Mt. Wire - More Wasatch Love

Although there's still plenty of skiing to be had, the running in the foothills is fantastic right now.  Andy, Travis and I met up for a casual stroll up Mt. Wire this evening.  It was a beautiful evening and although we only had a phone we felt like a few photos were needed.  Again, what a great place!

Andy low on Wire

Andy and Travis pretending to still be running

Sunset from the summit

Main Baldy - Loving the Wasatch!

Andy and I wanted to get a few more days skiing before the temps reach the 90s on Monday. So with very low expectations we headed to Baldy Main Chute for a quick ski up and down.  What we found made for one of the most enjoyable mornings of the year.  We had firm/fast/icy snow up to the apron of Main Chute where the snow was turning to perfect corn.  There wasn't a touch of wind, the sky was blue, and we were once again reminded of how amazing spring skiing can be.  We skinned the entire chute (Andy booted the last 50') and then laughed the whole way down about how great the skiing was. We were then able to quickly make it home to enjoy other weekend responsibilities/festivities. What a great place to live! 

Andy looking at our skinner in Main Chute

Topping out (Andy quit on the skinning idea)

Skiing some corn/slush/icy shadows

Teewinot, again.

Basking in the sun last year

Last week we stood on the summit of Teewinot for the 4th time in the past year.  Weather was far from perfect this time but the psych was still strong. We wanted to ski the SW couloir and then head over to Mt. Owen to see what the Koven had to offer. 

Teague on the the summit of Teewinot from Jason Dorais on Vimeo.

After summiting we found ourselves in the clouds struggling to find the SW couloir. We made one false start down a chute that cliffed and then resorted to following our blue dot on the phone. In the chute we found rock hard snow which made for some slow, thoughtful turns down into Glacier Gulch.  So far weather was great. It was cloudy, cold and  had been snowing lightly all morning but no appreciable accumulation was present, yet.  

Andy high on the E. Face

Heading over the notch to the SW couloir

Andy in the SW off Teewinot

We headed up Glacier Gulch until we were standing directly beneath Mt. Owen.  The cloud cover once again led us astray and we found ourselves a touch too far up canyon.  Instead of backtracking to the base of the Lower Koven we decided to sneak in half way via the ramp that traverses under the large cliff band on Owen proper.  This turned out to be a very straight forward option that I'd take again.

Heading towards the Koven

In the Koven the snow was quite firm and we were all glad to have crampons and a real tools. After climbing the upper portion of the couloir and getting multiple solid sticks with my tools I decided skiing it in it's entirety would not be in my cards that day.

Mid Koven

Heading to the upper snowfields, Koven in the background

As we were climbing the Koven, the winds and snow fall picked up and we found ourselves on the East Snowfield with less than ideal snow.  There were isolated pockets of wind slabs that we wanted no part of.  To make matters worse,  the rate of snowfall and winds kept picking up.  We turned around right under the summit block and decided to down boot the snowfields to avoid taking a potential ride.

Sometimes it's good to force it through bad weather but that was not the day.  We were all feeling the growing strength of mother nature and were not excited about it.   

Bailing off Mt. Owen

I down climbed the majority of the upper chute.  Andy made a few turns and then opted to down-climb as well.  Teague was feeling brave and kept his skis on the whole time.  What a psycho.  This was STEEP and FIRM.  Props to Teague.

Teague easing onto the ice

Ready to get out!  Photo by Teague

Teague cautiously side-slipping over the ice I just down climbed with 2 technical tools and crampons

Teague, looking cool

GEAR:30 slideshow and the Grunge Video

For some reason Gear:30 asked Andy and I to do a slideshow about ski mountaineering and a few of the projects we've been working on.  When we got a copy of the of the flyer they put together we both felt a little embarrassed by a few things such as "mind blowing feats..." Oh well. Although the ski mountaineering we do is by no means mind blowing, hopefully we can show a few entertaining photos and have a good time.  If nothing else, OR will be handing out a few free knick knacks.  If you've got nothing going on, we'd love so see someone there who isn't related to us...

Also, here's another very amateur video I put together of Jared's and my day in the Grunge a few weeks ago.  I was all psyched on the stupid GoPro but after using it for one day am going to return it.  The battery last roughly 35 minutes and the camera freezes and won't start or stop unless you pull the battery out.  Those things are garbage.

The Grunge from Jason Dorais on Vimeo.

A Ski Descent of the Otter Body

Otter Body marked, photo from
www.summitpost.org

Leaving Salt Lake, the goal wasn't to ski the Otter Body.  We had flirted with the idea for the past couple years and had read everything about it that we could find but we were heading up Jackson for a different project.  Tom Goth was recruited last minute to join in on the all day fun.  We've skied a lot with Tom and although he'd never been to the Tetons and had very limited climbing experience we figured he would make a strong addition to the team.  We thought, he's fit, he can help carry the heavy load and break trail, and that any climbing or rappelling we needed to do would be simple enough to walk him though it.

