Ever since moving to Salt Lake City in 2002 I have looked up at Twin Peaks and wanted to ski either the Southwest or Northwest faces. These faces are visible from almost everywhere in SLC.

Twin Peaks from Cottonwood Heights area

Many years ago (probably 2004) Emily and I hike up from Broad’s Fork and descended the Northwest Couloir and came out Deaf Smith Canyon. It was a great hike, but really just confirmed that the way to descend it was on skis. The challenge of this route is finding someone willing to bushwhack out of Deaf Smith Canyon. With great spring skiing conditions, Blake and I had talked about getting out on Saturday and skiing. We proposed Nebo, Timpanogos, and Twin Peaks. Since Blake had a similar feeling as I did that after looking at that peak every day, we really should ski it, our decision on which of the 3 to ski was easy. Another advantage of skiing Twin was that we could have a decent starting time of 7AM (instead of 5AM or earlier for the other 2 peaks)

We were hiking put he Broads Fork Trail with skis and boots on our back by 7 and reached snow (mostly) after the bridge. We switched to skis and continued up.

Blake on the skin track (we maybe switched to skis a little early)

When we got into Broad’s Fork, we could see 2 people at the top of Bonkers, but decided to take the summer route up the south ridge. I incorrectly thought this would be easier and faster since it is in the summer. It took us at least 30 minutes longer (if not an hour) to go this route. We had great skiing conditions with having to cross the occasional wet slide path. We reached the saddle and and had a nice food break before switch to crampons for the rest of the climb up the ridge. The ridge was more technical than we had anticipated and we had to drop down off the ridge to avoid a technical section of 5th class rock in ski boots and crampons.

Blake on the south ridge of Twin Peaks

Blake on the south ridge of Twin Peaks

Blake on the East Summit

Chad on the East Summit

Blake on the west summit

Chad on the west summit

Our plan was to be on the summit by 11AM since we knew that either the SW or NW faces would not soften up before then. Our timing was perfect and we hit the East Summit at 10:57. The NW face was still frozen solid. We made our way to the West Summit and the SW face was still hard as well. We decided to sit and wait for the snow to soften so we hung out at the summit until noon and figured it was time to go before it got too warm down low.

View of our descent, the thick Deaf Smith Canyon, and SLC 6,100′ below.

The top ~200′ was still frozen, but we quick hit great corn and we were able to ski 3,500′ of great corn followed by another 600′ of picking our way through trees and dirt to the end of the snow.

Blake skiing great corn

We reached the end of the snow, switched back to running shoes, shouldered our once again heavy packs (with skis, boots, etc) and started into the unknown. Last time I had gone down Deaf Smith, it was a complete bushwhack and we spend most of the time just walking down the middle of the creek. We were pleasantly surprised that there was a descent trail for most of the descent. We still had to cross the creek at least 15 times and had a couple of fun rock traverses, but we were able to make descent time down.

The fun of getting out Deaf Smith Canyon

More Deaf Smith Canyon fun

We reached the car by 2:20 where cold PBR was waiting for us after great day at a relaxing pace.

I love my Scarpa Alien boots, but the boa hurts the top of my foot extremely bad. This was a trial day using the Dynafit TLT liners (which are a little bit thicker) in the Alien shells and I was very happy with how the padding helped ease the pain. This may be the standard combo for me for everything other than racing.

Gear

• Scarpa Alien 1.0 boots
• Ski Trab Free Rando Lite Skis
• Dynafit Low Tech Light bindings
• BD Whipet
• BD Raven Ultra Ax
• Grivel Race Crampons
• BD Mohair Skins
• Dynafit pants and jacket
• BD Tracer Helmet
• Montrail Mountain Massochist shoes

Spring seems like an odd time to write a blog about a ski quiver, but it is also the time when I really start to use a variety of skis. This time of year can be deep powder, corn, ice, or long days on light gear so I seem to use a bigger variety of skis in the spring than in the winter where most every day is a powder day.

When I moved to Utah in 2002, I quickly became a tele skier. From 2002 until spring of 2010, I only owned tele gear. Over the last 2 seasons, my focus has been fast and light AT gear. As Evan said a couple weeks ago, I have sort of become a weight weenie in my quest to do longer days with increased enjoyment (or maybe less tiredness).

