Little Cottonwood Canyon

This last Saturday I decided to get out of dodge and head for the high country. When most people think of skiing in Utah they think of one place. Alta. Well, I've yet to ski in Utah, and I'd never been up to Alta, or famous Little Cottonwood Canyon, where the resort resides. So, I figured I'd take the drive south and head for some good quality solo time in the mountains. Googlemaps said that it should be about an hour and 35 minutes from my house to Alta, but it only took 65 minutes, which was a nice surprise. I wasn't really sure where I was going to go, since I didn't know the area, but after running into a friendly guy in the parking lot, he suggested I head towards Twin Lakes Pass to start. My route ended up taking me through beautiful fall foliage on my way up to the pass. I then headed up climbing up to the top of Mt. Wolverine. Mt. Wolverine is an uber classic peak in the Wasatch with a gorgeous alpine cirque that has lots of famous couliors, or chutes, that have been in a lot of ski movies. Mt. Wolverine is 10, 795 feet tall and gives a great view of both Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons, as well as Alta ski resort. All in all a lovely day, with nice cool temps and beautiful views. I can see why this place is so popular. Everywhere you look there is a line I'd like to ski. I'm glad that fall has arrived up in the high country.

A map of my route.



Ah the fall.



Alta.









Looking down Little Cottonwood Canyon.



Mt. Wolverine and part of the Wolverine Cirque.



Big Mt. Superior. You bet your biscuits they do avalanche control on that sucker to keep the road clear. When conditions are stable, it's one of the proudest lines to ski in the Wasatch. Big, steep, and committing.



A fun looking chute in Wolverine Cirque.




Snow! Some still hanging around.



A gnarly coulior. Would love to watch someone ski this guy. That top bit is steeep!



Yours truly on top of Mt. Wolverine.



More fall colors.





And a little video.

Waterfall Canyon

I went for a quick run/hike up to another one of the canyons nearby my house on Monday, after all the snow up high melted away and the clouds blew through. Waterfall Canyon is beautifully lined with quartzite cliffs on both sides and it caps off with, surprise, a big waterfall. Because of the lateness of the season, it wasn't running crazy, but it was definitely still going. The waterfall is probably about 70 feet long and cascades down to the rocks at your feet. From my house to the top of Waterfall Canyon is about 2.5 miles and around 1100-1200 feet of elevation gain. Definitely a beautiful canyon with a great view of downtown Ogden. Just another cool thing outside my door in Utah.

Here's a few photos from the adventure.











Looking back at Malan's Peak, on the left, and Waterfall Canyon, on the right, from town.



A little video of the area.

Winter is Coming

Hooray! Winter is getting closer and closer! We got a little bit of snow up in the mountains above Ogden this morning. It melted off by the afternoon, but it was great to see some of the white stuff again. Here's the webcam photo I snaked off of Snowbasin's site. Snowbasin is the resort that lies on the east side of Mt. Ogden, which stands right above my house. Can't wait for the powder!

Bienvenidos a Utah

Wow. These last couple weeks have been a little crazy. Since then, I've left California, quit my job of 2 1/2 years, moved to a new state, and become a peach farmer. Huh? Let me elaborate.

I moved out to Utah to continue persuing my goal towards becoming an avalanche forecaster. In order to do so, I'm trying to work with the Ski Patrol/Avalanche Control guys up at Powder Mountain just outside of Ogden, Utah where I'm now living. I have to take this first aid course, which I'm now taking, in order to work these guys. So, that meant moving out to Utah a little earlier than I was hoping. Anyway, moving out here I didn't have a job, so I've just been trying to piecemeal stuff together as I'm getting settled. One of the guys from my class helps out on a peach farm and offered me work over there. How could I say no to work that had been offered to me withing 36 hours of moving to Utah? Anyway, so I'm not spending a good chunk of the week either going to school and studying or picking, sorting, and selling peaches. Random? You bet. Anyway, it should only last for a couple more weeks, then the peach season is over. I won't lie though. It's been a blessing.

With all the business of the last week and a half, I've finally had some time to update this blog. Yesterday I got a chance to get out and go for a hike/run up to nearby Malan's Peak. The sweetest thing about living where I live is the proximity to the mountains. There is literally a trailhead 5 blocks away from my house and it just starts heading up into the mountains that rise almost 5000 feet above. So I've been enjoying doing a bit of trail running lately. Anyway, here's a few photos from yesterday's adventure.

