Epic Skiing in the Wasatch Backcountry

Yesterday my friends Terry and Will invited me to do a sizable tour in the Wasatch backcountry. They were planning on skiing from Alta in Little Cottonwood Canyon to a campground just off the road in neighboring Big Cottonwood Canyon. They wanted to shuttle a car up Big Cottonwood and then drive over to Alta in another car. Sounds like a great idea to me.

We met at the mouth of Big Cottonwood at 8am to get an early start on the day, before the sun had a chance to warm things up and increase the avalanche danger. The avalanche report was reporting stable conditions on all aspects and elevations, and it sounded like tons of people had gotten out in the mountains over the weekend. I wasn't expecting much in the way of skiing; just great day in the mountains under sunny skies with marginal snow...I was seriously wrong.

After dropping off my car in Big Cottonwood, we arrived at Alta about 45 minutes later and began gearing up. We had decided to skin up the edge of Grizzly Gulch to the ridge above the Silver Fork drainage. The skinning was tough on the frozen sun crust of these south-facing slopes, but the views were incredible.

Petrified ancient trees with Mt. Superior in the background

We gained the ridge in about 45 minutes and peered over the edge, expecting crusty snow that had been skied out 2 days ago. Instead we were looking at 1000 feet of blower, boot deep powder with absolutely no tracks! We took our skins off, put on goggles, and proceeded to make some of the most perfect powder turns of the year. The snow was bottomless, very light powder that had re-crystalized over the past week from the cold temperatures at night. I think all three of us shouted out loud on the way down - it was that good.

The first run of the day in Silver Fork, with our 3 tracks on the left

After a short break for some food, we skinned back up to the Silver Fork ridgeline for another lap. This time we skied a more easterly facing slope, and while the snow wasn't as light, the turns were almost as good. Once we got to the bottom, we put the skins back on and headed up towards the ridge that separates Silver Fork and Days Fork.

Once on the ridge we could see into Days Fork, which had been skied much more heavily than Silver Fork. However, we spotted a long, north facing slope on the western ridge of Days that looked amazing. The decision was made to make the long trek around the rim of Days Fork, to Reed and Benson Ridge.

The rim of Days Fork, with a great view of Mt. Superior

About an hour and a half later we made it to our destination on the other side of Days. We celebrated by eating some lunch on a helicopter landing zone for the Wasatch Powderbirds.

Terry and Will relaxing on Reed and Benson Ridge

The descent that was before us turned out to be one of the best runs of the year. I dropped in to 2500 vertical feet of untracked, boot deep powder that was incredibly light. I made about 10 turns on a small ridge above a cliff, veered right and aired off a smaller cliff above a narrow chute, and then proceed to ski another 1000 feet of perfect powder on steep, rolling slopes. It was incredible.

Looking down Days Fork, towards Park City

After this epic run, we had to ski another 4 miles or so along the canyon bottom to finally reach the car parked in Big Cottonwood. The ski out was fast, icy, and mostly all downhill so we made quick work of the 4 miles.

We arrived at the car around 3pm, and couldn't believe how good our day was. The ski resorts were crowded and filled willed icy moguls, but we skied untracked deep powder and saw maybe 3 other skiers all day. The Wasatch backcountry is no good, stay away....

Stumble It!