MONTE CRISTO GULLY 2/15

AFTER GETTING WORD of possible fresh powder in LCC, skierboy jake, Colorado powder hound hollywood, and donovan the alfs representive started and made the long trek up Cardif Pass. Luckily there was a skin track to follow or the group may have become disoriented and lost. Needless to say emergency rations were not adiquate enough to support an over night stay.

The group stopped at the top of "cardiff" for a break because the thin air was getting to us. We snapped THIS PHOTO of the sunrise. Which was the first one that hollywood had seen in over a year.

The excursion up the ridge of Mt. Superior was as scary as it looks from the road. Its filled with extreme bootpacking and skinning. The weight of our dukes and bd factors was taking its toll on our legs. Nearing the "false" summit and feeling the effects of the 1.5 hour hike, WE CAPTURED THIS image of an extreme skier on steep terrain, he made it look great, until the steep got to him and he fell off the mountain maybe into a crevase.

AFTER A LONG recovery on the peak it was in line that we pushed across into "monte cristo gully" the wind was face blistering and filled with ice cold super blower snow. WE TRIED TO get as close as possible to the edge of these massive overhanging snow drifts just to take in the tremendous view of the lodges at snowbird below.


MONTE CRISTO'S GUT spits out a half digested buffalo. Buffalo tend to only eat grass but this one ingested at least a cubic yard of snow from face shots on some near perfect skiing conditions.

THE MID GULLY was as delicious as any. beautiful location, more perfect snow.

Your own tracks are the best tracks.

hitting the pavement of highway 210. where the hitch hiking is tough. a friend (so we thought) JULIA even drove right buy us shrugging her shoulders like she didnt have time to stop. Luckily alexa was right behind to make the pick up almost as it was planned. Unfortunately it was too early to go to the bar and brag about our adventure, so we had to ski AltA until the bar opened.

More White Pearl Photos (2/16)

White Pearl (no pirate references)

Second Strike First Platoon attacked the Pearl today.

That approach can eat bag of hot diapers. Survival skinning. We started at the power-house and skied down the main trail. Once the woods appeared to be their thickest, we took a hard left. Thirty willow whips to the face later we got to the toe. Brett had rabies, so we gave him some distance. The booting was going well until Boyd got the mud butt. The latrain is about 800' above the creek on the right. After a brief intermission, it was back to work.

We had brought gear to negotiate the crux based on an earlier trip report. Boy, did they ever blow that out of proportion. Brett, foaming at the mouth by this point, sent the booter. We got to the top of the chute, but he kept going. I chilled and rested just taking in the view: Subaru, UTA bus, Tacoma, bus, Subaru.

The snow was variable, but always good. Definitely, a cool place to make some turns. We came to the "crux". A couple a potato sack style "hucks" and we were through. The snow got heavier. We knew the face whips were awaiting us. Whack! Whack! Whack! and over the river and through the woods to Smith's we go for Beans and Franks

Arrr maty! Da White Pearl

Will Roth negotiating the crux block half way up the chute.

Will improvises with his poles because his ice axe is statigically place behind his snowboard so he can't get it. He is still new to this ski mountaineering game.

Will shredding the punchy conitions in the top chute.

Powder spray under the overhanging walls of the White Pearl. This is why we came.

Will Koch uses the over the shoulder belay down the block. We didn't mean to go fast and light we just underestimated the rappell.

Good turns all the way down.

If the Black Pearl is not in the White Pearl probably is as Will Roth and I found out this day. Both chutes are over two thousand feet long and they split Pearlas ridge low down in the canyon. The White Pearl heads left at the convergence. Entering the chute it didn't look like it would be epic, but once at the top we knew it would. The climb wasn't so hard, a total of two and a half hours bootpacking straight up it. The crux block half way up was fun to climb past. I chose to go right and manteled onto a frozen block, thankfully. This is where we got to look up at the stunning top couloir, good conditons, deep boot pack. The chute doesn't go all the way to the ridge, but if you want to climb up through trees the skiing would be good above the chute. Its always fun to tour with the token snowboarder of skier boyz. A grat day to tick a line. Kid Buffalo.