Northwest of Twins and back up the Stairs

Last Friday I headed up to Broads Fork to go ski the northwest couloir of the East Twin.  My partner was my friend Josh Moran who grew up in Massachusetts with me on the same street(East Road).  He moved out here this season because he wanted to get a 400 trace year.  Although the southwest bowl hangs over Sandy tempting any suburbanite to ski it. The northerly aspects were staying fresh that week.  We rose early to give ourselves a fair chance at skinning out the southwest ramp back into Broads.

Beautiful, Beautiful Broads Fork.  This drainage holds many options for the backcountry skier.

The ridge that I hadn't climbed in a while. It was just as spicy as I remember.

The line, amazing walls, nice funnel, but was the powder good?

  Umm yes it was nice, very nice.  That's Josh dropping into the top funnel.  The snow was darn good skiing not even wind affected or touched by any other dairy farmer skiers yet that day.

After the turns in the chute were just as soft, Josh was willing to admit that a 300 trace year wasn't that bad.

After skiing the Northwest our options were limited, bushwhack down the canyon, skin the ramp back out towards Broads East facing slopes.  The snow was getting heavy on the south facing slopes and there were already evidence of wet slides all around us.  The east face was getting fried and it had slid the day before.  We made a call to do a quick tension traverse, and a hasty but anxiety causing bootpack.  We took Stefan's secret chute towards the west and ascended a ridge to climb back up the Stairs.

Looking into Stairs Gulch from where we dropped in, not from the top.  There were old crowns and avalanche debris in the Gulch.  We also saw another group of skiers sampling some of the powder on the northwest slope of the twins, they were half lapping on a big mountain.

  The powder up in the top of stairs was good, bottom avalanche debris.  It's one of those lines that actually makes you feel like you turned more than you hiked.  It took a while to get down the chute.  I never liked hanging out in there so we kept moving on the roller balls.

We had to do a stream crossing down by climbing crags but still managed several more turns after that.  It was a good link up, and catching the northwest in such good conditions was epic.

Mid March Update

The snow has been great up here. The days are long and we've had quite a stretch of bluebird powder days. We're even starting to develop a slight sun crust on South facing slopes. Friday I had a short day of work and headed South to Turnagain along with the rest of Anchorage. I went up the standard Sunburst route and found a nice 1,400' line.

There were quite a few folks out, so I decided to go deeper. I put my back to the road and started skinning towards Taylor Pass and on to Superbowl Peak. My geography was a bit off and I found myself on Goldpan Peak. After a short trascent/down climb, the alpenglow was in full effect and Superbowl was laid out below my tips

Sussing the Big Chief in the Turnagain Area

Bass had skied 12,000' vert on Friday and Tom was working on his rig, so Saturday would be my 4th solo tour in 4 days. Vista Peak has been a shot that I had been saving for a day like this. Big approach and highly visible from the highway. I drove to Eagle River and headed up Eagle River Road and turned left onto Mile-Hi Drive. After about a half dozen switchbacks, I parked and threw on the skins. My cankle howled in protest. I gained Mile-Hi pass and dropped into the next drainage and on to a trail put in by some Nordic skiers. Maybe the approach won't be too bad. Wrong, turns out team Nordic wasn't very motivated. I finially gained the ridge got up high enough to scope out the line.

Vista Peak

I dug a pit and it was garbage: CT 0, 4, and 11. Probably shouldn't be soloing it anyway. I found some mellow NW aspects and lapped it up before heading North for the game night in Wasilla. Despite my rampart cheating, I got crushed at Uno. The beer helped me through the devistating losses.

The next morning, Tom and I headed to Government Peak in the Talkeetna Mountains. We parked at the Marmot Trailhead, crossed the street, bridged the creak, and sent the ridge. The sun was in and out all day. During a sucker-hole, we decided for a quick diversion in the sun.

The Diversion

The ridge got a bit more challenging but we summitted quickly.

We decided to ski down a different drainage from the ascent to maximize vertical. The top was variable but eventually gave way to miles of shin deep powder. Ain't too proud for the low angle love.