Ski Quiver in Our Gear Room (I usually store them with skins attached to ensure we either don’t forget skins or grab the wrong ones)

Tools of the Trade: (left to right): Atomic Tacora, Rossignal T4, Voile Insane, Voile Drifter, Voile Charger, Voile Vector, Ski Trab Free Rando Lite, Hagan X-Race

Hagan X-Race: Starting from the lightest. I purchased the Hagan X-Race ski in February 2012 for skimo racing. This ski with the Ski Trab TR binding is 883 g/ski. For a short, skinny, and light ski, this skis very well. I have spent more time touring on this ski than I ever imagined including deep powder days. This ski has seen lots of skimo racing, big days in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains, and lots of vert in Europe this winter over the World Skimo Championships. The downfall of many race skis is that they are fragile. On my first race I compressed and edge which Eric Bunch was able to meticulously fix. I have also exposed the wood core in several places and have had to reseal it with epoxy.

Hagan X-Race – 883g

Ski Trab Free Rando Lite: I purchased the Ski Trab Free Rando Lite skis in December 2011 as in intro ski for skimo racing. At 1439 g/ski it quickly became apparent that this ski was too heavy to race on. I now use this ski for long days that I want t solid ski for good skiing, spring corn, hard pack, and other conditions. This ski breaks trail and skis all snow conditions great. The only downfall of this ski is that at 79mm under foot and no rocker or early rise, if you are skiing deep powder, I find myself having to get in the backseat to keep the ski tips up.

Ski Trab Free Rando Lite – 1439g

Voile Vector: The newest addition to my quiver that I am extremely excited about is the Voile Vector. I have wanted to get out on this ski for 2 years as for a while, it was the only Voile ski I wasn’t skiing on and I felt it was a great all around ski balancing great dimensions (96mm under foot) and tip rocker with light weight. Locally made in Salt Lake City, Voile skis have been my ski of choice for 7+ years. I put a Plum 165 binding on this ski to make it a very light (1765g/ski) everyday touring ski. With 3 seasons on my Charger’s and only a little life left, these are going to be my go-to skis for touring and powder skiing.

The newest family member, the Voile Vector – 1765g

Voile Charger: My last pair of AT skis is a Voile Charger. I have skied this ski for 3 seasons and absolutely love it. It rips big lines, skis deep powder, tours well, and handles the resort decently. These have had a lot of hard use and have little edge left. For the 2013-2014 season, I think these will become rock skis.

What’s left for my ski quiver? I am excited to get a pair of Voile WSP (Wasatch Speed Project) race skis. At only a few grams heavier than my X-Races, but with an early rise tip, these will ski and race much better than the X-Race. They are also built a little stronger so hopefully will get less edge damage. I also am excited to get pair of these because the WSP name was the name I suggested

Voile WSP

I still have 4 pair of tele skis as well. I did not get out on tele gear much this winter mostly due to some knee pain left over from running last summer. I did get a half dozen days in.

Atomic Tacora: I purchased these on a blow-out sale from Sierra Trading Post probably 6 or 7 years ago. I have only skied them 12-15 times, but they are a great resort tele ski for non-powder days. With the very active Hammer Head binding with the super stiff spring, you can absolutely rail these skis. These ski fast and fun!

Rossignal T4: This ski is a relic. I purchased it around 2004 and have skied it hard for many seasons. It has been rock ski for 5 or 6 years. The ski is completely noodled and the bases are shot. There is really no reason for this ski to still be in my quiver as it hasn’t seen snow for 2 seasons and probably won’t. I tried to feel the O1 binding from this ski last season as a way to retire it and will need to try it again next year. In the meantime, it brings back happy memories each time I look at it sitting lonely in my quiver.

Voile Insane: This was my first Voile ski. Originally mounted with a G3 Targa T9, then drastically upgraded to the Voile Switchback, and finally upgraded to the Voile Switchback X2. This is a great all mountain tele ski and when I do tele, this is typically what I will ski on. The X2 is a super active binding that is a lot of fun. This ski tours well and skis the resort well.

Voile Drifter: This is the second pair of drifters I have had. I had a prototype pair during the early Voile testing, then this production model. I call the Drifter the Giggle Sticks. On deep powder days, it doesn’t get any more fun than skiing this ski. I am torn whether to keep this as a fun powder tele ski or mount AT bindings on it. I think the Free Rando Lite, Vector, and Drifter could make the ultimate 3-ski AT quiver.

