WASATCH STOKE, CONDITIONS, OBSERVATIONS and ASSORTED DRIVAL 20-21

[Boissal]

Yeah thats the one. Thats part of why I want to see if there's still snow in there, approach conditions could definitely be variable. I know the TH is completely accessible and the trail is super flat so it may be a ways in wet marshy stuff. Plan would be to camp at the base of Wasatch and try to ski NE face of Wasatch and NW face of NW Wasatch. The alternative would be to hike in Xmas meadows and ski LeMotte, Ostler, Spread Eagle but concerned there might not be as much snow there, and the approach is part of the fun.

Looks like we're all using the same satellite data, hoping for some more images today. Anyone want to join?

Data is from Caltopo, Sentinel weekly sat image. Not sure if there are other options. It's always seems to be cloudy up there when the sat flies over.

If you go to Amethyst definitely look into the NW shots on Spread Eagle. They are much more deserving of the Shotgun/Twin name than anything on Deseret or the Box Elder. 2000' monsters with a solid pitch.
I second the approach over the Hayden shoulder if the road is open. It's fast and easy with some very fun turns into Middle Basin.

If you end up in the E fk Black fk I'd consider Lovenia or E Lovenia, they have classy NE and NW faces. All the options are fairly similar in the drainage but the Lovenia shots are steeper with a more northerly component.
I should post a TR of my death slog up there this summer, I tagged all the 13ers on that ridgeline in a day, nothing insane by the standards of the UT running community but for me it was HUDGE. Perfect conditions, no people, just talus as far as the eye can see.

[abraham]

Data is from Caltopo, Sentinel weekly sat image. Not sure if there are other options. It's always seems to be cloudy up there when the sat flies over.

.

Most recent image I see is from 5/14

[Benneke10]

Nice one Bolsall thats a proud accomplishment. Thanks for the tip on Lovenia and E Lovenia, those look like great lines too!

[brutah]

I should post a TR of my death slog up there this summer, I tagged all the 13ers on that ridgeline in a day, nothing insane by the standards of the UT running community but for me it was HUDGE. Perfect conditions, no people, just talus as far as the eye can see.

Is that the Kings-Emmons ridge? If so, please post the TR. I've wanted to do that for a long time..... and kudos!

[CirqueScaler]

I should post a TR of my death slog up there this summer, I tagged all the 13ers on that ridgeline in a day, nothing insane by the standards of the UT running community but for me it was HUDGE. Perfect conditions, no people, just talus as far as the eye can see.

Frickin burly.

[Boissal]

Frickin burly.

Is that the Kings-Emmons ridge? If so, please post the TR. I've wanted to do that for a long time..... and kudos!

Shit I hope you guys didn't think I tagged at the 13ers on the actual Uintas Crest in a day, that would be insane!

Kings to Emmons would be way cool but I'm not fast enough to do it in a day, I'd have to camp at the start of the traverse and do a shuttle. Since I don't really backpack it wasn't an option and I stuck to day hikes away from the Kings and Red Castle areas which are turning into a zoo. Even without running you can cover serious grounds in the Uintas when you have nothing in your pack other than a block of cheese, a water filter, and a puffy in case shit hits the fan. The loop I mentioned is a lollipop that circumnavigates the head of the East Fork Black Fork drainage. It gains the ridge then stays above 12k for a long ass time and tags the 5 summits that ring the drainage (E Lovenia, Lovenia, Wasatch, NW Wasatch, Tokewana). There's some info online about sections of the ridge but I had my doubts about doing the whole thing, a couple of the sections looked really shitty. There are some options to bail down to a trail most of the way though so it's not ultra committing, you just have to enjoy scrambling around vile choss piles for hours on end. I didn't see another soul the whole day, apparently E Lovenia is the 13er that sees the least amount of traffic in the range. Here's the Strava for it.

I'll put together a TR, I spent a lot of time up there this summer after cracking my wrist on the bike. After a week of whining Ms Boissal demanded I make myself scarce around the house so I went into hiding in the high country, drew lines on the map, walked them, and took lots of pictures.

[CirqueScaler]

Less burly but still cool.

Cloudy satellite images is a regrettable-but-in-hindsight-totally-foreseeable downside of the caltopo premium subscription. I was trying to do some comparos with median snow totals and dated google earth totals, but it's imprecise at best. Just gotta go.

[Boissal]

Less burly but still cool.

Cloudy satellite images is a regrettable-but-in-hindsight-totally-foreseeable downside of the caltopo premium subscription. I was trying to do some comparos with median snow totals and dated google earth totals, but it's imprecise at best. Just gotta go.

