Honeycomb Cliffs

Having whooped all day at Powder Mountain yesterday, we decided to head into the canyon with the rest of the 1.6 million residents of Salt Lake City.

Still on a very big learning curve when it comes to ski touring in the US of A.  

We made our first crossing today from Little Cottonwood Canyon to Big Cottonwood Canyon over Honeycomb Cliffs - thankfully without the other 1.6 million residents. 

The sun shone and the snow was, well probably the best snow in the world.

The challenge for tomorrow is to find a venue away from the crowds; must be in the sun, a short drive, (by far the most dangerous thing that we have done); be north facing and must end in a coffee shop.  Yes, we set ourselves high standards.

Reynolds Peak & Tom's Hill

Today, it was time for Big Cottonwood Canyon since it wasn't a great forecast.

Yeh ok, it was a bit pea soup on the summit with a gentle breeze and a temperature of minus 2.

The guidebook states that "Tom's northeast face is one of the most popular runs in the entire Wasatch, and for good reason'.

It would have been rude not to ski it.

You - ta - ta - ta

So far it has lived up to it's reputation: the best snow in the world.

The only problem is that I don't actually think my powder baskets are big enough.

It properly feels as if we have returned to school, having to troll over maps and work out where we want to go.  Converting meters to feet, 50k scale maps to 36k scale maps and working out the best way to boil water without a kettle.

Still waiting to trip over Elk.

The more it snows

I'm not at all poetic, but this kind of sums up today:

The ever growing Skimo scene

During the winter season, there is only one reason for the blog going quiet.

It must be Skimo time.

© Mr Drew Photography

Once upon a time, a Skimo race day was just that - a day.  By creating the ever growing monster, it absorbs more time.  I'm certainly not complaining - if I didn't enjoy doing it, I would just stop.

On the 19th January 2013, we had 24 racers on the starting list with 15 actually racing, this is what they looked like:

© Morrocco Media

On the 23rd January 2016, we had 54 racers on the starting list with 48 actually racing, this is what they looked like:

© Mr Drew Photography

The weather turned during/immediately after Skimo so there was no inclination to head onto the hills.  Instead, we drove South and embraced 3 days of running in the wind/rain and mud.  Not sure what we will be finished first, the Corbetts or the Allisons.

Jonathon Conville Memorial Trust

Two great days with students on one of the Jonathon Conville Memorial Trust Scottish Mountaineering Courses based in the Cairngorms.

Say farewell to the calm conditions that we've been experiencing recently.

Which coincides perfectly for the second race of the Skimo Scotland series. Typical ...

East meets West

Every day is awesome in the mountains, but some days are more awesome that others.

Saturday was an awesome day but a bit of a survival day if perfectly honest.  I call this a survival day because I never took one photo and was more concerned about staying warm and wiping the rime off my goggles.

It actually started off fairly benign but at a snap of the fingers, everything turned somewhat more serious.  Cracking like I have never seen before followed by at least 3 small avalanches in our immediate vicinity. 

Cracking:  your weight is not only overloading a buried weak layer but the snowpack is also storing enough elastic energy to propagate a fracture.  (Temper)

A day where plans were changing all the time, and without doubt the most important factor to think about was terrain.

Sunday was even more awesome because Rich, Steve and I were taken up a brilliant route by a brilliant bunch of people.

Thanks Aberdeen Mountain Rescue team for looking after us so well.