IndependentGearTest.com

The Alta High Boy party is a sacred tradition amongst most Alta skiers and visitors.  The party takes place the day before the mountain is closed. The idea of it is to hang out in Alta as long as possible to bid the mountain and friends a farewell. This is considered an advanced party for experts only because of its location. It takes place on a rocky sub peak at the end of the high traverse and ontop of some of Alta’s finest expert runs.

The day much like last years party was a beauty. Most of Alta’s terrain was open even the hike to the summit of Mt Baldy. One should never get drunk and ski, but even 1 beer on the peak could get one buzzed. A pre-party was gathering on the summit starting around 2 until 330 when ski patrol rounded everyone up and sent them towards highboy. I skied down little chute on very firm conditions. Loaded my backpack and headed for the real party.

The High Boy party is always bitter sweet. Its the end of something you know really well. But its a great gathering to relax with people most of whom you don’t but all having a great time. It was even rougher this year because alot of my friends that help make high boy what it is were hurt, or decided to leave. Never less it was a great day for anyone in Alta.

P.S. Dont litter. Actually there were only 2 leaf bags of trash that i gathered on the top this year.  I think Dan said there was alot more last year. I brought the heavy one down today ,  someone else get the other one.

I get a call at 6am. I hustle out of bed thinking its my alarm clock which was set for 5 am. Its Dan. “Jon where you at? i’m at the mouth of big !” I am in bed. After some deliberation we decide to meet at white pine a bit later and take the day from there. The skinning was on glare ice for about 3 miles or up to redpine lake, then it was windblown suncrusts. We decided we might as well just go head up to the pfifferhorn. Dan and I had been up there once before in the winter and skied the ramp down and cut back into maybird gulch. We were confident we could do at least that even with very poor snow conditions. We got to the top dressed in light touring gear because we expected a very hot calm day. Well turns out there is a sustained 30 mph wind. Time on the peak was short but sweet, we decided to leave, we were about to ski down the ice ramp when it occured to us that we could ski somewhere else. The NW couloir was in seriously hanus condition. I have been scouting a ramp that avoids the rappel. Not today. We decided to flip skis and if it landed base up we would ski down into hogum, graphic up we ski into maybird. Base up it landed.

The ski off of the top of the Pfifferhorn was terrible. but acceptable because hopes were low. After tomahawking on the traverse to the peak west of the pfieff I was ready to roll out. We stopped at the steep seemingly windblown north face and after Dans pole blew away we dropped in. Shockingly the wind crust was not a crust at all, but a beautiful deep chalk up top. I navigated a line down a ridge cruised out into the opoen and I realized that the snow was just fantastic. I continuted to milk the smallest turns possible each turn taking in a view of the pfieff and hogum fork, and steep beautiful powder dropping straight away under me. Every turn I pushed the smallest sluff down the slope about 5 feet adding to the excitement. Dan skied when I finished and made some amazing turns lookers left of mine milking as many of his own turns out as if he knows its almost summer.

We got to the basin, and were both shocked by the quality of skiing, when we thought the day was mostly about the exersize. We at lunch and I proposed we ski the plinko apron (sitting under nohows recent descent of the northwest cliff of the pfiffe. Dan was game so we went back up for more powder. This apron we skinned most of the way and set a boot pack up about 300 vertical extra. The apron was big, steep, and untouched. Dan had the privilage of taking first tracks. I went second and tried to milk as many turns as possible, but midway thought my legs almost exploded and if they did i would have crossed dans tracks and would owe him a 6 pack. so i aborted and put a few big turns in at the end. Exiting the basin the mountains get bigger. We had the entire spot to ourselves. Fantastic skiing up here, good thing we had 3500 ish feet of skiing to go down through creamy trees, hot powder, corn, hot corn, and other less fun types of snow.

All in all this day is going to rank as a good one.

My trip to Vermont ended by packing up my new (1998)  subby outback and heading off into the sunset. I was frantic because it was Thursday, and Saturday in Alta was looking spectacular with 1-2 feet being promised by the weather reporters. We left Vermont about Thursday at 7 pm. Included was my sister Ashley, and her boyfriend Andy. Ashley had never been on a long road trip, or west of OHIO, and had only been skiing for probably 20-30 days.  She also had no idea what the Wasatch held for her. Andy was the same way, he had been to Alta once and had never seen it because it was snowing.

The road is always insanely longer than you could ever imagine, especially nearly crossing the country @ 2600 miles. Especially in a subby having seats with 170k on them (kind of worn out) We had a little action in the car when i grazed a snowbank @ 430 am that must have collapsed into the road or something. Other than that stopping for gas every 300ish miles nothing really really happened except sitting around and enjoying the ride for the next 40 hours. I had done the same drive many times, I also in my bag can say i have done it straight ALONE in 36 hours. I can also say that I might never do that again and am clueless how it was done.

Almost before we knew it we saw signs of the promised land. A land that I know when I skied my first park lap at park city i said “this is the place” much like a famous mormon once said. It was Saturday morning. 40 hours Vermont to Utah. $260 in gas, $40 in tolls, car ate one quart of oil, most likely from my sister driving 85-90 at 5k rpms for half of a night. I called Robbie up when we hit the border, I inquired if the 2 feet had fallen, he said “no, more like an angry inch” thats ok, we were exhausted. We took saturday off and hung out in downtown SLC for a little while.

