Grey Wolf peak, South couloir, fast

Nearing the running shoe/ski boot transition at Riddell lakes on Grey Wolf peak.

I have been meaning to try for a fast go at the iconic South couloir on Grey Wolf for a few years now, and finally made it happen.  The outing was fairly predictable for a long hard effort.  I went out at a responsibly hard pace and held it through the road, and through the early bits of trail.  I had packed a fairly light kit of race skis and boots, with no spikes, two bars, no extra clothes, and only a half liter of water.  It was nice to have a light pack.  Soon, I was working through moderately heavy downfall, and I spent about 45 minutes in the thick of it, alternating between trying to move quickly and swimming over, under, and around tree after tree.  I topped out on the flat pitch well behind my time goal, but made some time up on the melted out traverse into Riddell lake, and on a quick climb to the lake proper.  After a shoe to boot transition, I pushed as hard as I could to the top of the couloir.  I topped out well behind a 3-hour outing pace, but seemed on track to go sub-3.30.

Ready to negotiate the tricky entrance and ski.

The skiing was quick and quite enjoyable.  What a classic run!  I was soon back at my shoes, and within a few minutes, was back across the traverse and on the trail.  I made reasonable time on the trail back to the car, but didn't venture too deep into reckless tree hopping territory to make time up.  As such, I made it back to the car in 3.27, very happy, pretty tired, and a bit wondering if I should have pushed harder in a few places.

Nice early morning skiing below the couloir.

Thoughts  By memory, splits were: leaving saddle: 35 minutes; beginning of South traverse, 1.20, climbing from Riddell, 1.45; top 2.15; done with South traverse; 2.40; saddle inbound 3:15; car 3.27.  My time is pretty soft, but I wouldn't be surprised if it is still a FKT.  I think that I could have dug a little deeper and pushed into race and risk-of-blowing up territory and shaved up to 10 minutes.  I also think that I lost about 20 minutes to downfall, and I think that it would be possible to do this outing faster earlier in the season with more coverage.  That said, I had a lot of fun, and it was really nice to get back to this classic.  

11 x 10k for 2019

I was able to get out for eleven 10,000 vertical foot plus days this ski season.  With a reasonably efficient approach, I have found these longer days are quite doable.  However, almost every time pushing to "get to 10" challenges me to do a little more with my cherished long ski days.  So it continues to be a rewarding challenge.

Interestingly, all but one of my longer days were solo, since I tend to prioritize chilling out a bit more and finding higher quality skiing when out with partners.  This is my second 10 x 10k ski season.  I am going to try to keep the streak going as long as it remains a fun.  A quick summary:

6/2 Southern Swans.  



Bonus day!  I had planned to do another Pyramid to Crescent traverse.  There wasn't enough snow to connect the runs, so I changed plans at the trailhead and approached West Marshall by the new-to-me Crescent lake trail.  I spent a blazing hot morning skiing five short runs on the Northeast face using a bootpack to avoid skin transitions.  With the rest of the day, I did another shorter run off the South shoulder of Crescent, then skied the South face of Crescent to snowline.  I dry land hopped back across to Marshall, and skied a nice steep, mush infested gully on the Northwest face down to the trail.  To my immense glee, I was able to jog back to the car in about 45 minutes from the base of the ski run.  I will definitely be back to explore more running, skiing, and backpacking options using the Crescent lake trail. A hair under 9 hours.

4/30 Mission Traverse.  

Best day of the year.  See separate post.

4/21 Snowbowl.

Another 10k Sunday. I wasn't feeling as motivated as earlier in the year, but did four top to bottom Snowbowls.  By memory, well under 7 hours with race skis.

4/18 Bitterroot, Hidden lake peak.

See separate post.

4/11 Snowbowl.

I had hoped to do a short out of town ski trip, but the weather was way too wet to do anything, so I ended up working instead.  I did get out for an over sized helping of interesting, half frozen snow at Snowbowl though. Arduous trailbreaking slowed me down a bit.  The tour was something like: Far East, West bowl, East bowl, A few Jenny bowls, and a mellow Paradise cruiser at the end of the day.  By memory, 8.5 hours.

March  Wasatch, Porter Fork powder skiing.  
We spent a day in Salt Lake city on the way back from Spring break, and I went skiing.  Avalanche danger was too high for me to ski anything steep, so I went exploring in Mill creek.  I started off by skiing Gobbler's knob, then did five runs in Porter Fork and dipped into Neff's.  I definitely botched routefinding throughout the day, but it was fun to nose around without much beta in this amazing powder skiing area.  The warm spring sun made finding shaded powder challenging.  My fitness was a little off at this point in the ski season, and I kind of had to slug it out to get to 10k by dinner time.  about 9 hours out.

I took a big break in February and March to ski peak to creeks.  It is really hard for me to get to 10k peak to creek skiing since at least four hours are dedicated to creek slogging with almost no elevation change.

2/2  Blodgett, storm day with Jeffrey.

See separate post.  I think this was the most physically challenging day of the year.

1/11  Sky Pilot attempt.

I bailed on Sky Pilot because I didn't like stability on the shaded aspects.  Still skied an excellent South facing gully to Bear Lake.  A worthwhile day of furloughing, and nice to get this far back after doing morning day care drop off.

12/23, 16K at Gash.

Yo-yo skiing just before leaving for Mexico.  See separate post.

12/5 Greywolf West couloir plus more. 

One of the best days of the year. See separate post.

11/25, Snowbowl, LaValle.

I skied eight Lavalles on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.  Building fitness for the ski season.  I paced for a hard but even effort and did it in a little under 5 hours.