Since it's the offseason, I figured it was a good time to take a look back on the 2016 season. Over the next few weeks I will recap some of my more memorable days from the past season.
Leading off: Deseret Peak, February 24, 2016.
Every season always has a period where motivation hits an all time low.
Sometimes it's due to lack of snow. Sometimes it's an injury.
Other times you're just flat out over it.
2016 pulled the hat trick.
I arrived back from Japan on February 3rd. About a week later, I caught the flu. By the time I got over the jet lag and the illness the snow had totally gone to shit.
Warm temperatures and two weeks of sun had taken their toll on most of the soft snow. When you take into consideration that I'd just been riding the deepest blower pow of my life in Japan, the last thing I wanted to do was ride chunder in the Wasatch.
Prolonged high pressure does have its benefits though. The deep, persistent weak layers we'd been dealing with in our snowpack all of December and January seemed to be healing from the long exposure to the prolonged period of warm temperatures and lack of new snow. It seemed it was time to go big.
Lack of snow in mid-winter makes me antsy. The February thaw we were experiencing made me want to get on something big.
I had two objectives in mind: Coalpit in Little Cottonwood Canyon and The Twin Couloirs in the Stansburys.
After talking with my touring partner, Tony Aadland, we decided to go for the Twins.
We figured there was a good chance no one had been out there yet since the road is closed four miles from the trailhead in the winter. I set my alarm for 2:30am the next morning and tried to get as much sleep as possible for the next day.
Anything in the Stansburys requires an early start. It's an hour and a half drive just to get out there. Then you have the joy of doing a four mile approach to get to your four mile approach.
A lot of people wait till the road is open in the spring to go out there. Hahaha, not us!
I always like starting a tour in the dark, you can't see how asinine your objective is. You just start skinning.
Eventually the sun comes up and you look back and feel like you've made solid progress. This tour was the exception. We were still on our four mile pre-approach at sunrise. It was also a bitter cold morning with some strong winds. We also knew we would be in the shade for the majority of the tour due to the northern aspect of our objective.
Once you get to the trailhead, the approach is pretty straightforward. Bear right after crossing the creek bed and you'll eventually get into a high alpine meadow. At this point, bear left and head straight for the Twin Couloirs. The approach from this point is fairly easy and exposure to large avalanche paths is limited.
We chose to boot up the East Twin due to active wind loading and rockfall occurring in the West Twin. Although it probably would have only been fifteen to twenty more minutes of skinning, due to time constraints we decided not to summit Deseret Peak.
We had a phenomenal run down the East Twin.
The chute had chalky, recycled pow the whole way down.
It is also a very aesthetic line with towering rock walls on both sides of the chute.
There are no people and there is no phone service. All you hear is the wind blowing.
After successfully riding the chute, we stopped on a bench in a safe zone to enjoy some victory beers and belt out the words to Weezer's "El Scorcho" to celebrate another successful mission.
It was then time for the eight mile party line back to the car. Funny how those eight miles went by way faster on the way down.
From start to finish, the day took us about ten hours. In the end, we made the only two tracks in the entire Stansbury Range that day.
I think it's a very special experience to have an entire mountain range to yourself. The Central Wasatch can get super crowded at times. The backcountry sometimes resembles a resort with how many tracks you see on the more popular tours.
The Stansburys on the other hand are still true wilderness. There are no people and there is no phone service. All you hear is the wind blowing.
Days like that get me motivated to ride again. Days like that get me motivated to explore more.