As we drove up, we were in contact with Zahan Billamoria.  He successfully guided a group up and down the Grand that same day and offered a few reassuring thoughts on snow stability.  He was also kind enough to offer us a garage to pack gear and a room to sleep in before our ridiculous 12 AM wake up.  Right when we pulled in, he opened his computer and showed us what he and his clients were up to earlier in the day.  It looked magical.  They skied from the summit of the Grand in powder.  

Zahan's beta photo 

Apart from giving us snow stability beta, Z was also able to give us a little insight on the Otter Body. He had skied it earlier this year with Brian Harder and also helped guide the TGR crew down it.  He pulled up a few photos, told us about anchor locations, and gave a few words of encouragement.  I was sold on the idea, but wanted to stick with our plans and thought the Otter Body would take too long and compromise the rest of the day.  Besides, as I laid down to sleep all I could picture was me getting flushed off it.

You would think waking up at midnight the day after working a 30 hour shift would be hard.  It wasn't.  We all jumped up and were off to the Bradley Taggart trailhead.  Skinning from the car was easier than expected and before we knew it we were at the meadows under calm skies and a full moon.  If travel stayed that easy we were going to summit with multiple hours of darkness left and be on perfect pace for our link up goals.  Just when we started talking about how easy the morning had been, conditions began to change.  The majority of the Teepee Glacier was covered in slough/debris from the day before which made for difficult travel.  We slowly fought our way up transitioning from skinning to booting and back a handful of times until we popped out at the Teepee Col.  

Andy and Tom at Teepee Col

The moon was massive, lighting up all of the surrounding peaks. We all felt pretty lucky to be in such an amazing place and have this kind of weather.  20 minutes later those happy/lucky feelings were replaced with cold induced nausea as we were getting absolutely hammered with wind at Glencoe Col.   All we could do was shield our faces from the swirling snow, worry about the forming wind slabs, and press on.  We took turns wallowing up the Stettner and eventually made our way to the base (over shot it at first and had to down-climb back to it) of the Chevy ice bulges.

It was still pretty dark and Andy happened to have two headlamps, one of which was 700 lumens, so he won the lead.  We climbed the Chevy roped and were pleasantly surprised at how filled in it was.  The ice bulges were similar to two year ago and only 5 or so feet tall.  Tom dominated the ice even though it was his first time swinging a tool. With all the wallowing, the wrong turn, and messing with ropes, we managed to waste hours getting from Glencoe to the Ford.  My hope of a moonlight descent was now gone.

Tom on the 1st ice bulge

Andy's self portrait mid Chevy

From there, the Ford was straight forward and as we pulled onto the East Snowfield the wind died completely.  It seemed like the East side of the mountain got through the morning without getting too hammered and we could still see the four sets of tracks laid down by Z and his party the day before. It almost looked like a tracked Snowbird.   

Tom and Andy heading up the Ford

Andy and I skinning the upper snowfield, photo by Tom

Tom skinning to the summit

Andy about to summit

Tom had never summited the Grand before and I think he was sincerely blown away.  And with good reason; it was still, the lighting was amazing and we were about to ski!  We took a quick photo and started back down with the plan to regroup at the top of the Ford.  We skied the moguls and then had a discussion about what to ski.  My main fear with the Otter Body was that a fresh wind slab that would rip and graphically send us over the massive cliffs between us and the Teepee.  

Tom skies off the summit

It was already 8 AM (too late for our other plans), the snow was relatively unaffected by the morning winds, and it was still cold.  We figured we might as well give it a go.  Besides, we had enough gear to rap anything we were uncomfortable with. Now all we had to do was start making the most exposed turns of our lives.  I cautiously led out over the rollover and into the funnel that drops you onto the Otter Body.  This was beautiful.  Like they say, we were skiing on the moon.

Starting to ski the rollover, photo by Andy

A bit lower, photo by Andy

Tom coming in to our "safe spot"

We regrouped again below a little rock outcropping and the Andy to the lead. He made more cautious turns down increasingly icy snow to the rap station above the Otter Body proper.  Here the sun felt like it was starting to warm everything up and we all felt a little urgency.  Z's anchor beta was spot on and Andy quickly found the purple sling on the left hand side.  He rigged the rope and was off.  When I joined Tom we quickly ran through everything and he made the first rap of his life!

Andy skis towards the first rap station to gain the Otter Body

Tom following

Tom's first rap

Once down on the Otter Body Andy and I pulled and coiled ropes while Tom led off to the tail.  As he approached the shade line he made increasingly cautious and sketchy turns until he stopped and waited for us in the shade.  Andy and I both felt our edges grip less and less as we came up to Tom.  We all thought about continuing a little further but we knew the icy crust was only a few inches thick and self arrest with whippets likely to fail.  Our sense of self preservation had us pulling skis off and down climbing the the tail.

Andy on the Otter Body

Approaching the sun/shade line, photo by Andy

Once on the tail we looked for the anchor Z told us about on the skier left side but all the new snow had plastered everything.  The booting still felt fairly secure so we just down booted looking for the next rap station or a easy place to build one.  If all else failed, we had a ton of crap we could have burried and rapped off of.

