Wednesday, April 11, 2012

New Line on Timp (for me): Name?

Recognizing that this year's window for big lines the Wasatch is going to close quickly, a few of us have been energized to get some new projects done.  A late night phone call and some last minute plans resulted in again setting my alarm for the middle of the night so I could get in some skiing before work.  The line of choice was a new one (for us) on the northern end of Mount Timpanogos, just looker's left of the "Front Porch" couloir that we skied last year.  This one is a little less obvious but every bit as good and highly visible from I-15 from the Point-of-the-mountain to Pleasant Grove.  

Any one know the actual name?  For now I'm calling it the Easter Couloir given the time of year.

As seen from the Great Western Trail/Road (all photos by Adam Fabrikant and Billy Haas)
Young gun skiers, Adam Fabrikant and Billy Haas were kind enough to join me for a long walk on the dirt to get to our desired objective.  These guys are newish to Utah and are trying to ski any and every line possible.  They remind me of me, except they are better skiers.  Anyway, I promised them a cool new line that doesn't get skied very much and that's all they needed to hear.  

We hiked up Grove Creek Canyon under a near full moon, moving steadily until we reached the Great Western Trail that runs along the high bench.  We took the road north until almost directly under the North Summit.  Here, we finally transitioned to skis and began the long skin up the apron to the mouth of the couloir.  The snow was baked into a frozen smoothness that allowed relatively fast travel.  We pushed the skinning up the lower reaches of the couloir before transitioning to boot packing up nearly perfect conditions...for booting that is.  The snow here, allowed only partial penetration and made setting the track very easy.    

I kept stopping to look back at the other guys, cast as shadows under the full moon.  As we passed through alternating pockets of warm then cool air, we were energized by the light of the moon, which was amplified through its reflection off Utah Lake.  A few zig zags to avoid wind slabs brought us to a steep frozen roll over that we estimated at 50 degrees (the majority of the chute is upper 30s to low 40s).

Soft morning light just before sunrise
Here, Adam took the lead as the sky softened into shades of pink, blue, and gray.  5 minutes later, I let out a cry as I crested the summit to find the sun cresting the horizon, setting fire to my friend's faces with the deepest red.  We shot a few pictures, ripped skins, and then I declared it time to go since I had a schedule to maintain.  Adam descended the North Summit (actually false N. Summit) first and was quickly heading toward the Front Porch.  Billy and I screamed against the grating sound of metal on textured hard pack and eventually got Adam's attention.  We both pointed skier's right and reminded the overzealous lad that the plan was to descend our ascent route.


Topping out the couloir at 7:00 am


Stunning morning light casting a large shadow over Utah Valley

Psyched!

Once established in the 'Back Door' proper, we took turns skiing from island to island and shooting pictures of each other.  Billy displayed his racing roots as he rolled from edge to edge with speed and finesse.  Adam made strong confident turns and looked for every part a bona fide ski mountaineer.  At 31 years old, I was the old man of the group and linked deliberate slow turns down the steep upper sections.  Once we deemed the objective hazard behind us, we gang skied until the boys had to make a decision as to whether or not to go back up for a run down the adjacent 'Front Porch'.  Sadly, my decision was already made and it involved running down a few miles of dirt to make it to work on time.  
Billy dropping in

Skiing firm snow along the upper ramp

Billy entering the meat of the couloir
As I slid up to my stashed running shoes, I noticed that my camera with those priceless pictures was missing (not my awesome new S100, but an old beater Cannon).  That makes the third camera sacrificed to the mountains.  One is somewhere on Box Elder, another fell off the NE Buttress of Angel's Landing, and now this one.  I have no intention of ever littering and regularly pick up trash/bottles to improve the wilderness.  Perhaps my accidental offerings are the price for safe passage?  

With my lightweight skis and boots on my back (Dynafit Nanga Parbats and TLTs), I jogged down the trail to the car, arriving 5 hours after starting.  40 euphoric minutes later and I was showered and destroying a massive omelet and pancakes before strolling casually into work. Remember what I said last time?  It's always worth it.  These are the days!

Mount Timpanogos: East Ridge

Yesterday was one of those rare days this year when safe travel conditions lined up with a brief weather window and a short amount of time off work.  Jason and I both worked until well after midnight but we still wanted to get out and enjoy some corn.  We are from Indiana after all.  

Skinning towards Emerald Lake, above Primrose Cirque
We awoke after way too little sleep, picked up a candidate for "most consistently happy man alive", Jon Swain, and drove down to Utah County.  En route, we settled on heading up Timp from Aspen Grove with a few different options in mind.  Knowing we were getting a late start (7:45 departure from the car), I thought that descents off the west side might be corning up by the time we got to one of Timp's many summits.  As we skinned up Primrose Cirque, it became apparent that the high clouds and wind would keep the shallow, settled snow pack locked up.  





