EAST OF KESSLER 2/21

Snapdragon? Ivory chute? 4:30am, nope cant swing that. Memorial coulior, stairs gulch 9am? nah probably not. Argenta? 10:30 am? sounds like a good start. Above is the buffalo 2/3s of the way up towards the summit.

The skin track up argenta is long and demanding. We never took our dukes off the high bar the whole time. We seemed to be following up a snowshoeing snowboarder in the skin track whom thought snowshoes belonged in skin tracks. This is not the case, at least its better than setting a bootpack in the skinner though. The struggle for the summit always makes the summit view better. Here a view of alta baldy that few experience.
There is never anything upsetting about twins, unless of course you werent expecting them. Broads Fork Twins lurks in the distance. The intimidating east face from 3 miles away even is enough to want to make you hide under a rock and not come out until summer.Tatonka eyes down the east. This beautiful and daunting line made the hair stand up on my lower back.
All of a sudden the buff AIRS into the couloir a spectacular feat even in the brighton terrain park, but taking air into a couloir deep in the backcountry takes it to a new level.
First turn of many to go. The chute was a plesant mixture of creamy powder and super ice crust. We made mostly fresh turns though steering clear of the northern parts of the line.
The apron and finishing pitches reminded me of waterskiing, heavy and wet but untracked snow Blending finesse and power was the only way to get down. A beautiful long run out past sledding families and people attmpting to cross country ski and avoiding the sherrife convention in mill d parking lot to a 2 mile xc ski back to the car on a perfect day, you cant ask for much more.

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.

Powerhoused in BCC

After an extended safety break the boys decided to have a closer look
As always the conditions got better on the way up
Powder turns in the top chute
Wavy getting his wiggle on

The Powerhouse couloir in BCC has been skied by the boyz so that the rest of you don't need to suffer the way the four of us did this day. I chose to suffer twice in a week because Stefan and I bushwacked the bottom section of this line only to be turned around when the chute we were booting up ended in a steep wall. When I went back three days later the weather was clear and I saw the ice pitch blocking the passage to the main chute. Liam Obrien found the alternate entracnce bypassing the ice pitch and we had an in. All that was left was two thousand feet of bootpacking. Todd Glew broke trail most of the time, hes fast. The top ridge was sunny and warm finally. The ski descent had all types of conditions in it and hundreds of turns. Not bad for low snow in a chute. A good day to tick a line. The chute up canyon from this one named the Generator looks like a beast to climb and ski. Kid Buffalo

The Cascade Chronicles

Pole Couloir

stefans ski cut at the top of the pole

shreddy livin up to his name

Early start for the Southwest couloir

dog leg # 1

stefan "I refuse to take of my skins" Beattie

Conditions were all right


taking a little air

the walls



The teared rock was fun to play on

Squaw peak rd looking up at the
southwest

Wrapped up the two couloirs on the southwest face of Cascade Ridge a little project that started back at the end of January with a forced retreat with high winds and big sloughs. I went on

january 28th with my friend Joe from Taos the winds were gusting almost to 70 mph on the ridge tops a fresh 30-40 inches was basically shower down on us with no vis in new terrain we turned around, our decision validated by the huge sloughs that had poured in from other forks off the main couloir. Not the day to be up there, but the couloirs looked awesome from what little I could see. I was back the next day january 29th with little to no wind, and bluebird. Got Shreddy and Stefan to come along when the couloirs came into view after skinning up Rock Canyon we noticed a huge couloir lookers left of the couloir I was in the day before, since it didn't have a huge snowfield funnel above it we opted for that one it ran directly into a rock ridge. I believe this couloir is named the Pole Couloir it was sunny and we skinned the whole thing great soft turns on the way down 2800 vert to squaw Peak Rd never steeper than 40 degrees. The walls where huge, and teared like provo canyon and it was wide. I still couldn't get the Southwest couloir out of my mind i wondered if the whole thing went since it isn't visible from any where it had even bigger rock walls and dog legged in a couple different sections. So stefan and I were back on feb 13th early to take another crack at the southwest. It was cool to be able to see in it this time and we skinned the whole thing (not my choice) conditions were well you know deep, once again the walls were the best part beside the face shots this couloir was more narrow and had a lot of turns in it the southwest was a solid 3000 vertical down to the road it didn't get steeper than 40 degrees. Overall the couloirs are wastach classics like none I have skied and aren't in any guide books I thought at first that we could be sneaking in an FD but after skiing them I knew it was to good to be true, and not technical enjoy ski like a boy.

Little Pine East

you all know this one but the view was a little bit different today, it put the white into white pine

Bluebird in the AK

I met Tom near Hatcher Patch.  We rallied some nice laps off of the "front" side of Marmot on Saturday.  The AK Squiggle Syndrome (A.S.S.) has reached epidemic proportions, fortunately we have been vaccinated against this horrible affliction.  On Sunday, Kat & Chandra & Anne joined us for the big run off the "back side" of Marmot.  There were very few people out this weekend.  Plenty lines for all.  The people that headed South to Turnagain Pass chose poorly.