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TR - Pilot Peak NV, 01/2017
I've been too lazy to post right after it happened but now that the season is winding down a bit it feels like a good time to go back and look at one of the high points of 2017... Warning: lots of scenic and panoramic shots, not much actual skiing. Also, cell phone pics. And lots of text.
Pilot Peak has been on my tick list for a long time. It's right across the UT/NV border and it's impossible to miss when you're driving west across the salt flats. It's basically its own small range sticking out nearly 6000' above the sage brush. Apparently you can see it from the top of the tram at the Bird on a clear day.
When I started looking into it I found a few TRs, most from spring missions (boring) and a couple from TGR peeps. One was from Trackhead who got massively skunked and the other from JTrue who scored big. I figured I'd probably land somewhere in between and it was worth a try. January was going off in the Wasatch and it was hard to justify leaving town, even for a day trip, but after scoring some incredible days of low elevation pow it didn't take much effort to convince slog master Drew to wander a bit further than the Cottonwoods. All the reports I had see were from the E face but I had spied the W aspect on a previous trip and thought we could make it into a weekend adventure.
We left SLC at 4AM and several thermos of coffee later barged in a gas station off I-80 for burritos before getting off the pavement. The approach road goes back and forth between UT and NV and we found out that while UT plows dirt roads in the winter, NV doesn't. We followed ranchers' tracks for a while, got lost, woke up some dogs and horses, got lost some more, and eventually found the dirt road heading to Pilot. It wasn't plowed but someone had driven up it so we followed. This is what navigating snowy dirt roads in the dark looks like when it goes well:
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By 7AM things had stopped going well and we had slid the 4-runner off the road and high centered it with 2 wheels in a deep runnel. FYI this is what navigating snowy dirt roads in the dark looks like when shit is about to go south and you're not making the turn:
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Out came the full size shovels (smart move by Drew is smart).
By 7:30 we had managed to get the truck completely across the runnel but on the wrong side of it. A bit better I guess...
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The sun came up while we were digging and we realized that we were much further from the peak that we should have been. Things were looking a bit less promising at that point. At least the views were OK.
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We discussed going for it and worrying about the truck when we got back. That seemed like a recipe for disaster and a really long skin to Wendover so we elected to get back to work.
At 8AM, after gathering every rock and uprooting every piece of sage brush within a half mile to build a rock + sage platform, we gunned the truck across the runnel and back on solid ground.
The GPS had us 3 miles away and 1700' lower than the end of the approach road where most people get to park. Time to slog.
You can see some of the truck carnage on the right...
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I hate walking on flat ground and by the time we got to the end of the approach road I was starting to see red and the peak wasn't getting any closer:
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The fog engulfed the salt flats, the car, and was threatening to catch up with us. Creepy:
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The slog continued and we started actually going uphill. I think this is the massive talus filed Trackhead is walking in one of his pics:
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Then this came into view and I stopped whining. The Sky Pilot:
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We finally made it into the lower cirque. It's huge, threatening, full of massive chopped up trees, and obviously not a place you'd want to be when Pilot decides to let loose.
Drew admiring his surroundings:
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Then taking off and breaking trail (which he does 90% of the time):
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The wind picked up when we got into the upper reaches of the cirque and we were happy to find steeper but more sheltered terrain:
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The windboard down low turned into pow with a smidge of wind effects. Heading into the old growth:
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And onto the upper face. The views got more and more expansive and impressive:
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Proud stump:
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The summit ridge was a frozen mess with howling winds:
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Obligatory summit shot with the Wasatch way back there:
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Summit panos with DPS spray:
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The full-size high res shots are amazing, you can see the whole Wasatch range from Ben Lomond to Nebo, Deseret is pretty obvious, and looking South Ibapah and a number of other big peaks are poking out. Pretty spectacular views.
The West face did not look so good unfortunately, we took one peek and realized this would be a day trip and we would not be skiing the other side this year...
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We lapped the upper 1200' a couple of times since they held non wind-fucked snow:
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Once the legs started complaining too much we decided to go look at the main chute instead of reversing the approach. Drew following the ridge into the abyss:
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The abyss, which I launched into without realizing it was bulletproof and ended up bouncing off one of the walls and ass-sliding a way. Proud:
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1500' in and 1500' to go, Drew was charging through the small ice drops while I was dealing with a serious case of jello legs:
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Last break before the long slog out, the mandatory point. Behold the Sky Pilot:
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Turns out those 3 miles which felt completely flat on the way in are just steep enough to cruise through on the way out. It was a fun hour of skiing brush and dodging exposed rocks or barbed wire while the sun went down:
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Decent views on the way out:
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And the blessed burrito for the drive back, along with a slew of beers:
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Total time on snow was 9.5 hours and we were back to SLC by 8:30 PM. No injuries other than brutally sore legs.
The next day I went from a recovery tour in Summit Park, turned around after 1k, and managed to clip a tree with my ass. Almost cracked my pelvis, the hematoma is still there. Goes to show...
