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

Tush her softly

Some of the boyz were lucky enough to get out of the Wastach last week.  The great provider found a nice set up for the boyz.  The Grampon grabbed some sleds.  We loaded up our gear and sleds to head down to the Tushers.  The mountain range right outside of Beaver, Utah.  The Tushers are a cool range with no one in them, except some fellow slednecks.  Most of the mountain terrain is above tree line and is exposed to some strong winds.  There's plenty of glades and lower elevations terrain that has good snow.  It used to have a ski area called Elk meadows that closed down.  We were fortunate enough to stay in a condo right at the base.  That meant as many sunset laps on Thriller (Thats the headline run at the meadows) that we wanted...sick.   

Gramps and Bret gasing up the sleds.

Our first day up in the Tushers, we skied off a southwest aspect of Mt. Holly.  That's Delano peak in the background.

Looks like someone is excited for tomorrows terrain.  The sleds didn't work out for tow ins.  Gramps mentoring about "prabbing" was labor intensive task.   So we ended up using the good old fashion quad power

We were excited about checking out a new snowpack and digging some pits.  When we got into the higher elevations it was thin snowpack and boiler plate, I mean really hard.  So jake aired this cornice instead, sweet landing.

Jake was on a roll that day and he sussed out this chute for him and Gramps to ski on the north bowl of Mt. Holly.  I snuck along for this one but they wouldn't let me go to Delano with them, I think they needed some alone time.

This sub-peak called Delano- Bringham ridge peak was our next ski object.  We skied the chutes in the middle of the peak trying to avoid the rocks.  Although they have been skied we named them Uncle Keith chutes.

Adam and Liam with Bringham in the background. 

Looking towards more Tusher terrain the Pocket and Belknap peak in the background.

Bret dropping into the southwest face of Delano.  This was some of the best snow of the day because the sun had baked it.

The castle size rocks of Delano

Every good day deserves a beer.  The boyz relaxing at the retreat and searching out the next good terrain on the seven minute maps while discussing possible descents of the LT chute.