Author Archives: Jim
33 Days Across Wrangell St Elias National Park: The Southern Spiral Traverse
The Objective: As seen from afar: Numbers that defined our world: Wrangell St Elias NP and Preserve: 13,200,000 acres² (20,587 miles²) Distance traveled: 430 miles (~220 miles on land and ~210 floating) Time: 33 days (25 days on foot and 8 days paddling) Distance on trail: 0 Resupplies: 3 Bears: 14 Other park visitors: [...]
Timpanogos East Ridge 5/18/09
Timpanogos East Ridge, I’m told, tags in as one of the longest continuous ski descents in the Wasatch. It offers 6,200′ of skiing with the right coverage. Even with the snowline jumping up the hillsides with each hot, sunny, Utah afternoon it’s still long, long way down. Nearing the top of Primrose Cirque, but loosing [...]
Utards in the Canukistani Rockies: Wapta
PHASE I Restless after a month of non-stop pow slaying, a handful of Park City’s seasonally-unemployed worker bees pointed rooftop ski racks north towards Canada. Eager for the sporting adventures of a cold, shallow, and weak snowpack we booked accommodations in Alberta with the Alpine Cult of Canada The victims were a mix of a [...]
New Year’s Eve Tour
Grant, Alex, Jolene, Jackie and I went on a ski tour in the Wasatch to send out the new year. Due to the precarious snowpack we chose a conservative route up Little Water Peak and an equally mellow ridgeline descent. We saw evidence of many avalanches and even stumbled upon the debris from a recent [...]
Sidecountry skiing at the Canyons
One of the best arguments for owning a season pass to the Canyons is the easy access to the backcountry skiing along the Park City ridgeline. Here’s some photos from the first few weeks of “slackcounrty” skiing near the Canyons.
Wolverine Cirque 12/10
Alex, Tyler and I shuffled up to Wolvarine Cirque today.
Canyons Sidecountry
JP and I skied out to Dutch Draw and lapped the run called Owen’s Trees. The snow was wind-hammered along the ridgeline but the small gullies running down the draw were blown in nicely.
Election Day PowFest
Davide and I spent the days after an epic Utah season kick-off hiking up and skiing down Snowbird, which hadn’t opened for the season. He took some awesome photos. All the photos are (c) Davide de Masi.
First Skiing of the Season
It snowed a foot or so in the Wasatch the other night. I woke up early, grabbed my skis, boots and headed out to find somewhere deep enough to ski. The slope I found collects snow as it blows over a ridgeline and was just deep enough for early season skiing. Surface hoar didnt waste [...]
Mt Superior South Ridge, Wasatch UT
Ryan, Teresa and I scrambed up the 3000-foot arette on the south side of Mt Superior. It was a beautiful afternoon with a big view and enough exposure to make me move carefully. Ryan brought a rope and harnesses for he and Teresa- good thinking as the consequences of a fall would be severe.
