Step up and try the fingers (snowbasin TR)
Just fresh off the road from Utah, feeling not so fresh, but still stoked non-the-less from a stellar weekend of skiing.
The trigger was pulled thursday evening with cosmic forces aligning in some strange way to make a Utah trip happen with the wife along for the ride. Boogied out to Brigham for a few hours sleep before heading up to Snowbasin. MD9, GT and myself had a stellar day getting freshies and laying down lines new for me and even for MD. Some great shots seen here earlier were the proof.
I was really excited to go spend my first day on the Spatulas and to ski some bigger more exposed lines. Spatulating is definitely some serious fun. Confidence inspiring, making mank turn into dank and pow into wow. The ultimate straightline tool. Blew up twice on the spats, once in some chop when a tip somehow got grabbed and I got smashed. And another time in the same chute that the shots in the other thread were from. After that crash i had a nice base scratch and lost a powder basket, so i am blaming the blow-up on snagging a buried rock. :rolleyes:
All this is a lousy excuse to be training myself for bigger stuff that i will see in AK. Exposing myself to......well more exposure, tight chutes, big pow faces, knowing that if still won't really compare, but getting my head as right as it can get. Saturday the tour was spectacular, GT and MD finding the goods, over and over again. Mass quantities of good food were consumed, Tee Time was watched and sleep was had.
Sunday the plan was to meet up with a few maggots at the moose at 9. I also changed my weapon of choice to the Bro moddel, as conditions had changed. GT, MD, Meat's and myself found Flyk was present and accounted for, as well as Buzz, eventually a Frizzo sighting and Backpack joining the tribe for the day. As the chairs started to turn, so did my stomach as MD found out that the Fingers were going to be open right off the bat. We got shut out on Saturday, some natural and skier triggered slides were occuring and the fingers were closed for good reason. Evidentally things had settled down and were good to go. A bee-line was made for the bucket, MD had his "danger" smile working, which you knew trouble was about to be had in mass amounts. The top was reached without even a warm-up run. By now my stomach was working, sphincter was clenched, but it was most definitely on.
MD and myself quickly did a check and set off past the gate and around the backside despite some quips from an annoying bird about our saftey. (If you are ever with people who are about to ski a big line, do them a favor, don't make any comments to them that might instill doubt(which didn't work), right before they do it, mmmkay?) We took quite a few long looks at how sweet the backside looked, untracked but definitely wind loaded and a long hike out.
About 10 minutes later we are standing on top of the gnarliest thing i have ever had the pleasure to stand atop of.....The Fingers. Quick little pep talk from MD, discuss lines, options and saftey routes out (straightline it) and i was ready to rip this sucka a new one. I was desperately trying to ignore the little voice in my head that was telling me to turn around, finally i told the little voice to STFU and have a seat it was time to step it up. The voice piped down and I remained focused.
Radio down that it was time for MD to drop. Meatdrink, drops in, takes 4, maybe 5 sweet, smooth, flowing round turns and points the hell out of the bottom, coming out mach looney into the apron, throwing his arms up in the air in excitement.
Alright, now its only me up here. "Turn around"[/annoying voice in my head] I take the radio in my hand and some how spit out "dropping in 20". My heart is ripping through my chest. I am totall GRIPPED. Fumble to put the radio away, get my poles straight take a deep breath and just......drop in.
The snow is deep but dense and man oh man was it steep, slow turn #1, link through turn #2, let some of the sluff run by, pause, turns #3-5, then pause again. One more turn and point it out to apron, screaming fast. So relieved and exhilirated that I made it through clean, not to mention how stinking fun it was, I relaxed just a bit, caught some avy debris and blew up on the apron, rolled, but didn't loose a ski. Did the old, "are my arms and legs in tack..yes" and let out a whoot like I never had before:D. Jumped back to my feet and skied down to catch up with the crew.
Man my heart is whomping right now, just trying to recollect what the line was like. I'll chalk this up as the gnarliest thing i have ever done to date. The fingers #2.
Video and pics were taken, some will probably show up here eventually, but i'm not too worried about that stuff, just the fact that I got a chance to step up, took it and delivered.
The day was turning into a day of exploring and route finding. Myself and the meat's family headed over to Porcupine cirque and laid down some freshies there as well. While skiing the cirque we spoted a few lines that we were going to try and grab after lunch. The day wasn't over yet.....
After lunch MD and myself did a quick hike back around to Porky's, hiked up the looker's left ridge and proceeded to look for more trouble. We had to drop 3' into a 40+degree face on the wrong side, make a quick turn and traverse around. Thinking we could just traverse around into the chute we wanted would have been too much to ask. MD put the billy goat line in, which went from the steep face to a totally exposed chute, again on the wrong side. Carefully stepping across, grabbing rocks and tree branches that finally led us to our line. Standing uphill from a tree, MD put a quick ski cut on the slope, just for safe measure. All the futzing and talk lost us our light. Clouds rolled in and it didn't look as if we were going to get a hole for any photos or video, but that wasn't what we were there for. Another quick discussion and MD drops in, takes 4 turns and burns out of the chute like a monkey with his ass on fire.
I was still pretty clenched, even though it wasn't nearly as scary as the fingers. Less hesitation, more skiing, oh and no more annoying voice. Dropped in, took a few pow tuns, which then turned into more dense buttery turns towards the bottom and made a hasty exit into the flat light of the runout, which was a little difficult to gauge. Once down to the rest of the group, I was done, the adreneline tank was empty and it was getting late, long ride still to be had home.
Sunday definitely goes down as HUGE step up for me, finally getting to ski terrrain I've always dreamed of, deep down I knew I could too. Snowbasin definitely has the trouble if you are looking for it.
Well it wasn't super deep blower all weekend, but it was most certainly one hell of an adventure, tons of fun and great company. GT, as eveyone knows is a most gracious host, my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed sharing time with you and your family. MD a great road trip partner and confidence inspiring trouble seeker. I appreciate the support and patience while helping me find my way into bigger and badder terrain. More than once showing me the way. [/ end oscar acceptance speech]