-Marcello

Northwest to the Coalpit

A few hours before team shit show made it to the NW couloir of the Phiefferhorn a band of skier boyz made thier way up to the 5th highest peak in the Wasatch as well. This group of five made their way to the iconic peak in the early dawn hours, hitting the summit at 9:00am. With it all said, it is pretty amazing to think that two separate parties- for a grand total of 9 skier boyz in one day skied the Phieff. I'm sure Creepy Clay would be proud to know that so many of us frequent his favorite Wasatch classic. While setting up the anchor for the rappel I had to remind myself to start paying attention and stop thinking about the fact that this very line is the reason two boys were once ousted from the organization.


The reason for our early start was not because we had to go to work or wanted to watch tv after touring. It was because we had plans to continue on with a link up to the Coalpit Headwall. Both Slody and I were quite nostalgic about the first time we skied the Coalpit together with Uncle Keith back in the early days of the organization. We made the group decision that heading up the Hypodermic Needle apron and booting the exposed ramp was our best bet and estimated that it would take us about two hours to gain the Coalpit Headwall by these means. Little did we know that we were embarking on the skinner from hell, followed by a bootpack as annoying as a Forest Service Sheriff. The East facing apron skinner was on a breakable crust with little to no traction. I was surprised that Gramps did not suffer any Gramp outs. After we slowly made our way up the breakable crust skinner we switched over to bootpacking to take the ramp over to the Coalpit.

The Coalpit had the least snow in it any of us had seen. The conditions were chalky and variable, however it is always amazing to be on a run as large and powerful as the Coalpit Headwall. After skiing the headwall we found some great powder shots in the lower portions of the run. I had the opportunity to make my first decent telemark turns in the trees. Slody and I made an effort to try to figure out how to do a future link up between the Coalpit and the Y couloir. It will be great to see which skier boy puts together that link up in the future.

The gully skiing in the lower reaches of Coalpit gulch was amazing. When we reached the waterfall obstacle at the bottom of the gully Jay opted to ski it rather than rappel it and we all followed his line down. Fun skiing on waterfall that was falling apart. All and all, this was an amazing link up and another day in the long string of descents durting what some call the worst season ever- and the Skier Boyz call a season of great fun. Glad to be part of an organization that sees the glass half full and not half empty- unless the president asks you to knock the glass out of his hand- AML

Shit Show Tours NW Pheiferhorn

Will Roth and Shit Show Tours needed a hair of the dog to get them up and on the trail for a 11 a.m. alpine start to climb and ski the Wasatch's fiftth tallest peak.

The Brothers Frerk make it onto the east ridge of the Pheiferhorn, good exposure.
The troopers moving up, excellent exposure.
Team Shit Show hits the summit cone at 5 p.m. We found a large bag of sour patch kids at the top, ironic treat. I think we missed seeing some other boys up here, they must have started at dark, fools.
Holy Buffalo! Making turns right off the summit
Duggie, energized from a vegemite sandwich, doing his best impersonation of riding a kangaroo.
Looking up the rappel that the Green Mountain Freeriders hope to launch for a clean descent. It was impressive watching x skier boy Will Roth descend down to the rappel. I was glad to be on skis and still in Skier Boys.
It was amazing to share this classic line with my brother Jared. You can't ski stuff like this in MA, or can you?
Happy Brothers at dusk.
The Dude beats another hangover with an epic day!

Mt Olympus Apollo Coolie

Brett out of the scrubbies and up into the Apollo.

We skinned to the base of a slab then booted up the rest.

At the top of the Apollo excited about the conditions.

Slicing onto the covered slab and then a fast descent through the coolie
A nice straight shot up to Olympus's west ridge
A buffalo cruises the final pitch
Back into the trees and about to ski to the road.

Mt Olympus is a massive peak that holds numerous steep lines and chutes that involve nasty bushwhacks and deep boot packs to reach them. Mt Olympus is impressive with its intimidating faces and steep chutes. The only problem is that this mountain sits at a low elevation and doesn't recieved as much snow as peaks higher up. With such a low snow year as we are having the Boyz weren't sure if all of this effort would be worth it to tick another classic urban line. Bret and I decided to give it a go on the Apollo couloir, a chute down the skiers right side of the North Face and it provided a nice ski tour.