Here is a comparison of length and weights of the skis in my quiver

No ski quiver is complete without a good boot selection.

Boot selection to go withmy ski quiver (left to right): Scarpa Alien 1.0, Dynafit TLT5 Performance, Scarpa Spirit, Scarpa T1, Scarpa T3

When I started AT skiing, I purchased a pair of Scarpa Spirit boots. These boots fit great and ski great. When I started getting more serious about racing I knew I needed to get off the T3 boots and light tele race setup. In December 2011, I bought a pair of Dynafit TLT Performance boots. At 1226g, I thought these were the greatest things ever. They quickly became the only boots I toured in due to the light weight and amazing walk mode. I have only used the removable tongue’s a couple of times and have no problem driving the Voile Charger in steep or deep terrain without the tongue. There are 2 downfalls of this boot:

1) The overstep buckle bends easily and after 2 months the buckle was pretty much trashed. I have since drilled out the rivet holding the bucked, drilled the hole in the shell larger, and screwed it on with a Scarpa T screw. The larger screw head has kept the buckle from bending as much, but it is still sprung and doesn’t stay buckled very well.

2) The boots are very cold. This year I broke down and bought a pair of Boot Gloves. They make you look like a ‘gaper’ when touring, but at least I quit frost biting my toes on moderate temperature tours.

My go-to everyday touring boot – Dynafit TLT5 Performance – 1226g

In December of 2012, feeling like I needed to buy something, I splurged for a pair of Scarpa Alien 1.0 boots. At 830g and what seems like twice the flex as the TLT5, these boots made an amazing difference racing. I have used these boots with all of my AT skis and have been very happy with how the are able to drive the Voile Charger. Overall, I find the Alien 1.0 an amazing boot that has really revolutionized the ability to walk, run, tour, and ski in the boot. The boot is lighter and has more flex than my old all leather Montrail hiking boots! Like all boots, these have a couple of downfalls

1) The 1.0 does not come with the gaiter that the regular Alien comes with. This means that after a day of skiing powder, you have packed the boot pretty full of snow and turned it into an ice shell around the liner. Believe it or not, even with the ice shell, this boot is warmer than the TLT5.

2) The boot kills my feet. The Boa tightener should be flatter instead of angling down (see photo). With the able of the Boa, the hard plastic digs into the bone on the top of my feet. I have high arches and boney feet, so this bone is quite prominent on my foot and even hurts in some running shoes.

Scarpa Alien 1.0 – 830g

As mentioned, the Scarpa T3 was only used for skimo races when I was on tele gear. I paid next to nothing for this boot and have never used it for anything other than racing. With true race gear now, this boot won’t see snow again (at least by me). That leave me with only the Scarpa T1 boots. These were my second tele boots (after breaking a pair of Garmont boots in half at the bellows). My T1 boots are definitely a performance fit being anywhere from 1-1.5 sizes smaller than most of my other boots. With the added Booster Strap, these boots will drive any ski in any terrain. They have 6 years on them and have holes worn in the bellows. For the small amount I tele ski now, I am hoping to get a few more years out of them.

The weight comparison of the boots is interesting as well with a close to 3x factor between the Alien’s and Spirits.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to see what some of the combined weights were of the ski/boot combos that I commonly ski is. It is quite amazing to see the variation of 1700g to 4600g.

I had 3 goals for this ski season

My Suunto Ambit log

After an amazing World Ski Mountaineering Championship week, Luke, Scott, Micah, Kim, McKenna, and I loaded into one of the team vans and headed to La Grave for 3 days of skiing. We didn’t have much for plans other than get in some free skiing on the slopes and some touring of the neighboring valleys.

We arrived in La Grave around 10AM and had an explosion of gear on the sidewalk to get our ski gear organized.

Gear Explosion in La Grave

We had a great first day of skiing the steep and fun runs at La Grave. To make it even better, the weather was fantastic.

The Poma lift at the top of La Grave

View from the 3200M restuarant

Sunday we had an awesome tour where Scott and I attempted to summit Goleon. We were 30 horizontal feet from the top when we were turned around due to huge exposure and not wanting to take the risk. We still had great skiing from very close to the top and ended up with an amazing 9,300′ touring day.  Here is a gallery of our tour.

