President’s day week trip 2022— part 1: Utah backcountry ski touring
The “The Greatest Snow on Earth ®” phrase was trademarked by the state of Utah since 1975. What supposed to back this claim is not a singular factor of having the most snowfall or the lightest powder, but “an ideal combination of geography, topography, climate and weather”. However, days before our trip to Salt Lake on 2/17/22, the snow conditions were looking unprecedently desperate. Below is the YTD (up to right before the trip) snow for Alta, the snowiest resort in Utah, compared to the previous season:
So despite a very snowy October and December, there had been almost 0 snowfall for a 1.5 months for the 21/22 season upon our arrival. This is indeed very unusual compared to previous years, where Jan and Feb used to get majority of the winter precipitation. (below screenshot for Alta was taken after our trip on 2/25, so it included the additional snowfall we received during the trip)
Heading to SLC with dismal expectations, it turned out the magic of Utah is, great skiing can be had there even without massive snowfall. Our itinerary this time consisted of:
2/18 Canyons — resort skiing
2/19 White pines fork — backcountry skiing
2/20 Solitude — resort skiing
2/21 Bear trap fork — backcountry skiing
2/22 Snowbasin — resort skiing
2/23 Park City — resort skiing
Unlike resort skiing, where artificial snowmaking can make up for lack of natural snowfall, backcountry skiing is entirely at mercy of mother nature and father winter. To find decent options for ski touring, I posted in the Utah backcountry ski touring Facebook group to ask for suggestions and partners, and the outpour of helpful responses (from 32 people) was overwhelmingly awesome. Amusingly, the picture I posted of me at Tuckerman to boost the post ranking worked beyond my expectations. Multiple Utah locals who used to be fellow east coasters instantly recognized the location from the picture and felt obliged to respond ;)
With helpful betas from the group and a friendly local fellow ski tourer who offered to partner with us, what followed was some of the greatest ski touring days we had.
2/19 White Pine Gulch + Boulder Basin
The white pine area was recommended as undisputedly the top choice from a list of options in the fb thread. It’s the next ridge west of the Snowbird ski resort. Its north facing bowls collected and retained more snow compared to slopes facing other aspects, where sun, dry air, and warm weather eroded much of the snowpack given the recent dry spell.
Being a Saturday, by the time we arrived at the White Pine trail head around 8am, the parking lot was already full. However conveniently, the shoulder of Little Cottonwood Rd was large enough for plenty of additional parking — and only a mere 30 minute drive from downtown Salt Lake city! The accessibility of the ski areas in the Wasatch mountains are just incredible — one reason justifying The Greatest Snow on Earth ® 🤩
The initial part of the tour was a gradual approach following a summer road. We discovered our local partner and fellow ski tourer, David, was a great match for us: similar equipment, pace (at least initially 😂), and caution towards terrain and avalanche risks. We paused often to discuss options on routes to take, whether the terrain we are entering has avalanche risks and what precautions we should take.
As we gained elevation, the trees started to subside, and the terrain began to expand into more open alpine wilderness. The temperature was high-20s low-30s with no wind — perfect bluebird day weather. Avalanche risk was rated low by the Utah Avalanche center. It turned out we also were blessed with 6–8 inches of new snow from 3 days ago (3/16). Thanks to a combination of Utah’s dryness, wind, temperature, and the northerly aspect of the slopes, the fresh snow in this area were faceted by wind and remained loose and fluffy — something we would never dream of in the pacific northwest or east coast.
After review our options, we all liked the look of the open areas to the righthand side near Lake Peak and Boulder Basin, and started climbing westward.
However, once the climb started to get steeper, the dry and fluffy snow that excited us in the beginning started to become a formidable enemy. While the other two in our party seem to have little difficulty, I found myself slipping backwards constantly, and having to use so much whole body strength to wrangle myself up the hill. This costed me tons of energy exertion and I had to slow down a lot.
In hindsight, my slipping problem had two main causes:
- ill-fitted climbing skins: to save $$, I cut my old climbing skins to fit a pair of narrow skis for east coast use (84 cm underfoot) thinking it would fit both narrow and wider skis. This meant that the skins didn’t cover the entire base of the skis I was using (102 cm underfoot). This was further exacerbated by the technique I was using which relied on using edg es to dig into the snow rather than maximizing base contact.
- bad technique: a lesson one keeps learning in skiing (and in life) is, when conditions are easy and favorable, we can get away with a lot of bad techniques and habits. You don’t even realize you’ve been doing it all wrong until the conditions become challenging. In this case, the biggest mistake I’ve been making since day 1 is to approach uphill ski touring like climbing stairs or running up a mountain. On the contrary, as I learned later through reading — it’s important to keep the center of gravity downhill, and straighten the rear leg and lean backwards before stepping forward
Without that hindsight, it was quite a struggle for me to continue the steeper part of the ascend. We made it to about 10,213 ft on the aprons of Lake Peak before deciding to transition.
On the way down, we experienced our first day of powder skiing this season, and really started to understand what the hype of Utah skiing is about — even with non-favorable snowfall, the geography and weather work together to keep the snow in powdery heavenly condition (if you know where to look). There are also lots of backcountry terrain to choose from, so that an area with slightly longer approach like White Pine means lots of untracked snow untouched by the crowds. Compared to Japan, which has unparalleled bottomless powder and consistent snow, the terrain in Utah brings more challenge — but still friendly and accessible.
2/21 Bear Trap glades + The Cone
On president’s day Monday, we arranged to meet up with the same local buddy David for what turned out to be another epic day of ski touring. It had started snowing early in the morning (finally some badly needed snow). Anticipating lower visibility, changing weather and higher avalanche danger (rated “moderate” by UAC) we chose to play it safe by going for some mellower terrain for touring.
Encountering slow and congested traffic on the Big Cottonwood Rd on the drive into the mountains, we expected to see a sizable crowd in the area we chose for the day — after all the Bear Trap fork and the Cone were considered one of the most popular and iconic objectives for ski touring in the area. However, to the contrary — we saw only two other cars besides ours parked at the trailhead. All the other traffic was headed to the ski resorts!
The snow continued to fall throughout our ascent. Soon we were noticing 4–6 inches of new snow on top of the old crud/crust.
After learning the lessons from two days prior, I bought brand new climbing skins that fits my skis, and focused on improving my uphill technique on 3 areas:
- keeping my center of gravity backwards and balancing on extended rear leg
- using the full base of the ski to maximize contact
- adjust my pace depending on the slope angle
The impact of these improvements was night and day compared to Saturday, and I was finally not slipping!
After a powdery descent (with some old crud underneath the new snow), we decided to head for the iconic “cone” to check it out.
When we finally reached near “the Cone”, I was completely captivated. What was a very tracked out peak was covered with the new snow from today, and there was nobody else in sight. The snow was still falling, the sun glowing in a faint halo, marking out gentle curves of the peak we were ascending. The tranquility was superb. When I would pause for a moment, all I could hear is my own heartbeat.
Over the two ski touring days, we got to navigate and experience two very different types of terrains and scenery the Wasatch backcountry had to offer, got a ton of exercise, improved my uphill techniques, skied some powder, forgot all about work, and met a wonderful local fellow skier — couldn’t have dreamed it better ❤