Finding Freedom

Skiing the Wasatch is a blessing.  There's some many lines that hold good snow and so many people that want to ski those lines in good snow.  We probably have the highest percentage of the "herding trend" then any other mountain range in the lower 48.   With all these people its hard to find solidarity, or the untouched canvas in which to slash.  I still love it, it demands more of a skier to find new terrain.  The Wasatch has so many nooks and  flanks.  Its all over the place, some are harder to reach, not as much vertical skiing, and some leave you pulling scrub oak from places that only Jimmy and Stevie enjoy.  There's no reason to give up powder that is this awesome, just look in different spots.   Occasionally one must have to put down the chuting gallery and set your own skin track.  This canyon is in the Southern Wasatch and it gave one of my best days yet this year...it was a much anticipated search for freedom.

My faithful partner that day was Bret, who had been most patient to go to this area.  There he is skinning past the island in the sky.  The clouds and snow cast doubt on our minds.

  

This is the view of the peak that Liam knows all to well.. would we suffer the same fate of being socked in?

This is Bret on the summit.  It snowed the entire time on the hike up the east ridge.  We weren't sure if there was going to be enough visibility for us to descend the chute we wanted.

Luck was with the twins that day.   As we clicked in the sun and wind blasted the clouds away.

Bret exercising is right to soft turns, a liberty that any boy can enjoy.

 America: We'll free the shit out of you

 

We felt like free riders so we took this epic picture.  Now that the sun was out we decided to go back up and ski the chute to the skiers left. 

 

That's Bret coming out of the second chute of Freedom peak.  They say in skier boyz folklore that the skier boy lines of today will become the projects of skier boys of tomorrow.  Find your Freedom  

Thunder ridge

Last Tuesday Slody and I headed out to thunder to check out some of the conditions of the chutes out there.  Some of the best snow was had while descending down the west side Rainbow divide peak at around 7:30, but the needle and the sliver weren't bad either. 

a little rocky up at the top of the needle, a little warm, and a little stressful 

slody in the apron of the needle

That looks good wonder if any skier boys are going to get it soon

Slody earning it on the bootback up the Sliver, the snow was better in here than the needle

Thats me emulating Holbrook once again

Great day up on Thunder especially for a 300 inch season

South Face of Ptarmigan

After having at least one beer too many, I awoke groggy. Tom was already stirring downstairs and I knew we had to ski. The avalanche report and various blogs were all the same: dust on crust. It wasn't looking good. Bass always seems to have the inside line on these things so I gave him a call.

Bass had skied Corn Biscuit 6 times on Friday and said conditions were good, but conceded there was more fresh snow in Anchorage than Turnagain Pass. After 8,000 vert the day before, Bass was looking for a "mellow" day. Ptarmigan Peak above Anchorage would be the objective. The approach involves a 3 miles approach along a popular nordic trail. There was about 8" fresh at the lot and Bass started breaking trail. The wind picked up and we debated whether we should continue. Human factor this... Wind loading that.... As we climbed the wind mysteriously died down. Must have climbed out of it. The wind slowly begin to pick up and by the time we summitted it was back with renewed fury. The couloir was out; the face was the route.

The entrance was narrow and steep. Bass gave the slope a ski cut and whoosh. Take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but debris. It failed on the supportable crust and ran about 1,000'. I dropped in and it was steeper than it looked. It mellowed out to the point where I was comfortable getting an angle measurement: 43°. The top of the chute must have been in the low 50's. The skiing was excellent although a bit wind affected.

The South Face

Tom on the way up

Bass on the way down

North Slope Work Trip

Last week for work I went all the way North to the shores of the Arctic Ocean.  The bottom dropped out and the temperature hit -40 F (-62 F with wind).  I had to head out to a drilling island 6 miles north of the mainland.  This is done by driving over the frozen ocean.

The ice road over the Arctic Ocean to the drilling island

Amphibious Escape Snow Cat Type Vehicles 

Arctic Sunrise

Water Freezing at -40 F