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Monday was back to the resort before heading to Turin to fly out on Tuesday morning.

Panorama looking south from the top of La Grave

Panorama looking north from the top of La Grave

Chad at the top of La Grave

Looking up the valley we toured up on Sunday

All I can say is WOW, what a crazy busy last few weeks. Things got busy the last week of January with a Tuesday to Friday trip to St Louis. I got home late Friday night and left first thing Monday morning for another work trip to Dallas. I got home from Dallas around 5pm on Wednesday and was off to Europe at 7:30 Thursday morning. All in all, from January 29th to February 19, I will be (or maybe at this point it ‘I was’) home for 73 hours. Add to all this trying to get the Powder Keg plans finalized and running into some permit issues as well as all of the US National Team Logistics, having 2 skimo races the week I get home (Feb 19 and 23) and by the time the Powder Keg is over on March 10, I may sleep for 3 days straight.

Way too much gear, luckily ½ of it stays in Europe.

Europe started out rocky. Tom, Dom, and I were sitting in the Delta lounge when Tom and I both got a mutual call from Delta informing us our flight from SLC to ORD was 2 hours delayed. This would mean we would miss our ORD to CDG connection. The Delta agent in the lounge informed us there was a flight leaving to ORD in 5 minutes at the other end of the airport. We took off sprinting, but didn’t make the flight. We were rebooked on a flight that left in 20 minutes to Seattle with only a 30 minute layover until we connected to CDG. We made both flights with no time to spare. Waiting to push from the gate in Seattle, we checked out baggage and saw it had gone to Detroit with plans of going to CDG on an Air France flight. Too many hours of flying later, we were in Turin with no bags. Delta couldn’t track the bags after handing them off to Air France, and Air France in Turin didn’t seem to have the ability to track them. We spent over an hour taking care of our bags. Max Taam came in with his bags, then Greg Ruckman came in but also didn’t have his bags. Finally after getting to the TRN airport at 11:30, we were able to leave at 5:30 with 5 of us, but 2 racers had no gear and I had no gear.

Amazing airplane views

Team dinner on day 1

Saturday was packed with racer checking (which was a total cluster), spending hours on thephone with Air France tracking our bags, and opening ceremonies. The day ended up being 16 hours of work without a break. By the time I went to bed at Midnight I had gotten 8 hours of sleep in 3 days and I was exhausted. The good news of Saturday was that Tom, Dom, and my gear arrived. Greg still had not gear and had to race on Sunday.

Parade of Nations at Opening Ceremonies

I woke up early on Sunday to get more preparation work done for the team. Sunday would be the first day of racing with the Team Race and all but 2 of the Matt, Micah, Meredith, and Nina were racing so the US had 6 teams of 2 that would compete on a challenging course. For details of the race and some photos check out the daily blogs I have been posting on the USSMA website. The hight light was the GREAT finish by Janelle and Stevie getting 6th place and John and Max getting 10th place. All of the US Teams did great, but these were the highest finish of any Americans in the Team Race,

Since not everyone’s gear had yet arrived, I loaned my race gear to Greg and I was on borrowed gear a size smaller. I was hoping to get some skiing in after the race on Sunday, but duty called and Meredith, Micah, and I worked on transitions for their sprint race on Monday during the free time. By the time we were done with this, it was time for me to skate and skin the 2.5km to Vallouise (we are staying in Pelvoux) to get our racers registered for the following day’s events. This is followed by the awards and then coaches meetings. Here is a great video of Sunday’s Team Race.

Meredith and I at the top of the Team Race Course – It was FREEZING!

Even if I am not face enough to race here, my skis and boots are (Greg R after a hard team race)

A storm moved in on Sunday night and we awoke Monday morning to 6-8″ of snow in Pelvoux and it was still snowing hard. Overall the storm dumped 12-16″ of snow. I spent the morning (10-1:30) helping the team at the sprint and cheering on all the racers. At that point, I had to get some personal time and put on my Scarpa Spirits and Voile Chargers to rip some pow. I figured I had 1.5 hours to ski, but it ended up being 2.5 hours as the snow was just too good. I enjoyed my runs, then skated and skinned to Vallouise for my coaches duties. There are some great writeup sof the sprint race on Andy Dorais site and the USSMA site. The highlight of the day was Nina Silitch winning a silver medal and getting the first ever US podium in a World Champship Skimo race. Nina trains very hard for the sprint races and lives in Chamonix so she is able to race this format frequently. We definitely need more sprint format races in the US.

