Winter's Last Stand ROUND TWO

Hallway Couloir in powder on May 18th

When we got a couple good bonus powder days in early May, you figured new snow was over at that point. We transitioned to corn skiing and had a big snowpack, so no matter what the skiing through Memorial Day was going to be pretty good. 

Then things somehow just got crazy again and it snowed almost every day for the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend. The season of spoiled skiers escalated to an unprecedented level.

Monday May 13

Solo slushy runs at Alta. Then took a few days off and waited for the next storm to materialize.

Friday May 17

Post-work "tour" at Alta. About 8-10" of new snow. What a dream, and it was only going to get better...

Saturday May 18

Legit winter skiing in Days Fork and then dropped into the Hallway in a foot of fresh powder. 

Sunday May 19

A couple runs near Devil's Castle, but the sun had gotten to it a bit the afternoon before so the powder turns were a bit more limited.

Wednesday May 22

Another round of new snow and first tracks down Main Chute, followed by a couple more off the Baldy Shoulder and Collins. 

I went back up to ski again AFTER work (doubles!) because it was so great and did several laps in Toledo Bowl and from Cardiff Pass.

Thursday May 23

Another dawn patrol where it was light out before 6am and you didn't need a headlamp. Skied a few laps in Holy Toledo.

Friday May 24

Back to Toledo Bowl and skied 4 laps in 10"+ cold powder on top of all the snow (several feet) that had fallen in the past week. This storm pushed Snowbird over 700" for the season. It was the clincher for me: Greatest. Season. Ever.

At this point I didn't feel like I was done skiing, but it was time to head to the desert for a long weekend, and then I had a conference in Boston, so it would be two weeks before I took the skis out again.

Saturday June 8

Main Chute + Collins. The calendar said summer but we got a couple cold overnight freezes. We dropped into Main well after 12pm and parts were still frozen.

Sunday June 9

Toledo Chute and Toledo Bowl

Saturday June 15

Two-lapper on Suicide Chute, always a fun outing as the season winds down.

Sunday June 16

A couple Brighton laps (really just to get a little skiing on the way to Park City for trail running).

In between skiing we've ramped up hiking, trail running, racket sports, etc. We'll probably ski a few more times for the novelty of it (and as part of a well-balanced multisport summer day) but my heart is into summertime now. 

I can't keep up with this blog, especially as the days get longer and I just want to be outside all of the time. I'm not sure many people really read blogs much these days anymore, anyways. So I'll do another post to wrap up this ski season once it finally wraps up, and then I'm thinking that will be the wrap-up for Wasatch and Beyond as well. I think I'm approaching the decade mark, which seems like a good time to retire it.

Icefall Lodge

ICEFALL PEAK, IS THIS REAL?!?!?

We had been throwing around the idea of spending a week at one of the backcountry ski touring lodges in British Columbia for a couple years. Last winter, when the skiing was still awful in the Wasatch, we booked a week at Icefall Lodge for March 2019. 

The local conditions have been at all-time level so far this season. We got up to Canada and it was minus 35 degrees and hadn't snowed in about a month (very race for Icefall, as their terrain gets consistent and abundant snowfall). 

I could go on for a while but I'll just post some notes from my "journal" that I took during the week and then lots of photos.

A different week than I expected... but really fun and a great overall experience.

Food was the best I have ever eaten. Interesting options for every single meal.

The terrain was complex and just beautiful. I've never been anywhere like this.

The other guys who we shared the lodge with were a lot of fun and very welcoming to us. Lots of laughs. They all pushed themselves hard. Couldn't have gotten luckier with randomly spending the week with this group.

Snow was just OK. We had some good turning but also some very bad turning. Of course it snowed another 4 feet in the Wasatch while we were here. You take big chances on conditions when booking a trip a year in advance. We knew that going in... but didn't expect no snow for a full month before we got here. We barely got to scratch the surface of the cool terrain to ski here given the rough conditions in many areas. Still, the scenery that we did get to explore was unlike what we see at home. 

Weather was cold but for the most part good, we got 4 sunny and clear days which allowed us to enjoy the big views. A little bit of snow at the end of the week really improved conditions for the last two days. On the last day we skinned through the Diamond Glacier near Icefall Peak and skied a 5000' run to the valley floor. That was quite a cap to the week!

Overall I'm very glad we did this, mainly due to the awesome scenery and great people to share it with.

On the way back to Calgary we stopped in Lake Louise (below) and Canmore (better town than Banff, in my humble opinion).