As we arrived at the saddle at the head of the permanent snow field, we looked down into the Provo/Orem area and got blasted by a warm but biting wind.  If anything, we were too early.  On the drive, I had written off the East Ridge, thinking it would be too sloppy to dance around and through the many cliff bands.  Realizing that nothing was warming up, I suggested the East Ridge to Jason and Jon, both of whom readily agreed.  I had skied it some years ago; when I probably had no business being there.  Today, I assumed it would feel casual.  

Southern Wasatch above the Provo/Orem area with Utah Lake in background (photo by JD)
In the above photo, I'm dressed entirely in Outdoor Research spring/summer climbing gear.  I feel that particularly in Utah, where the weather is largely dry, "off label" use of seasonal clothing makes sense.  Jared has written about backcountry clothing systems, and I agree that lightweight, breathable materials make the most sense for this predominately aerobic activity.  Check out the Ferrosi hoody and pants by OR, both of which are affordable and make great spring skiing sense. 
Jon and Andy booting firm snow to the South Summit of Timp (photo by JD)

Standing on the South Summit felt cathartic.  Winter is over by calender date and by what mother nature gave us this year.  But, spring is here and that brings its own set of emotions and expectations.  After a winter of dinking around in low angle trees and racing to stay fit, we were finally going to ski something, "important".  

JD on the South Summit.  Note the white tights!
We traversed on skis along the west side of the ridge, faces stinging from the wind.  Using gravity, we reached the corner where the broad East Ridge could be seen.  We then booted up a hundred vertical feet or so, just so we could ski it from the top.  The East Ridge is really more of a triangular face that is punctuated by multiple large cliff bands running the entire width.  Each sneak passage is along the skier's left side and forces one to more or less ski the left hand ridge.  This ends up being extremely aesthetic when seen from Sundance as it looks like the descent is along the edge of the world.  

My first time down this line, I was following the Inouye brothers, Jared and Sam.  While totally blown and tired after a restless bivy at the trailhead and an alpine head start (Sam and Jared arrived a couple hours after us and caught up en route), I felt safe because of soft corn and their combined experience.  Yesterday, I was acutely aware of the consequence of a bad fall.  The snow was rock hard and this time, I was familiar with the magnitude of the terrain below.  A fall would result in death or worse.  Also feeling some sort of responsibility for Jason and Jon, both of whom are very capable skiers, I voiced my anxiety and counseled caution.  Perhaps my heightened sense of consequence is secondary to a lack of steep skiing this year.  Jason suggested it could be due to the addition a young son, strengthening the need to come home safely.  Regardless, we made cautious, controlled turns down the moderately steep face until we had made it through the biggest of the cliff bands. 

Jon Swain, skiing steep firm snow down the upper East Ridge of Timp (photo by JD)

Jon Swain navigating a large cliff band on the East Ridge

Jason Dorais looking for a break in the cliffs

This was the best we could find at one point

Andy finding the secret passage
From my first experience, I knew there was one final set of cliffs that didn't have an obvious passage way.  This was discovered at the time when Sam, skiing on big tele skis, came maching into our stance above the cliffs, oblivious to the danger below.  As we screamed for him to stop, he looked confused and then scared as he lost control and tried to grab at any shrub he could before launching off the cliffs.  Stunned, we were all silent until we heard a faint, "I'm OK" from below.  That day, the snow was soft and Sam was lucky to escape without injury.  Yesterday, we chose to skirt the cliff band by heading hard skier's right before cutting back beneath it.  Then, it was a series of low angle chutes, chokes, and fun terrain features until we neared Stewart Falls.  Again, from prior experience, I knew to avoid the skier's left side of the falls and we found a reasonable exit through steep pines along the skier's right side. 

The cliff band in the center of the photo is the one Sam fell over a few years ago.  


Jon finding another sneaky exit couloir



Andy finding one more



Spring time!  East Ridge visible in the background
Now fully relaxed, we were in spring skiing mode - short sleeves and big smiles from a mega classic Wasatch descent.  Spring is here so for those that have given up on the year, reinvest yourselves.  As a new friend says, "These are the days!"  They are fleeting, particularly given the low snowpack, but incredibly rewarding because of the magnitude of the objectives.   So, for me, I know the next morning that my alarm goes off and I find myself wondering if it's worth it, I'll know.  It's always worth it.  Sleep is for the the old.

East Ridge, Mount Timpanogos