The small room that Greg, Scott, and I are sharing. With now having 3 days of wet gear, it is starting to smell really good.

Skiing from the door of the hotel down the village street to Monday’s race

Tomorrow is the Junior Individual race. The US only has 1 junior so Micah will be the sole competitor. We will all be there to cheer him on, then hopefully have some time to check out the Senior Individual Race for Wednesday. This is the marquee event for most racers.

The strong showing and finishes of the US this year has been great and it has not gone un-noticed. I met Killian Jornet today and he comment about our strong team and numerous ISMF officials and coaches of other teams have also made note. It is a great sign of the progress we have made in the US with our skimo program.

Typical day

• 6:30-8(ish): breakfast, email, prepare for the day
• 8-1: races, on the course helping the team
• 1-2: lunch
• 2-4: if things go well free time, if not dealing with any issues, helping racers, etc.
• 4-5: skate/skin to Pelvoux and register racers for the next day
• 5-6: social media
• 6-6:30: awards
• 6:30-8: coaches briefing
• 8-10: dinner and team briefing
• 10-12: post blog, visit, etc

In the US, ski mountaineering racing is a little known, but quickly growing sport. I first got involved in the sport in 2003 the first winter I lived in Utah and the first Wasatch Powder Keg was held. In 2004 and 2005, the Powder Keg was a World Cup race (the only 2 times a World Cup has been held in North America). Watching the Euros compete at the World Cup race was an amazing experience. Their speed and skills far exceeded any of the skills found in the US. I dabbled with some other races over the years including the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse (which at the time was actually a nordic race). In 2008, then the organizers of the Powder Keg decided they had enough, Emily, Mark Christopherson, Gambrelli Layco, and I took over the race. We quickly learned as much as we could about being race directors and were able to put on a very successful race our first year. Since that first year, Mark and Gambrelli have retired, we have done the work on our own, and now we have the help of Nick Francis. During this time, we have continued to grow the race at 10-15% and get more and more involved in the sport as proponents and racers. I has been exciting to see the number of races growing as fast as the number of competitors. The Wasatch now has the Powder Keg and the Wasatch Citizen Series and there is the Crowbar in Logan. With the Powder Keg being a 3 day race this year, there are now 14 races in Utah. What a change from only 1 race 2 years ago.

In 2012, I decided it was time to start getting serious about my own racing and purchased light gear (but not super light). After a few races during the 2011-2012 season I was hooked and by the end of the year had a true race setup (Hagan X-Race skis, Dynafit TLT Performance boots). It was also during the season that I started working with Pete Swenson of the US Ski Mountaineering Associated (USSMA) to put together plans to continue to grow the sport. Over the summer and fall of 2012 we were able to come up with 3 year growth plans and get others involved to help. Pete, Bryan Wickenhauser, and myself also attended an ISMF Referee Course. There have been other US Referees, but today we are the only 3 in the US with up to date certifications.

To take my own racing to the next step, this year I moved to the next level of boots (Scarpa Alien 1.0) which are completely revolutionary. When the National Championship Race came up, I was 900g/foot light and this led me to having 2 great days of racing and feeling great about my performance (I finished 16th at Nationals and 15th the following day). I can’t wait to get onto the new Voile Wasatch Speed Project skis. A prototype was shown at Outdoor Retailer 2 weeks ago and I should have a pair to test in the next 2 weeks!

The World Skimo Championships are held every 2 years. This year they are being help in Pelvoux, France. For the US, the first 3 races of 2013 were our team qualification races. The top 3 men and women from the National Championship Race in Jackson, top 2 men and women from the Grand Targhee Classic, and the top 3 men and women from the Heathen Challenge in Sunlight would make up the 8 person mens and women’s team. With qualifying races completed, I was happy to only be 3 or 4 slots back. Since Bryan Wickenhauser and Jason Dorais were unable to go to Worlds Greg Ruckman and Andy Dorais would earn their spots. You can see from the team list at the bottom of this posting that we have a lot of work to do in promoting our sport to women and kids so that we can start filling a full team.