Heading up Taylor Canyon, the access point to Malan's Peak.



Looking up Taylor Canyon.



Looking out from Taylor Canyon onto the Ogden Valley.



Fall is here at 6000 feet!



Looking north towards big Ben Lomond. Can't wait to see that beast covered in snow.



Looking down on Ogden from the top of Malan's Peak. My house is in the bottom center of the photo, just a few blocks from the golf course.



Looking up towards Mt. Ogden from the top of Malan's. You can ski from the top of that all the way down to town in Ogden - a near 5000 foot descent.



Yours truly on the top of Malan's Peak.



Malan's Peak from back in town.



A video panorama from the summit of Malan's Peak.

Wisconsin

I spent most of last week in the Midwest, because my cousin was getting married in Chicago. I grew up going to Chicago twice a year, but it had been four years since I'd last been back. In the summers we'd always head up from the Windy City to my grandparent's lake house just across the border in Wisconsin. It had been a while since I'd been so we spent two days up there before heading to the wedding in Chicago. Here's a few photos. It was lovely to be back at Power's Lake, where I've spent many summers.

Picture got messed up, but it's a good view of the pier I grew up playing on.



Cory and I canoed over to this fun little swampy area of the lake.



My paddle and algae.



Getting ready to go through the tunnel.



Back on the open waters of the lake.



A view down to the lake and community tennis court from my grandma's cabin.



The cabin.

Post-Work Bouldering

I headed out for a little after work climbing this past Tuesday with Josh and Melissa. We met up at Santee, the local bouldering spot, and got on some great climbs. It's just so nice to get on the rock for a few hours after a long day at work. Makes my soul feel refreshed.

One of the problems we did was this fun slabby arete. It was Melissa's project for the day and after a few frustrating tries she hopped back on it and nailed it. It was great to watch her send it. Here she is in the middle of the business.



Josh topping out on it.



My turn.



We saw this crazy huge bug (like 3 inches long!) dragging this desert tarantula around. It was awesome!



My long standing nemesis at Santee is a problem called the 20 Point Boulder Problem. I was stoked to give it a go, but when we got over there, there was 6 or 7 people working on it. So we headed for this problem Josh had been telling me about called the No Hands Traverse. It's this great little ledge with a blank slab above it. As the name implies, it's a feet only climb with nothing to grab onto with your hands. It was super delicate and technical. I tried it probably a dozen tries and then, on the last try of the night, just before it got too dark to climb anymore, I sent it! Super happy to have nabbed this gem! Definitely a new favorite at Santee. Leave the muscles at home for this one. It's all about good footwork.

Woodson

Josh and I headed out to Mt. Woodson this last Saturday. I hadn't done much crack climbing of late and was itching to get back onto some splitters. The initial plan was to meet at 6am and then drive out to the rocks. However, a brief look at the forecast showed that it wasn't supposed to be as hot as it normally is and we decided to meet at 7am instead. The hour sleep in was nice for sure, but it was still pretty hot out there. Oh well, at least the climbing was fantastic. We warmed up on a really fun 5.9 finger crack. It felt super good to sink the digits into the rock again, as I hadn't really been crack climbing since May. Here's a view of the warmup.



Since Josh lead the warmup it was my turn to hop on the sharp end. Next up we headed to a gorgeous dihedral called Rockwork Orange. It's a steep, slightly overhanging hand to wide hand crack that goes at somewhere around 5.10b. The last time I had lead trad was in May, so hopping on a stiff 10 right off the bat gave me my moneys worth and I had to take one time on it. Josh cruised it super smoothly, and then I ran a second lap on it, this time on top rope and got it clean. I'll be back to nail the clean lead on this guy again. Stellar!



Next up was a beautiful, right leaning, technical 10a finger crack, called Alpine Crack. Here's me after leading it.



We threw a top rope on this gorgeous 12a finger crack. It's got pretty good fingers for the first half, but bad feet the whole way and then the crack tappers out. Neither one of us finished it, but this one was good. Made the blood run! Aaaargh!



One of the climbs we did was called Bat Flake, a stout 11b that goes from fingers to hands to fists and then to offwidth. Here's Josh demonstrating the proper technique to use on the offwidth section.