When we hit the Cardiff trail it was about 11:15.

At that point since it was pretty clear we wouldn't be able to do the Quad in our alloted time, we decided that rather than going back to the car and driving to Argenta, we would simply climb back up Kessler on Cardiff Brad's skinner and then ski the West Couloir and out Mineral Fork. The only problem was that I was hungry and I had only started out with 20 oz. of water, a bag of Cliff Blocks and 1 Cliff Shot, counting on being able to refuel at the car. I had eaten my last Shot at the top of the East Col. and then mooched a 1/3 PBJ sandwich and a mini-Cliff bar from Bart, which I ate. Bart came to my aid again, without giving me grief for being an amateur, and we shared a fruit leather and a nutrigrain bar. And then we headed back up to Kessler.

Third Course: Kessler's West Couloir

With over 6k vertical under our belts, we were moving a bit slower. I ran out of water about 5 steps into our last climb and started eating snow. And the snow was sticking to our topsheets and the bottom of our skins. Still, it was a good time.

From January 31, 2009

We got to the top of Kessler again at about 12:45. Although the west facing slopes had been sunbaked and held a nice death crust, the northish aspect of the West Col. held some nice fluffy snow. The entrance to the West Col. is relatively open, but it funnels into a choke.

From January 31, 2009

Bart in the West Col.

From January 31, 2009

Trifecta Stats

The thing that hurt second most (the thing that hurt the worst was when I hit a patch of breakable crust and wrenched my neck) was having to call it quits after 9000 vertical feet. Bart said that when he got home, he was going to burn a lap on this back hill to make it an even 10k. The quad would have been around 12k. Here are the stats:

Time car to car: 6:48
Vertical: 9000 ft
Time ascending: 4:20 @ avg rate of 33 ft per minute
Skis: BD Havocs (me), Mt. Baker Superlights (Bart), and Dynafits, OF COURSE!
Boots: Modified F1s (me), Spirit 3s (Bart)
Climbing equipment: fingernails
No. of humans enountered: 2 (until we hit Mineral Fork in which there were throngs)
Near Death enounters: 1
Amateur Moments: at least 3
Bart fashion: 3 different jackets in his pack
Food: not enough
Water: sucking on snow sucks
Fun: lots
Late getting home: No
Understanding Wives: Karen (me), Rosie (Bart)

Addendum to Yesterday's Post: Slab

For the most part, the snow was stable. As always, there are exceptions. This photo is on a NW facing aspect that I doubt sees much sun and is up pretty high. I'm guessing, that the failure was on a layer of surface hoar over a harder wind crust. I made a ski cut and flushed the chute. Then Ben flushed a small slab. Actually, the crown is larger than it looked from below. We were considering skiing some bigger lines on a NW aspect. I'm glad we passed on those since consequences would have been bigger. Thanks to Jon for the photo.