The US Skimo team also needed a coach. In the past Pete Swenson has gone as coach, but with a busy work schedule and new baby, his schedule didn’t leave for time. This opened up an opportunity and thanks to the Wasatch racers (Luke included), my name was brought up as the a good selection based on my own racing, the success of the Powder Keg, and my involvement int he USSMA. I was thrilled and honored by the opportunity. When you aren’t fast enough to qualify yourself, you need to be creative to find ways to join the team. The World Championships is a 7 day event with 6 distinct events: Individual Race, Team Race, Relay Race, Sprint Race, and Vertical Race. To get to be involved in this week long racing event is exciting.

With a full day job, the Powder Keg, and working with the team on planning and logistics for the World Championships, it has been a crazy buy last 3 weeks. As I write this, I am on a flight home from Dallas from a 3-day work trip and will be home for 15 hours before going back to the airport and heading to Europe. I can’t thank Emily enough for her supporting me doing this. I also owe a huge thanks to Emily, Nick Francis, and Eric Bunce as they are all picking up some of my Powder Keg responsibilities when I am gone. I can’t repay the enough.

Here are some links you can use to get more details. I plan to be blogging each day on the USSMA site and will be trying to tweet during the race using @USSMA_SkiMo, @thebrackpack, @PowKeg

• Official Race Web Site
• Race Course Maps
• ISMF web-site
• Pelvoux, France
• Pelvoux Weather

RACE WEEK SCHEDULE
  

Men’s National Team

1. John Gaston (US National Champion)
2. Tom Goth
3. Marshall Thomson
4. Max Taam
5. Luke Nelson
6. Scott Simmons
7. Greg Ruckman
8. Andy Dorais

Women’s National Team

1. Janelle Smiley (US National Champion)
2. Nina Silitch
3. Stevie Kremer
4. McKenna Douglas
5. Kim Young
6. Meredith Edwards

Espoir Team

1. Matt Burgunder

Junior Team

1. Micah Thatcher

Tentative Race List

Dragon’s live under the hills. Address them properly and they’ll tell you all they know. Ask them the wrong questions and they’ll burn you up. — Fredric Lehman

We are imperfect beings. No matter what you know or how you operate 95% of your life, you’re not a perfect person. Sometimes those imperfections have big consequences. – Mary Yates

I wanted to start this post with a great quote that hasn’t previously been used for a write-up about an avalanche. Not being able to come up with anything great, I referred to Bruce Tremper’s Staying Alive in Avalanche Terrain as I know Bruce has a world of quotes he uses when talking about snow and avalanches. So, thanks to Bruce for the 2 quotes above.

This may be one of the most difficult blogs I have ever written even though it is on one of my favorite topics to talk about — snow and avalanches. It is difficult to write about an accident our group had on January 12 and to try to shed some light on why this happened and identify the mistakes we made.

To get the good news out first, our avalanche accident did not result in any injuries so we are extremely lucky. Family and friends who already think the backcountry is dangerous, please do not read on.

The entire details of the weather leading up to our accident and the analysis performed by Drew Hardesty when Andy, Emily, and I went back to the avalanche location with him the following day can be found on the UAC avalanche page.

On Friday night, we had a party of 6 (Chad, Emily, Evan, Andy, Nick, and Gemma) who had planned a touring day on Saturday. The Wasatch had experienced an odd storm that brought more snow to the mid elevations than higher up. We thought Porter Fork would be a great location as it should have received significant snowfall and had some safe areas to ski. On Saturday morning, we visited with several friends at the park and ride. Three of them had skied Porter Fork the prior morning and said the snow was too deep on the less steep aspects to turn and we all knew the steeper aspects were not safe. We had a quick discussion and decided that Alexander Basin would be a great location to ski. This would be a little bit higher up than Porter Fork and therefore should have a little bit less snow making the lower angle terrain enjoyable to ski and there were lots of options in that area.

