kendall card 2.0

I’m always up for a ski. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my friends know this. Derek called and wanted to do a dawn patrol of something up Little Cottonwood Canyon. After a couple of south facing suggestions we settled on hitting Mount Superior which rises nearly 3000′ from the canyon highway, right across from Snowbird Ski Resort.

We met at 6am at the park and ride and drove up to Alta. Parking at the Hellgate Condos we walked down to the start of the climb and donned crampons. I was surprised how little snow remains on Superior and as we climbed up the face I remembered that it was July 1, 2005 when I last climbed the face of Superior. On that occasion I was solo and headed for Country Lane (or Suicide Chute as it’s also known) and on that day there was still plenty of snow with a continuous line to the base. On this day in April of 2007 Country Lane is done, cliffing out with no option for a continuous descent.

Despite having gone on a bike ride the night before we made great time and topped out just below the summit in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. The climbing was engaging with good firm snow for cramponing and some spicy steeps near the top. Derek and I lounged for another 20 minutes, enjoying the views and company while waiting for the sun to soften the snow to “corn” for us to harvest. And harvest we did.

The descent was steep and engaging. Derek and I swapped the camera to film the descent which was enjoyable at the time and more so know that the video is complete. Check it out on Derek’s site - Fritzrips.com in either standard resolution or in HD quality.

I just got back from a dose of winter that has been missing from the past three weeks. I was starting to actually say to myself and others that I was over winter and that I no longer needed to ski. What a crock!

I had a long night on Wednesday thrashing around the Uintas hunting for snow to ski, finding only a bunch of mank that once resembled skiable snow, so Thursday morning found me unable to get out of bed and sore from an encounter with a tree. But a call from Derek telling my that I had missed out and the remote opportunity to slip up to Little Cottonwood Canyon from my work in Salt Lake City today was all I needed to put all my gear in my car as I was leaving home.

Meetings and work stuff kept me in Salt Lake all day and 5pm found me weaving through traffic, east bound on I-80 and contemplating if I should take the 215 exit and head south to LCC. It looked like it had been snowing all day and cold so I opted for the outing, arriving at the top of LCC by Alta as the storm was breaking. I changed into my ski gear and walked over to the snow covered summer road where I bumped into a good friend Jim Stefan and his friend Lorenz.

What followed was some great conversation, trail breaking, amazing sunset views, alpenglow snow and nearly 3000′ of fantastic powder skiing from 2 laps - one on Patsy Marley and one on Twin Lakes Pass (the peak to the north of the pass). It was so good I’m going back for more tomorrow morning!