Sunday, May 29, 2016

May - not enough time and torn between seasons

My schedule hasn't allowed for much skiing this month even though there is plenty of snow up high still.  The lower elevation mountains have also been so green that I've been wanting to run.  So I've been doing a little of both.  Here are the highlights:

Tuscarora Quad: X and Y Chutes, Seagull Couloir, SE face


Main Chute, Little Chute, and Dogleg in better visibility and with next years Movement's 



Suicide Chute


What Superior looked like the first and last weeks of May


Trail running 












Monday, May 2, 2016

The Elevator

With all the resorts but Snowbird closed it was the week to ski a few resort classics.  Saturday morning I took a quick trip up to Mount Millicent at Brighton and skied what is known as the Elevator chute.  Not quite as awesome as Main and Little Chute and Alta but still quite fun and always awesome being in a new place.

The line is straight off the summit in the middle

X and Y Chute of Tuscarora, after seeing this view I knew I needed to come back soon!

Summit views





Looking down

Mt Baldy, Main and Little Chute

Alta closed last week to the lift served public and reopened to the backcountry.  Over about 5 days last week it snowed 41 inches and Aaron Kennard and I were able to ski these lines in the middle of that.  Visibility was terrible but the snow was great.  A lot of stuffing in the chutes but nothing breaking deeper.  On the apron after Little Chute the snow was a bit more slabby but still manageable.  Overall it was a pretty awesome day!

About how far we could see for most of the day as Aaron takes the last few steps to the summit

Aaron skiing down Little Chute


Me skiing down Main Chute, captured by Luke (chuting project) who we met on the summit

Collins lap to finish off the day, of course the best visibility of the day


Mount Raymond

Two weeks ago Aaron Rice and I headed up to Mount Raymond.  A first for both of us and was quite fun.  As always we saw many more lines to add to the list from the peak.  

The objective:

Aaron on the way up the ridge to the summit

Me booting 

Skiing down




Aaron's heal released when he hit a patch of funky snow and I was able to catch this amazing action sequence of him somehow not falling

The summit views were amazing!




The site of one of the fatal avalanche accidents from earlier this year.  An impressive display of nature's force as we humbly looked at what it did to the trees that used to be there.

 Headed home