Promise Land, Big Cottonwood Canyon- February 2019

What a month of snow it has been! 140" of snow in the Cottonwoods for the month of February. Conditions have been stellar to say the least. I was able to squeeze in a couple of days last week at Solitude for some lift served turns. First time on the lifts this season. Nothing like breaking corduroy and slashing up chalky cold snow. I picked up a couple of new pieces of gear last week. I got a new touring pack, the Osprey Kamber 32. This is a game changer as it has multiple pockets and much more storage than my previous pack. It has its own avalanche gear pocket. It helmet carries, and the main pocket for dry layers and such is so huge! I truly felt lighter and faster touring with this pack on. I look forward to many more days on the snow with it! I also purchased a new beacon, the Arva Neo+. This transceiver is digital with three antennas, will locate multiple burials, has a 70 meter search range, a group check function, ability to mark a victim once they have been located, and will return to send mode if it does not sense motion after a period of time protecting the wearer from rouge avalanches if you were in the middle of a rescue. I am very happy with it!

Promise Land Trip Report 2.24.19 from CPPhoto on Vimeo.

So with all this new snow and new gear, I decided Sunday to do a tour in the Cottonwoods and test out the new gear. I made my way up from the Guardsman gate and made my way up the Promise Land. There was still really good snow off the road, and I was breaking trail and setting the track all the way in. The new pack sure makes touring seem less hard as it really did not feel like anything on my back. I took far less breaks on the way up because I was not as tired. I also like the fact it has a insulated storage chamber on the shoulder strap for your hydration tube so you can keep your water from freezing and your hydration contained. Once I topped out I changed into my dry layers, activated my old beacon, dug a hole, threw my pack with my old beacon in it, and buried it. I then walked off and then went into search mode with the new beacon and was able to locate and problem strike my pack pretty fast. Its good to practice, and really fun to test your skills. After my beacon drill, I took a hydration break then made the switchover. I dropped into some really nice and soft settled powder. I narrowly missed a huge hole in the snow which you can see in this video of my ride out below. Other than that it was a really fun ride weaving in the trees and getting some soft turns. My wax job must be holding up, I was able to ride the road almost all the way to the Guardsman winter gate without having to unstrap and push. A great day in the Wasatch playing with new gear and getting some turns. Its been a great season. Looks like more snow for the mountains is on the way! Enjoy the pics and videos! More adventures to come!

Promise Land 2.24.19 from CPPhoto on Vimeo.

Grizzly Gulch, Little Cottonwood Canyon- February 2019

February has been a very interesting month. Since the first of the month the Wasatch has received over 118" of snow. I have not been out for a bit as the avalanche danger has been high, and we have a complicated snowpack. I had the day off on Friday and decided I would get out for a walk on the splitboard and see how things are stacking up. I decided to head up Grizzly Gulch for a nice walk on the skin track, and some low angle turns on the way home. I made my way up the Albion Basin road to the turn off for Grizzly Gulch. The wind was howling and transporting a lot of snow. The wind slabs were obvious so they were easy to avoid. As I climbed the wind was burning my face under bluebird skies. I rounded the corner and headed up into the gulch. The skin track is well established this year, and we have so much more snow than last year when I was here. I kept an eye on things as I climbed, looking for any red flags or recent avalanches. Surprisingly I saw none, so I proceeded to my spot to make the switchover for the ride out.



After some slope testing and a quick pit, yielding no results, I made the switch from touring mode to ride mode. I spent a bit of time up there, just taking in the view and watching the snow tornadoes whirl across the snow surface. Some clouds for an expected storm started pushing into the canyon so I made the drop. The snow was wind buffed supportable powder and really fast! Creamy turns which kept your board on the surface and was so fast and smooth from all the wind action. The ride out of the gulch was fun and the lower you got the more powder I seemed to be turning in. The exit was really fun with some creamy delights to slash it up to all the way to the Jeep. It was a great day out there! It was nice to be out on the skin track again. I really missed it. This winter is shaping up to be the best in years. Enjoy the videos and the pic I took of Patsy Marly being tickled by the sun as the clouds built in. I will never get tired of that view. More adventures to come!