Pardon my french, but today was the shit. One of those perfect days in the mountains. Bluebird day, good partners, exploring new and awesome terrain, a bit of adventure, some bushwacking, great snow and good stability. Days like this don't happen all the time, but when they do, all feels right in the world.
The last two weekends had been spent down in the mountains around Salt Lake City. So, I wanted to stay closer to home this weekend and was looking forward to exploring some new terrain in my local mountains. I'd been looking on the topo maps a bit lately and there seemed to be good potential in an area called Mill Canyon just north of Ben Lomond. I called my friend Doug to see if he was in for some exploration and, as he hadn't been there either, he readily agreed. I met him and his wife, Katie, this morning and we began our ascent alongside a beautiful creek...
with cool trees...
and even a bit of adventure right from the start.
Mill Canyon lies just on the other side of the forested hills on the right hand side of the photo.
We skinned our way up through mandatory alders, and then on up through wonderfully spaced pines and eventually gained the ridge of the northern side of Black Canyon.
Fortunately for us, there was another party that came up a different way to the ridgetop. And as they were heading in the same direction as we were, they had kindly laid a nice skin track for us to follow up the ridge.
Looking into Black Canyon from where we gained the ridge.
Doug skinning up with James Peak in the background. James Peak is part of Powder Mountain where I work. The resort lies on the other side of James and the adjacent mountains.
We worked our way up the ridge and were all impressed by the terrain and potential that this area had. We're definitely coming back and hopefully for longer. The only downside to the fantastic day was that my camera died half way through the day. So. I don't have any photos of the awesome terrain up high and the fantastic skiing on the way down. Needless to say, the powder was excellent. Fast and super fun with our skis penetrating 6-8 inches deep. Stability was great too as we were able to ski some steeper pitches with no observable instabilities. Doug took some video and photos, so hopefully I'll be able to add some of those to the blog once I get them. Amazing day though. Seriously I will be back to this place. So much great potential so close to home. I'm definitely feeling blessed.