We drove up Mill Creek on the unplowed roads and reached the Bowman Fork Trailhead. We donned skis and skins and started to break trail. After about 90 minutes we stopped for a quick snack and 2 groups of about 12 skiers passed us. This was a huge surprise to us as this area usually would not see that many skiers due to the long approach. After about 30 minutes the 2 groups split and we followed a group of 4 up to Yellow Jacket. We had a few short discussions with them about where they were skiing so that we could go to different places to avoid feeling ‘crowded’. They were going to ski something in the vicinity of Toots to Boot and over to Wilson Glade. We didn’t have an exact plan, but thought we would ski a run in Yellow Jacket, and determine our day by the safety of the snow pack. The ~3,600’ climb up to the ridge between Yellow Jacket and Alexander Basin took us only about 2.5 hours which we felt was good time based on the deep trail breaking. At the top of Alexander Basin, we had low light and poor visibility due to the snow still falling. We looked into Alexander Basin commenting on that being a nice line to ski a second run if the snow felt good on our first run. Due to limited visibility and not being as familiar with this area as other areas of the Wasatch, we didn’t realize that we were at the top of Depth Hoar Bowl which had slid the day before. We made a run into Yellow Jacket all commenting at the bottom how the low angle slope was not steep enough to make turns in due to the deep snow.

Evan skiing powder on our first run in Yellow Jacket  

When we reached the ridge the second time, our group had a thorough discussion about if we should ski the line below us into Alexander Basin or not. We all agreed that we would not ski higher up the ridge as it was steeper and too risky. We talked about the potential to ski 1 line a few feet further up the ridge, but also discounted this. In my opinion, this is where we made our mistake, we didn’t know that this was Depth Hoar Bowl and that it was the location of the Friday slide. We all discussed that this was at the steeper end of our comfort level based on the avalanche forecast that day, but we felt this could be safely skied by slope cutting, moving into a couple groups of trees, then skiing into a safe zone at the bottom. We had some discussion and all agreed that if we were alone, we would never consider skiing this line, but in a group we felt more safe as we had the ability to watch each other and in the worst case scenario, help out.

Andy skied first. He dropped in, did a hand pit, was surprised to find only 6” of snow on the surface, then continued on cautiously. Once past the last group of trees he realized he was skiing bed surface from a previous avalanche. Emily skied second following Andy’s line closely. They met at our island of safety and both commented on having skied over debris from a previous slide.

Evan skied third. He dropped in, made a couple turns and fell (most likely from hitting a chunk of debris). He then cut right towards Andy and Emily’s tracks. Realizing he was in debris, he cut further right into fresh snow. After descending about 2/3 of the slope, he was overtaken by a powder cloud. He at first thought Nick or myself had dropped in on top of him and had passed him (as a note, our group would never drop in on top of each other). He had started the run with his Avalung in his mouth, but after descending just over ½ of the slope onto a lower angle slope, he had removed it. He was then hit from behind by the avalanche. As he was pushed head first down the slope, he fought and swam and tried unsuccessfully to get his Avalung back in. While this was occurring, Andy and Emily also realized there was an avalanche as the snow and powder cloud passed by them.

Looking up at the slide path. The crown is just below the trees. Evan was caught at the X and buried at the O

Emily and Andy quickly got into the rescue mode mentality making sure they slope looked safe, calling out to Evan, and going through their mental checklist of what they would need to do (get their beacon into search, getting their shovel and probe out, etc). When the snow stopped, they carefully edged out of the trees towards the debris. By time, Evan had his hand out of the snow, had cleared snow from his head, and was yelling for them. This was an immediate and major relief for Andy and Emily as they knew it would make for a faster rescue since his head was out of the snow and he had an airway. While this was going on, at the top, Nick and I had decided to ski a line to skiers left. Since this was a difference avalanche path, Nick dropped in when Evan was about half way down and prior to the slide. Realizing there was a slide, I told Gemma I was going down as fast as possible and for her to wait there until she saw me at the bottom. I dropped in, not know for sure where the crown was and followed as close as possible to Andy and Emily’s tracks. As I was descending, Andy thought it would be faster to take his skis off and walk up what we all assumed to be rock hard avalanche debris. He quickly realized it was a soft slab as he post holed up the hill. Emily kept her skis on and side stepped up. They both were able to yell to Nick who also started to descend to them. All 4 of us arrived within a few seconds of one another. Nick start to dig with his hands to get a better air pocket for Evan and look into the source of the blood on the snow next to his head. Andy and I got our shovels out and started to dig. Based on the position of his head, we thought he was buried standing up. We were lucky that he was actually horizontal so no part of his body was more than 2’ deep. As we completed digging Evan out, Gemma arrived safely at the bottom after having fallen on her descent.

