Hooray for Snow!

Well, this past week has been pretty awesome. Obama won the election, I passed my OEC course, and it snowed 45" in two days in the Cottonwood Canyons down by Salt Lake! What more could a boy ask for? I would've liked to have been able to get down out to ski on Wednesday or Thursday, but I had to stay focused on my exams for those days. So, I headed out yesterday, Saturday, to go get some turns in around Brighton in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

I went with my roommate Chris, who, unbeknowst to me, invited quite a few of his friends along as well. There ended up being eleven of us total going backcountry skiing. Too many people for my taste, but we still had a good time. After the storm finished on Wednesday things stayed fairly cold through Thursday and then got really warm on Friday which created a thick sun crust on anything south facing. So we headed for some north facing openings where we could hopefully find some preserved powder. Here's a view from skinning about half way up where we first dropped in.



We found a great opening with lovely powder. Although it wasn't as deep as I would've hoped, it was still great to be skiing powder again with a base below it. That 45" had settled fast with the high temps. Here's some of the crew climbing up behind me as I break trail.



Here's a look at a fun little opening that we skied. Great to be in winter again. Absolutely my favorite time of year.



Unfortunately after this photo my camera batteries died so I didn't get anymore photos of the incredible views higher up or of anyone skiing the pow. But take my word for it, it was silky smooth! After playing around in this area for a bit, half the people headed down while half of us skinned up to the top of a Preston Peak, a 10, 315 foot tree covered peak with some rad skiing off of it once it gets a little more snow coverage. Anyway, it was great to be on top of my first Wasatch summit on skis! We skied out through glades and some of the trail cuts at Brighton finding heavy and wet snow with the rising temps. However, the snow was soft and the turns were still great. So nice to be back on skis and not hit any rocks. More snow is in the forecast for the week!