Thursday, March 31, 2011

Timp North Summit: The Front Porch Couloir

Aerial Photo from Summitpost.org
Little brother Sam had a rare day off work so we were delighted to get to ski a special line with him today. Back in 1999, while I was living out of the country, my family moved to a house on the hill in Pleasant Grove, UT.  They sent me a photo of the view from the front porch which was of a snow capped peak (North Summit of Timp).  I've been captivated by that picture since.  So today, we started from our doorstep around 6:30 to ski a subtle couloir that drops west from the saddle between the true and false North Summits on Timp.  Not knowing the name, I'm gonna call it the Front Porch Couloir since it's highly visible from our front yard.  If someone knows the real name, I'd love to hear it.

JD and Sam from 635 Dalton Ave
We were on dirt in our running shoes until crossing the bridge at the head of Grove Creek Canyon.  From there, we were able to skin to the summit ridge.
Heading up through the cliff bands to the N. Summit
Rather firm conditions made for fast travel and in just a couple hours we found ourselves through the couloir and working our way up the massive upper snowfields.  We felt that with the new snow (even with a hard crust) and the predicted 70 degree temps, the West Face would turn into a war zone later in the day.  Even so, while Utah Co ate breakfast, we were putting on beanies and drawing our hoods tight as it was still nice and chilly.
Ascending the upper snow fields with a look back at Utah County
The pitiful little storm that skirted around us yesterday did do us the favor of enhancing all the cliff bands with a gorgeous coating of rime ice that became the subject of many pictures throughout the morning.
There was a nice coating of rime ice from yesterday's "storm"
On the summit ridge, we took a peak down into the Grunge Couloir which we skied from just below the top earlier in the year.  At that time, the entrance seemed to be loaded up and guarded by a nasty cornice.  Today, it looked worse.  Right at the fixed pins/rap station, we were able to peer over the edge and it looked loaded to the brim.  HUGE cornices overhung the entrance elsewhere, threatening utter destruction.  We passed.
The Grunge filled to the brim...loaded and ready to kill
Numerous rime enhanced pics telling the rest of the story:
Traversing over to the N. Summit (photo by JD)

More rime ice en route to the summit

Sam making his first turn off the N. Summit...6,200 feet to go

This pic is cropped and it still makes the skier look small (photo by JD)

Sam on his new TLT Mountains laying waste to the ice crust (photo by JD)

Rime and JD

More Rime, More JD

Sam with no concern to maintain our skin track (photo by JD)

The view from the front yard.  Front Porch Couloir and N. Summit in background.

That was so fun that I think Timp will be on the agenda again for tomorrow...

3-31-2011 N summit of Timp

Been looking at this line for a while(years) and I'm not sure why we haven't skied it.  A predawn start with Andy and Sam had us all pretty psyched! We packed up and walked out my parents front door.
Parents house
Walked on dirt for an hour or so and then put a pretty little skinner up our chute.





We were greeted with some gnarly cornices when we hit the ridge. Sam wanted to play on them but we convinced him not to.

Stay away.

Toward the top (photo by artistic Andy)
Fun wind/sun effected snow the whole way down.

Sam towards the top

Another by artistic Andy
Sam

Andy
Back to the dirt and 65 degree weather, quite the contrast from the windy cold we found up high.  Gotta love tights and t-shirt weather!
Happy Chinos
The line goes down the middle of the peak seen below, nice. Click on the pic and then zoom to get a better view of it.  Do it.
View from 635 Dalton

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

3-29-2011 Apollo -Snowbird-Apollo (burger)

Not as much skiing lately.  Too much study time.  Since I had my big test on the 30th I figured today would be a good day to skip the studies.  Andy and I were a little spooked with recent avalanche events so we  decided to stay a little lower, Olympus! The day started with a hip-hop dance party at the trailhead, funny.  The following bushwhack wasn't as funny but the Apollo did not disappoint.

Andy at the branch point
A little higher, great light all day
We thought about skiing what we started calling the "Zeus Face" but decided it wasn't a smart choice.   Next time.

Zeus
The top of the Apollo had about a foot of hard wind slab.  A few ski cuts took care of it.

Productive ski cuts
The snow from top to bottom was pretty ridiculous. Deep, soft, stable (according to our pits).  
Crappy pic but it's Andy practicing "airing" in skinny ski and tights. 
Downtown Nate Brown was in from Jackson for a few hours and wanted to get a little exercise.  He didn't have an avy beeper with him so we hit a quick skin up snowbird.
They aren't even posing.  This is just what these goons usually look like.
It was a little out of the way for me but after talking about it all day we had to come full circle and eat a fat Apollo.






