IndependentGearTest.com

Waiting till the latest possible day to ski a mountain really paid off today. With a few inches of new snow at higher elevation meant the snow froze last night. This meant the skiing went from blah to YEA, or so it would seem.

UP = DOTS..... DOWN = LINE (DUH)

I wanted to take a new route up the mountain, so I did. On the route I found a 2010 model ski in the middle of nowhere. I’m sure someone who will see this knows someone who lost a new ski on this face and wants it back, the funny thing is the ski has resort bindings on it message me and claim it…….

When I got to the top 2.5 hours after leaving the car 3,000 plus feet under me I immediately made the decision to drop in. I found my chute, which looked a lot friendlier than I thought it would. I skied perfect re-corn to the bottom of the middle snowfield, hiked 50 feet up and hit the suicide chute connector took that to suicide, and skied all the way out back to my car.  The most fun part being that you have to walk farther at snowbird to get back to the tram, then I had to walk on a south face top to bottom in mid June.

EXTREME

LOW LIGHT. You can see that the snow pretty much hits the road still 3,000 vertical feet away

CRAPPY SELF PORTRAIT, COMPLETE WITH RUBBER ARM

If you want to ski this you probably have one more day……..

We headed west from Utah Lake Sunday around 11. Our  destination, Great Basin NP.  Home of stunning Mount Wheeler. I knew nothing of this area, and my Buddie Brett had been there once. The drive was about 4 Hours through multiple basins, past the Little Sahara Sand Dunes that are south west of Salt Lake City on Route 6, and its one of the largest collections of sand on EARTH. It was hot, and it felt like summer. I had left from snow, but about 3 miles from home was green. The idea of winter totally escaped my mind quite fast. Past the Sand Dunes, the drive continues through vast basins. Like Salt Lake Valley, but 2-3 times in size, and no buildings anywhere in sight for most of the time. You pass through semi deserted towns, and beautiful Delta, UT. West of Delta, about 100 miles is Great Basin National park. The summit of Mount Wheeler stands 8,000 feet off the valley floor with an elevation of 13,063. There is a National Park road that heads 5,000 feet up the mountain. At the top of the road is a beautifully maintained campground that sits at a stones throw from the base of Mt. Wheelers upper cirque.

One basin in Western Utah, the drive goes through many of these.

(more…)