Provo Peak Highway Line

I'm not sure why, but even before I started skiing, I wanted to ski Provo Peak. I can see it from my parent's deck and from just about anywhere in Utah County. I tried to get up there a few years ago and due to a storm/hazardous conditions, we bailed. Today, the weather looked perfect so we went exploring.

We started at the Slate Canyon trailhead, followed an excellent trail for a few thousand vertical, and then broke through the brush to the West Ridge of Provo Peak.

Adam skinning out of Slate Canyon with Buckley Peak in the background:


The views to north of Cascade, Timp, and Lone Peak were pretty spectacular:


JD trying to dial up some County babes...all he got were a couple dudes:


Cool rime everywhere:


Adam feeling happy to be arriving at the summit.


Only to find a bunch of crappy ice skiing from the top.


It got better though.


Until the exit when I buried a ski and ended up doing some sort of front flip, landing facing back up hill.


We were able to ski about 5,950 feet of the 6,000 foot descent, earning us a trip to The Italian Place, Taco Bell, and Macey's for ice cream. I love Utah County.

View of Provo Peak from just off I-15 in Pleasant Grove. Our descent is the obvious line on the NW face.

2-28-2011 Provo Peak

Winds kept bigger plans in check.  PP followed by a food tour of Utah County was still pretty good! The upper few hundred feet were whippet conditions, mostly ice.

A. Okeefe happy to be out of icy terrain

Andy with Cascade and Timp blending

More Chino

Adam on a county spines

Winds were pretty wild up there.  North facing slopes felt a little slabby.

Andy cut lose this little guy, only a few inches

With the promise of The Italian Place with Eyestone followed by Taco Bell and Macy's ice cream with Kyle, we were in a hurry to get down. The snow was a little variable I think we all went down. Andy's the only one who got caught with the camera.

Front flip!

Skis and Picks: The Great White Icicle

3 feet of powder? Canyon is closed? What? Boo... I'm going to walk a few miles up Little Cottonwood Canyon and ski some ice.

From 2011-02-27

The Great White Icicle

From 2011-02-27

Bart dodging my chunks.

From 2011-02-27

Andy with frozen hands.

From 2011-02-27

And forced to ski some pow.

From 2011-02-27

Bart "skiing" pitch 2.  For the record, I "ski-rapped" this pitch because I thought it would be fun to keep my skis on the whole time.  I don't see "ski-rapping" making any sort of a popularity surge in the near future.

From 2011-02-27

Great White Icicle Climb/Ski Descent

Yesterday was a fun day. Jared had his sights on a bigger line in the mountains but conditions weren't going to allow stuff like that. I'd figured as much, and had all night while at work to become fixated on the idea of "skiing" the GWI. I proposed the idea to Jared and he seemed pretty psyched as well.

That was until...


The road was closed so we walked up to the pump house. It opened just before we got there. I bet waiting would have been a wash.

Here are a bunch a pics and a narrative of the day.

Jared, about to get frisky:


At the top of the first pitch, I looked down and saw BG rallying through the forest to join us. It's always more fun with three. The climbing was a bit of a cluster with the deep snow and three man team. We roped up for the first pitch.

Getting started (photo by JI):


We all soloed the second.

Solo train up pitch two (photo by JI)


Deep snow...balls deep:


Jared led the bulge with his nano tech Camp crampons and did a fine job even though his feet skated all over the place. Maybe he's convinced that some proper vertical front point steel spikes are better?

(photo by BG):


Belaying, scared that Jared's aluminum crampons were going to break (photo by BG):


Bart followed while I climbed the left side because I was too cold to wait around (photo by JI).


From there, we all roped up to the top. The ice was thick and low angle sections had more snow than I've ever seen up there. Lucky too since we were going to try and ski as much as we could (photo by JI).


Below the last pitch:


BG near the top (photo by JI)


From the top, we rapped back to the uppermost snow field and donned our skinny skis. We each made a few cautious turns before clinging to the rope and rapping back over the bulge.

Jared, deciding not to air the huge bulge below:


BG, committing to the rope:


From there we skied belayed back down pitch two. Looking back, that wasn't necessary, but we were being pansies. At the bottom of pitch two, we finally put away the ropes for good. It was sweet powder skiing...for about 8 turns, before reverting back to side stepping our way around pitch one and skiing out the mini apron.

After the bulge (photo by JI):


Side slipping pitch two (photo by BG):


Best turns (all 6) of the year (photo by BG):


Jared in deep powder on the GWI:


Typical Samurai, straight lining the exit:


Not a lot of vertical and not a lot of skiing but a lot of fun.

Thanks to JI and BG for sharing pictures. I forgot my camera and just had my phone. Stupid.

Day 70: Where the HELL is Hellgate?

Wanted to have a quick day in the mountains with a bit of spice. AO thought the Hellgate Couloir would be a good idea and promised he knew how to find the entrance. He didn't. We ended up just above the big cliff pictured above. Maybe that is it? We had a couple 60 meter ropes but no nuts or pitons and still weren't sure so we went back up. After another false go that cliffed out, we made it down this ice fest.


See JD for more.

Ouray Ice/Mixed

It snowed 40 inches in the Cottonwoods this weekend...so we went out of state. Too much powder. And, too much skiing with that traverse last week. So, we made a quick trip to Quray, CO to check out the ice park. There are a ton of adventurous world class ice flows in the area, but the park is an artificial gym of ice. We wanted to get in some milage and practice at a grade that we'd be too (insert derogatory word) to lead.

Thus, we were top rope heros...

JD took a spin on a delicate pillar to start things off.


Then NB, who has more experience than all of us pulled a dinner plate onto his face and...

Ended up with three stitches in his nose.

JD getting gnarly


Rapping back down for more


JD dry tooling


Maybe the most fun part was our solo train to exit the canyon. We found an easy ice gully that brought us back to the sunlight. NB starting off.


Solo train


Of note, my TLT boots climb ice as well as normal mountaineering boots. Nice to know for future plans.

Vacation is over. Back to work.

2-21/2-22-2001 Ouray

Since we were a little faded from the Oquirrhs, we decided to head to Ouray for some ice and rock.  The Chalet felt weird without Lars but we managed.  

Bloody Nate

About 5 mins after we stepped out of the car, Nate took quite a bit of ice to the face.  The cut sent us to Dr Olson's office and took 3 stitches to close it up.

Nate, post opp hour #1 

We thought about using a motorcycle helmet to protect the other half of Nate's face but he was having none of it.

The skinny, hollow pillar that got Nate.

A little rock

Solo train up a gully

More train