Digging Evan out. He was not as deep as it looked as he was laying sideways

We were able to confirm that Evan was not injured and had only lost his poles. We all started to put skins back on to ascend the debris and investigate the crown when we heard and felt the loudest collapse any of us had experienced. The collapse was large enough that Gemma who was standing on the edge of the debris dropped 2’ into the snow. As quickly as possible we all headed down slope through the debris to get out of any future harms way. We found a safe area just down slope to dig a pit to analyze the snow that had just cause this slide.

Snow Profile from a pit we dug just below the toe of the slide

We were all amazed at the snow pit results. The layer that broke was not very reactive and had we dug this pit at the top with the same result, we all felt we would have felt it was safe to ski the line.

Shaken up from the events, we all decided it was best to take the most direct route back to the car and call it a day. The descent from Alexander Basin is long (~5 miles) so we knew it would take us quite a while to get out (it took about 1.5 hours). We got to the car and decided it would be good to get a beer and submit the avalanche/accident report to the UAC together and it would also give us a chance to debrief. We spent a lot of time discussing the accident and all agreed that our largest mistake was not knowing that we were on top of a slide from the previous day. Having said that, skiing 1 day old debris is typically a safe descent route since it would be a rarity to trigger another deeper slide. We feel our slide was probably caused when we ventured off of the old slide surface and triggered adjacent weak snow that had not slide the day before.

On Sunday, Andy, Emily and I went back to the scene with Drew from the UAC. We spent most of the day discussing the accident and the events that lead up to it as well as looking in detail at the slide crown. The photo below was our first view of the slide and it wasn’t until then that we realized it was much larger than we had initially thought (due to the poor visibility on Saturday). The crown was only slightly larger (we estimated 16” and it ranged from 11”-22”). We were also able to get a look at the slide from the previous day. Here is a good annotation from Drew of the 2 slides.

           Slide patch from the ridge

            Drew examining the crown

            Crown from the slide adjacent to our’s from December 11

The biggest thing that surprised us on Sunday were the additional tracks right next to our slide path. These tracks were both on slopes that we had decided were far steeper than we were comfortable skiing. The slide to the lookers left of ours could have either been sympathetic or triggered by one of these 2 groups.

            Tracks (circled in red) directly next to and just upslope from our slide. Both slopes were steeper than what we skied and were skied the same day.

Since Saturday, we have all spent a lot of time talking and thinking about the accident. We have tried to determine if we made any huge errors and we do feel that our 2 biggest errors were in not knowing we were at Depth Hoar Bowl (Alexander Basin is a huge area and confusion of terrain in this area has been the cause of numerous accidents in the past) and that even through we knew there was weak snow beneath the new snow we thought we could find a safe descent route We also felt that we may have been clouded by the very stable snow we all skied for 2.5 weeks over Christmas. We were happy that we felt like we didn’t fall into any of the common heuristic traps (familiarity, acceptance, commitment, expert halo, tracks/scarcity, social facilitation). We went into the day with no agenda, just interested in skiing safely. Of our party of 6, only 1 person had been involved in a prior accident. With over 60 years of combined backcountry experience, we are lucky for this to have been our first accident and we all hope that we will take the lessons from this and not have another accident. It is very important to us to keep the friends we ski with and ourselves safe as we consider our friends are our family.

Summary of lessons learned

• Take extra time to know the names of the slopes you are on. In the past this has been difficult as there was not a single resource to find this. With the new Wasatch Backcountry Skiing Map, this is now possible.
• As our backcountry skills get higher, we venture onto terrain that has the potential to pose a higher risk. As Evan stated, ‘We didn’t see the forest for the trees.’ We knew there were dangers and thought we could safely pick a route down. This almost worked. As a group, in the future we will be looking more closely at our risk acceptance.
• Don’t let fall into the trap of thinking things are safer than they are based on pre-storm conditions. If the pre-storm snow is stable, it does not mean the post storm snow is. On the other side of this, if the pre-storm snow is unstable, the post storm snow will likely be more unstable.

Please feel free to comment on this blog if you want, but please keep comments constructive.