Tuesday, March 29, 2011

The Apollo Couloir/Apollo Burger Linkup

Over the past week I've skied with old friends, poked around Lamb's Canyon (very nice) as part of my commute home from work, and have been shut down a few times by weather/conditions.  Patience has been the name of the game.

                  
                        JD looking for snow on Timp
River crossing fun

Today we skied the Apollo Couloir on Mount Olympus.  Although not very difficult, it's a nice aesthetic line that I've been eyeing for a long time.  The natural linkup is to ski the couloir and then go eat a burger at Apollo Burger.  We did just that.  

The approach is war
Through the brush it didn't get much better
The debris continued for a while and then we broke through to find untracked, soft, goodness.

Looking up the Apollo

Plenty more kick turns to come

JD trying not to fall off the knife edge
 At the top of the Apollo, a right upward trending traverse over some slabs gains a saddle from which one can look down toward Tolcat(?) Canyon and I-215.  A short scramble north gains the ridge line from where the the West Slabs are visible.  We contemplated skiing the Zeus Chute (shallow corner on the east end of the Medusa's Face) but the snow pack looked shady and after reading Jared's report, we felt ill equipped to handle any necessary raps or climbing.  Now I have a couple more lines on the tick list.
                      
Tempting, but no thanks.
                     
                              Small, manageable slabs
 We down climbed back to the saddle and having booted the upper section of the chute because the snow had become noticeably slabby, we made a couple cuts with good result.  Once down the top section and into the chute proper, we were treated to brilliant powder as we took turns busting up our skin track.

                      
                             JD on his new Nanga Parbats

Part II was trying to find an Apollo Burger to go eat an Apollo burger.  Iphones are amazing and we quickly pulled into this joint:
Murry Holiday Blvd location



How disgusting.  Como se dice piglet?

Linkup complete.






Sunday, March 27, 2011

West Slabs aka Medusa's Face: All You Ever Wanted, and More



The Straightchuter says this about the Medusa's Face:
Like Russian Roulette--more fun to watch than to play.  This is a good line to skip unless it's really been weighing on your mind.  The angle and settings are superb, but the approach, egress and snow conditions ruin a theoretically great line.  It all depends on the snow pack, but considering the geography, good skiable conditions are rare.  The underlying bed surface is a smooth, high angle rock slab that continually sheds snow, so the pack is never very deep. . . . About the only saving grace of this situation is that there are quite a few small trees that can be used as anchors if you choose to ski roped.  A fall would be graphic and fatal, and you're likely to end up at Einstein's Bagels if you do.
-- A. McLean, Chuting Gallery, p. 70
Mt. Olympus
The West Slabs have been weighing on my mind for a long time.  After a couple of aborted attempts, I thought it was time to give it another shot.  Andy Jacobsen who has actually skied the West Slabs said that he was able to do it in March in "fat" conditions.  So when we got some snow this week, in March, I was optimistic and resolved to give it a go.  When I mentioned it to Brother Sam, without hesitation, he was in.  And when Brother Sam mentioned it to Brother Aaron, without hesitation, he was in.  It appears that we all suffer from the same genetic defect.

Me and Sam on Olympus' summit ridge

So, did West Slabs meet and exceed our greatest expectations?  I guess, it depends.  We were disappointed to find out that we couldn't ski it from top to bottom, but all in all it was a one-stop shopping experience that provided a week's worth of adventure in one compact, exciting package, all within view of Einstein's Bagels.

Beneath her Nose

Everything you could ever want within a 5 minute Drive


















This included:
  • Class 6 Buswhack
  • Mountain lion tracks
  • Alpine ascent of Olympus' backbone
  • A ski descent down Medusa's forehead, which was covered with 8 inches of powder, 8 inches of crust, and 8 inches of facets on top of top quality quartzite
  • Jump turns, free floating, hoping and praying what lies beneath is snow, crust, or facets, and not solid stone
  • Jump turning onto solid stone, sliding, skidding, sparks flying, hoping that the ski edges would just bite already
  • Sundog
  • Watching sluff reveal a cold, hard, icy, rocky, face from Medua's nose down
  • Crossing a rock spine covered with thin ice, slipping out, doing a dinner roll, and landing on edges with them biting hard
  • Skiing past rappel anchors
  • Having the actual thought cross my mind that I am about to go through Einstein's roof
  • Rapping off a particularly steep section
  • Downclimbing a rotten runnel with a tool and a whippet with a few rock moves thrown in for good measure
  • Skiing the chalky apron below Medusa's face and then transitioning onto a bowl of frozen debris
  • Trail skiing through the scrub oak
  • Laughing at and with and being scared with and for my brothers.
Aaron

Sam
Sam, apologizing to his skis.