The boys down-climbing the tail

Conveniently, the the last two rap station were right where we hoped they would be so no major gear sacrifices had to be made.  We worked as quickly as possible with the constant thought of the East Face falling down on us and were able to get down to the Teepee without incident.  A nasty looking black bird sat and watched us over the final rap adding a but to the erie feeling the Chimney already has.  I must have looked at that damn bird a dozen times while waiting to rap.

Tom on the final rap to the Teepee

More Tom

Once we were all down Andy let out a shout of joy and we were off skiing the worst kind of breakable snow down the Teepee.  No one cared though, we were just thrilled to be mostly out of harms way and headed home.  There were brief thoughts of pushing on but the rapid heating and the fatigue we all felt kept us in check.

Freedom! Andy on the Teepee

Once back at the car we all commented on how we'd had enough excitement for the time being.  Thoughts of mellow running adventures, eating, and just hanging out seemed more appealing that anything else.  I think I swore I wasn't going to ski on my next day off.  Three days later and my thoughts have already drifted back to the Tetons.  I guess it's not quite time to start running yet...




Gear:
SCARPA Alien 1.0 with gaiter
Ski Trab Maestro skis
Plum Race 145
Black Diamond Whippets, Vector Helmet, Viper ice tools

Ski Trab Dragon speed suit and wind pant, and gloves

Outdoor Research Centrifuge Jacket, Transcendent Hoody, Helium II Shell

       

Also, one of the best trip reports I've ever read is about the Otter Body.  Christian Beckwith wrote about his descent here. 

The Grunge - What makes a good ski partner

Jared's late

I've had several conversations over the past couple months about what makes a good ski partner.  My outing with Jared yesterday was a good example of many good (some bad) qualities.  Here's a short list.

1. BE ON TIME!  We were supposed to meet at 5:30.  This was the only day I had to sleep in this week but I decided to get up early.  If I'm not going to hit my snooze button I don't want the person I'm skiing with to hit it either.  At 5:25 I got a text saying Jared forgot something and that he might be a minute or two late.  10 mins later he comes rolling up.  Turns out he would have been able to run back home and still be on time but in a rush to make it he was pulled over.  88 mph on the on ramp is too fast?  Who would have thought.  At least the since of urgency to be on time was there.  Luckily he's a lawyer and got out of a ticket.

2.  Have similar goals.  I wanted to go HUGE yesterday and even had a pretty good tour in mind but the forecast was less than favorable for an all day outing (60 degrees).  We talked about it and agreed to head to Timp and check out the Grunge and possibly hit Cold Fusion as well.

Jared sharing the breaking duties

3. Don't be lazy.  I don't think trail breaking needs to be 50/50.  It should be whatever's going to give the team the best chance of success.  If that means one of the partners breaking trail all day so be it.  Just be willing to do your share. We took turns and moved fairly well all day.

Several hard jumps

4. Equal (or similar) risk tolerance.  Jared wrote about his risk tolerance here.  Andy and Twight went up the Grunge the day before and told us there was dry, stable,  sheltered powder but as we entered the chute, we found a 2 foot deep supportable slab.  We talked about bailing and decided to dig a little.  If there were any warning signs we were both ready to go home.  After isolating several columns with no results we dug a rutschblock.  This took several hard jumps to fail and the shear was far from clean.  Feeling good about this we continued.  

Led to this

5.   Be psyched for adventure, even if parts of the day a awful   No one wants to spend the day with a partner who isn't psyched to be there.  Sometimes it's cold, or wet, or you don't feel like walking in your ski boots.  It's all part of the fun and too much complaining gets old. As far as being a good partner's concerned, I think excitement, to a certain extent, out weighs skill.  I would rather ski with beginner who's loving the experience than some unenthused expert.  Jared and I have both been working too much so we were loving it!

Jared mid choke

6. Sense of humor.  At some point in the day you should be laughing.  Whether it's making fun of each other, joking about the huge cornice that's about to fall on you, or just loving the skiing, conversation should be fun.

Monster conices threatening all day

Our tunnel 

7. Good vision.  Although our idea of skiing the Grunge was far from original, we tossed around a bunch of ideas for the future.  Coming up with a good idea's half the battle and skiing with some one who can contribute to the tick list is a big plus.

Jared near the top

8. Know your limits.  You can ski like crap (I did),  get scared (Jared did), or want to bail because you're uncomfortable.  Just don't be a liability.  When Jared said, "wow, this is kind of steep/scary."  I didn't think he meant, "wow, there's a good chance I'm going to fall and you're going to need to carry me out."  When he saw my ugly turns I hope he wasn't thinking that that either.

At the end of the day weather blew in and we called it quits after the Grunge.  It wasn't the huge day I was hoping for but it was stellar nonetheless. The above list is far from complete but that's all I can think of right now.  Let me know what I missed.

Just above the choke

Exiting the Grunge