Last couple ski adventures of the season

I had a few fun backcountry ski days before I packed up the bags from Utah. On April 18th, Doug and I had a fantastic day checking out a great spot in the Ogden Mountains that he wishes I not name. It was a beautiful spring day. Tons of sun, totally bluebird. Snow ended up being better than we expected with a mix of quasi-corn, creamy wet snow, and we even found a little bit of powder. We knew it was spring because we had to do a stream crossing.



Once we were safely across the river, we worked our way up higher, enjoying a fantastic ridgewalk on a lovely spring day.





With the warm temps from the previous day and the strong spring sun, the naturals were running on the steep slopes.



While skinning up the ridge we came across some nice quasi-corn that we figured we ought to get on before it turned to mash potatoes. Not a bad choice. Doug and Saringa with Ben Lomond in the background. I haven't put up a post about it yet, but we skied that NE face of Ben Lomond, just behind Saringa, back in March. It was rad.



After that quick lap we headed back up to explore the next drainage over.



We found a fun little coulior type thing to ski that actually held some bonafied powder in it.



Then worked our way over to a fun gladed area with this nice little rollover. Doug purposefully cut a few push-a-lanches. Fortunately his dog didn't chase them.



Then things opened up nicely into a wide open bowl with somewhat heavy but still decent snow.

Doug.




Joshua.



Doug and Saringa with some cool snow runnels beyond.



A closer look at the snow.



Then we broke trail up another ridge to get a view back at what we'd just skied and look over into some of the other adjacent canyons.







Needless to say, there is a lot of great skiing to be had around this area, it just requires a little bit more effort. A fantastic spring day to be out in the mountains.

The Way to End the Season

April showers may bring May flowers, but around Utah they just brought some deep snowy goodness for the last week at work. The last few days, April 15-17th, were filled with lots of powder turns and avalanche control. Who needs sun and corn snow? This is my kind of spring skiing.

Morgan doing some Avi Control.



And "stability testing."





Joshua catching some air and enjoying the late season pow.





Skinned up to the top of James Peak for Avi Control on our last work day, April 17th. The views were superb.









And the skiing wasn't bad either.









Mission accomplished.

Videos from March 30th, 2009

But before we get on to the amazing last week of skiing at work, here's a few videos from an epic 15" day on March 30th.

Joshua getting some of the goods.



And playing on an awkward shaped pillow that throws you kind of sideways.



And then getting some more pow later in the day w/ fellow patroller Brandy on her snowboard.

April 6-14

I know. It's been a while since I've updated the blog. So, here you go Steve. Life has been busy (isn't that always the excuse?) and the skiing has just been really good. The snow gods decided that since they held out on us for January, that they'd just give us the goodness in March and April. Well, I'm okay with that. Better late than never and less people on the hill since everyone else had spring on their minds. The nice part about this time of year too is that it's periods of nice sunny weather interspersed with good storms. Case in point. We practiced Self-Evacuation from the lifts at work on April 6th in the warmth...



Then we watched another storm approach us...



...and we're skiing 10" of coldsmoke...






...and doing avalanche control.



Then it's back to spring while France visits for a few days.







We had beautiful weather, great views and fun clouds for a couple great hikes.











But lets not get too comfortable with this nice 60 degree weather, because another 25" of snow dropped in the mountains over the next couple days...

Spring Pow

More non-suckage. It's snowed everyday this week. Gotta love spring powder!

Craig getting in the white stuff today.

Epic Day at Work (Why I Love My Job)

Today was one of those days where all is so right in the world. After yesterdays marginal skiing, I was pleasantly surprised to get to work and find that the skiing had transformed into nothing less than amazing. 15" of new, light density, classic Wasatch powder, and few people on the mountain. Not only that, but I was assigned to the best lift on the mountain on a day like today. Paradise lift, which services only Black and Double Black Diamond terrain.

Started the day with a bit of avalanche control, which is always a good way to start the day. After ski cutting a few wind and soft slabs with good result, it was time for the feast. The rest of the day involved pillaging endless amounts of deep Utah powder with too many powder face shots to count. Yeah, perfect, basically. On top of that, the skies parted around 10:30-11am and it was a cold, bluebird pow day. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Here's a few of me in the pow.







And a few of Morgan, a fellow patroller who had the day off.




Morgan's Ski Pole. He's in there deep somewhere.





Good day to catch some air.





This is Morgan after a deep turn. No, he did not fall over. It was that deep and good.



Fellow patroller Charlie in good style.



Um, yeah. So, it was a good day. And another 17" is forecast for tomorrow, and then another storm on Thursday/Friday. I think it's going to be a great week. Just a guess.