Sunday was our first ski day, we drove up 210 and needless to say these guys were shocked. Thanks to JER on TGR Ash and Andy had a 10 day ticket for an awesome price like 50 percent off, and we donated to an animal shelter. They spent less money for 5 days of Alta then i spent on 4 days of EC resort skiing .  Our first run was from collins lift, just a groomer, then we took wildcat. I got ashley out on stimulation.  It was soft and smooth, that makes a black diamond seem almost like a blue square. Our Third run was High Ballroom trees which is some of my favorite turns in Alta. A 5-15 minute sidestep gets you up into the steep and deep. Ashley was seriously scared, Andy was in heaven, I was home.  The skiing was great, Ash handled herself awesomely.

Over the next few days, Ash was discovering what she was looking for in Alta, while I took Andy to some place I knew he was looking for. We got nearly first tracks in the castle apron, and skied steeps all day. The next day we climbed baldy and got main chute in phenominal condition. I dragged andy back up baldy towards the end of the day and we skied pearla’s, Two classic lines for him and I.

We got a storm mid trip, which alta and snowbird claimed was 20 inches. This is the first time I think I have doubted what Alta reported. Andy was squirming because he heard of serious east coast snow. A assured him that 3 feet of east coast schmegma r@(^ layer at FLATGIC mountain doesn’t compare to being out in a bluebird foot in Alta or a spring day at the bird.

Andy, Dan, Robbie and I went on a hike up emma ridges to find it was impossible to skin because it was dust on ice. We set the booter to the top, and magically the dust on crust turned into some amazing skiing. The crust was smooth and unskied so it was a perfect surface to ski.

I took Ashley to snowbird the next day. Andy was feeling a bit worked after me dragging him around town. We sat around while the backside opened, then the shoulder, then devils castle opened. This got my blood pumping, and I was super anxious because I wanted to ditch those guys and be out there.

We got to snowbird around noon. Ashley having skied a handful of days is now on Hidden Peak 11,000(ish) feet. I took her on a warm up, lap lower cirque, then we hit the bookends.  Ash slayed the bookends, then we summited VIA Mineral Basin and skied to the tram base for a drink. I had time for one more run, so I told her we are going out to baldy. I carried her skis up the boot pack and we bent around to north baldy. We dropped in and she skied it like a champ. Then I realized I could have been a part of the shit show at Alta alone, trying to devour as much powder as I can and knock people off the traverses just so there is one less track infront of me, or to be on empty north baldy with my sister, never thinking in my life I would ever see here there and there she was. It was a great moment for me and I am sure that that run she skied she will remember for a long time.

We put in a few more days at the bird. We got out to tigertail, Cirque, Wilbre bowl etc. These guys I could tell had an amazing time. Almost seemingly as soon as it started their 8 days had come to an end. Next thing anyone knew we were at Lone Star and then the airport and they flew back into the sunrise to continue the life they are used to. Luckily while they were gone the base of most eastern resorts grew three feet from nearly nothing to about 4 feet. I hope they have a great rest of the winter, and can enjoy the memories they earned for a long time.

****Oh yea, all of the gear has held up fantastically though I do need someone to rock the LDC XL suit since my buddie just blew his knee out and cant ski it anymore. Email me independentgeartest@gmail.com if you think you can roll that hard in a suit that you rent for free in exchange for a few paragraphs about it occasionally.

From the 801 (Utah) , I flew to the 802 (Vermont) .  Ski gear in hand and hoping to hit it lucky for a big dump I arrived in Burlington to find out that there was a massive noreaster destroying the mid atlantic. The weather report was showing nothing but sun, how could there be a noreaster and we wouldnt even get clouds? My first day skiing i spent at Smuggs. It was vermont day, 1/2 price ticket. Smuggs brings back alot of memories having skied there for about 8 years. The snow was  good,  the weather was great. Skied the day with my sister Ashley and her boyfriend Andy.

My second day of skiing I drove up to Jay, Vermont to ski ‘Big Jay’ having never been to the spot I skined up on the access road and up to a spot where the skin track went up to the ridge. At this point I was lost until I caught up to a few friendly Canadiens. They showed me a few super soft and fun lines and some thick bushwacking back to the cars.

I spent 3 days at Stowe thanks to pete (sweeturns) on ns. He hooked me up with a 3 day ticket he won for a great price. First day there they had picked up a few inches the night before. I ended up skiing great powder in the trees around the resort. Also took a few runs on ‘GOAT’ and i have to say was really impressed by that run. Off fall line ice to soft bumps it was all a blast, especially to ski non stop. That afternoon I decided to head up to the top of Vermont, Mount Mansfield which is easily accessable from the top of the gondola. It was wild to be up in the alpine zone. I skied off the top down the briefly exposed and rocky long trail north. I scurried over to hellbrook which was tough with the stumpy trees all exposed. The skiing in hellbrook was good, there was a wind slab on the top part but the sheltered areas were great.

My last day at stowe was decent. Maybe the highlight of the trip I decided to hike up to the nose for sunset. It was bitter cold and windy. I am thankful for my puffy coat because I would not have made it to sunset with out one.

I also got to climb and ski camels hump. My buddie Matt took a day off engineering things to climb and SLED the mountain. We took the Monroe trail which put us to the summit in 3.5 miles seemingly friendly pitch for a mad river rocket. The summit was freezing fog and the windchill was WELL below zero. Quite the contrast from the woods approaching the peak which was calm and warm. We saw a few other people out all were jealous of our abilty to fly down the mountain with minimal effort.

Fun trip.