Splitboard.com Forums

I think that was a good call, thanks for sharing your thought process. Jealous as hell. Nice work

working on it...


thought Id post this in the Utah thread as well...Kick off the weekend this Friday...hope to see you there!!

Yo Mar123, thanks for posting this here. I wouldn't have seen have seen it otherwise.

Sounds like a cool show with you and Dan, and stoked that Salt Lake Surf is hosting it.

I'll try very hard to escape early from something that I have at 5:00. Hope to see everyone there!

I went to the 7/11 at the mouth of BCC yesterday and they had a sweet sign inside that said they had half of a split. Doubt it belongs to anyone on this site but figured I would throw it out there in case one of you guys knew someone who lost half of their split?

hey all utah peoples!

christoph benells is coming to utah 4/2-4/6. i know im leaving a pow paradise to go there...but a change of scenery will be nice.

anyone want to go for a tour? if you havent seen my tr's i got good riding skills, im fit and fast, and have avy knowledge. that being said i dont think ive ever even seen a "real" reactive layer of buried surface hoar or depth hoar in any of my pits out here in the west. i know you guy are a little on edge out there with all the avy activity this year.

last year when i was there i hit the coulior on the lookers left of wolverine cirque and it was good. i would like to do something a little more ambitious this year. ive got a sled to romp on and wanted to go the uintas.

hit me up if anyone is interested.

doug- rad pics from the zone

Mej- Awesome job. Sad that it's the end of March and that is the one and only big line in this thread. I've had that one on my list for years now but can't seem to get the timing right.

I hope you all can make it out to the art show at SL Surf on Friday night. I'd be happy to see some familiar faces.

I will really try to make it to the art show. I am pretty excited about it. I can't stay too long due to a race on Saturday morning. Is anyone else here going to run the Riverton Half Mary?

cool! we will be hanging out until 9:30pm or so you guys don't have to worry about being there right at 6:30. I'm not doing that race. I'm doing the Amasa 9.5 in a few weeks and then I signed up for ragnar in june. but i'm probably going to add at least one bigger race for the late summer/fall.

For late summer early fall you could do the Layton marathon. I am thinking of doing it this year. I already have 2 marathons planned so not sure if I should do it. It is Sept 29 around antelope island on the road. I know you are getting into trail running. Me, you, and Doug will have to go for some trail runs soon since winter is almost over

For the last couple years I have been waiting for the combination of weather, stability, work and a partner to line up to make an attempt on Lone Peak. Watching the weather models over the weekend it looked like this past Tuesday could be clear and calm. I also had the time and a willing partner. The Monday storm looked like a quick refreshment but not much additional weight. All good. That just leaves the deep slab issues. As Drew Hardesty mentioned in the avy report earlier this week, the deep slab issues had only been occurring during or immediately after major shocks to the snowpack for over a month now. On Tuesday it had been over a week since the last storm cycle ended, and after the super warmth Wed-Sun, the Monday cold front had locked things up with cold temps. Alta had gotten almost 0.6 inches of water and 6 inches of snow/graupel on Monday, and I was hoping Lone Peak had received a little less, enough to cover the crust but not raise the avy danger due to the added weight. The strong SW winds during the storm Monday had given me a little pause, but I thought Lone Peak was worth a look.

Chuck and I left the Big Willow Trailhead at 6 am. We took the Big Willow Trail up to the Big/Little Willow Divide, then hiked the divide to around 7800'. Then its possible to ascend to the south into Little Willow, eventualy gaining the low angle ramps that lead east to Lone Peak. I hadn't taken that route in summer or winter before, and I would recommend it. The last bit of ridge to the summit is airy, of course.



The above pic is on the summit with South Thunder in the background. We would ski the WNW facing chute off that in a couple hours.

Without much ado we dropped in, finding 2-3 inches of great steep-skiing snow stuck to the firm base. Lower down, where the chute mellows slightly, the graupel had pooled a little bit, providing great turns. The line:



The coverage is a wee bit lower than last year.

Turning above the cliff, with sluff:



After reaching the bottom of the apron we re-skinned for the ascent to South Thunder. There is a nice chute just north of the summit of South Thunder, although the steep upper section of it was really scratchy. From there we glided out Bells, staying on the far west side of the drainage. Turns were very good in the 3 inches of graupel on the smooth, firm base. Snow started getting heavy below 9000', and was just plain bad below 7500'. Took the board off at 6900'. After picking up the car at our start trailhead, we hightailed it to Red Robin for burgers and steak fries. All photos credit Chuck Konopa.

Looks like Sunday or Monday might offer some good snow, although its probably back to May weather again by Wednesday.

Awesome man! Looks great.

Way to get after it Mej. You guys tagging lines in the middle of the week is making me rethink my job. Getting the lines I want seems much easier if I didn't have a job.

The key is to be a graduate student. Flexible hours. It doesn't pay much but its enough to afford gas money to Draper! Getting a PhD in Atmospheric Science makes figuring out the weather part of the touring equation a bit easier too.