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The day after Christmas, seven of us in search of a Cascade like adventure rallied up Cascade Mountain in the central Wasatch. It's one of the giants here in Utah which sits just south of Mt. Timpanogos. Surprisingly, Cascade had more snow than Timp and had a very seductive looking North face. We started at Bunnell's fork at 5,100ft and had hopes of reaching the summit at almost 11,000ft that day.

Bunnell's Fork is one of the "steepest and narrowest canyons south of Stairs Gulch in Big Cottonwood. Hence, it is not recommended for human presence in winter months when avalanches are a possibility." Says the Wasatch Tours Vol. 3. Although we are currently in the heart of winter, there was a mere foot or two of sugar all the way up the gully. It was great travel for the first person but by the time the seventh person skinned across the sugar had sifted through the sticks and rocks leaving only the latter. We were dreading shredding down the 1.4mi gully in this condition. My buddy said last winter the gully was three cat tracks wide because of all the avy debris. Doesn't that sound nice?

At Christmas dinner at the Tabke's villa in Midway, Drew show's us on the topo of the route. He grew up looking at this peak but never skiied it. Here's a view of Cascade from the Tabke's backyard. We rode the steep, distinctive face in the middle. Christmas night we were all knockered up on hot wine trying to mount these sheep and feed them cabbage.


Brownhills. Lately we're very entertained by pics of people with ski gear and no snow.


Skinning up the gully with the objective SO FAR beyond.


After almost 2 hours of a 5.7 slab climb covered in ice, sugar and frozen mud I thought we'd never make it. A gulp of Evan Williams and a drag of Drew's nasty cigarette that tasted of Denny's waitress ass, I was somehow enticed to push on.

Summit ridge and Provo to the right. Gorgeous!


Davide, killin it and lookin gooooood.


Will, takin one back on the summit


Group shot!


Me shredding from the summit in a couple feet of faceted, sugary goodness.


This pic speaks for itself. Somehow none of us were severely injured.


Yay, we're finally out! A true Cascade-like adventure. What an emotional trip a huge day is. I think all levels of emotion are reached in an epic day. Excitement, pleasure, satisfaction, regret, distain, ambivalence, apprehensiveness, relief... the list goes on. We're so happy to be out but SO STOKED on our epic descent and to have had such an amazing day with great friends!


Thanks for the pics: Drew, Dave and Tyler

Your enjoyment of suffering vs reward is quite inspiring. At this point in the season, I'm having trouble keeping motivation up for smaller tours because its been so ugly and scary. Nice work Liz.

crazy kids.

Aaaahhhhwwwwwww sheeeeiiiiiiiittttt. Sweet adventure Liz. I thought for sure it would dump whilst I was idling in the mitten state, too bad I suppose. My motivation compares to summersgone... Fuck!!!!

DAMN. LizDee is killin' it. Girl, you roll with a tough crew.


Yuk. That is the funniest I've thing I've read here in while.

cool tr of a good effort. you do what you gotta do!


probably the coolest photo i've ever seen of someone drinking whiskey.
and damn, it makes me feel like a pussy for just carrying a little flask.

Ouch, tell me that's not Bunnells in mid winter, no wall-banking on the exit today, you definitely brought the right supplies!

I had a memorable ski-split exit from the lower portion there in the dark involving a couple of yipping coyotes, a grumpy moose and an excitable but exhausted sled dog. I made it out with a pair of trashed poles but healthy acls. Way to get out anyway

Nice work. That approach and exit in these conditions would for sure make for an epic day. You'll appreciate this pic from last year. One of the many random sleeping giants that awoke on our rain crust last spring.