That subscription is still worth it despite the pesky clouds. It's saved me hours of driving to ski what would have turned out to be talus fields!
In a bad year the lines in Middle Basin can be questionable in late May. Lots of skiing to be had but maybe not the continuous fall lines you're looking for. I was looking back at pics + SNOTEL data, the Trials Lake SNOTEL is about to hit rock bottom which puts it about 3 weeks ahead of 2017. For reference this is what Middle Basin and Bald looked like on June 4th that year. The main lines of Spread Eagle still went with shenanigans at the bottom. Ostler looked juicy!

[abraham]

Have you looked at sentinel hub, it's free. I've been using it to look at approaches, it takes playing with the settings to get the information about the capture dates. You can adjust the satellite source and bands.

[CirqueScaler]

That subscription is still worth it despite the pesky clouds. It's saved me hours of driving to ski what would have turned out to be talus fields!
In a bad year the lines in Middle Basin can be questionable in late May. Lots of skiing to be had but maybe not the continuous fall lines you're looking for. I was looking back at pics + SNOTEL data, the Trials Lake SNOTEL is about to hit rock bottom which puts it about 3 weeks ahead of 2017. For reference this is what Middle Basin and Bald looked like on June 4th that year. The main lines of Spread Eagle still went with shenanigans at the bottom. Ostler looked juicy!

Interesting. Those are really great beta pics, thanks. Here's the 6/22/2017 Google Earth image... so I suppose the conclusion is that the snowpack does not look very promising huh Maybe we'll look for something else.



In addition to just generally wishing that long-form trip reports were still a thing (vs. instagram), I think it'd be cool if people would note the reading of a standardized snow level reporting resource. For example, in the Wasatch, you could just grab the Snowbird SNOTEL or something. I suppose I could go back and build a database of this sort of data. That'd be such a great resource to have.

[whyturn]

Snowshoes up Brighton to dam. Fast snow was slick. But a good walk.







This beaver was climbing the wall but seemed stuck





Nice views for sure in BCC







Some cool old school bikes




Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[brutah]

This beaver was climbing the wall but seemed stuck

Love this beaver photo. I imagine the beaver was like, "well if this isn't the most impressive dam I've ever seen...... I better check out this construction"

Little chute still goes but I wish I would have skied main chute this morning since the snow in little was like rocky road ice cream but with real rocks!

[CirqueScaler]

Well there was a non-cloudy batch of the Sentinel imagery uploaded to Caltopo on the 27th that looked decent so benneke and I decided to go for it. A storm forecast for Sunday afternoon nixed our plans to do a 3-day camp so we drove to Christmas Meadows on Sunday, camped, and started early with the goal of skiing the western chute off Lamotte summit.

Unfortunately, both benneke and I are both pretty new and this was our first time in really big mountains with and a combined 2000 ft of icy exposure above and below us for an hour or two. I think both of us underestimated how mentally difficult it would be so about 3/4 of the way up we pulled over to a rock outcropping and skied down. Still a great day out and such a stunning drainage to drink in totally alone.

Benneke skiing after our transition, snopack photos of Ostler on the left and Agassiz in the middle

Me, A-1 in the background

Hike in and out included lots of this

And this

But also

and


I'd say if you can get in this week or next weekend, there are still a lot of lines that go with just a bit of maneuvering.

[Dantheman]

Nice work!

[mall walker]

my wife and I made the schwack up one of the big western shots off lamotte in the summer on a backpacking trip. it’s steep and loose and the approach is awful. nice sufferfest

[brutah]

Nice effort fellas! and thanks for the TR! I saw that you couldn't get to bald mtn pass yet and that UDOT is just letting Mirror lake highway melt out which probably ended my Uinta spring skiing aspirations this year, so stoked to see y'all getting after it up there.

Noticed this morning that Alta moved their "high rustler" webcam so you can't see how they're carving up the bottom mountain to make it mellower for the gapers. I imagine Alf Engen is rolling in his grave expecially as they plow down trees that Alf probably plant himself.

[Boissal]

Solid effort Cirque & Benneke! No sense in pushing things if you're not feeling it, live to ski another day! Next year will be much easier as you'll know exactly what you're getting into.

Re: UDOT letting the road melt, that's a bunch of bullshit. The Uintas have been a complete gong show throughout the summer the past 2 years and the time with a bit of snow on the ground was the only hope for peace and quiet up there.

[brutah]

Found some skis pretty high up the mountain at alta last evening. I left them up there but put them in a less visible location. You can probably see them from where ya left them if you are looking for em but if you can't find the skis message me and I'll let you know specifically where they are located.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[altacoup]

Found some skis pretty high up the mountain at alta last evening. I left them up there but put them in a less visible location. You can probably see them from where ya left them if you are looking for em but if you can't find the skis message me and I'll let you know specifically where they are located.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

Dude who’s skis those are walked down to the parking lot from baldy last night, as he couldn’t find them. Someone who lives up there told me they talked to him in the parking lot at 10pm and he told them someone stole his skis.

[snowaddict91]

I'll take some of whatever that dude was on. How does one lose their skis? Lol

[buttahflake]

I'll take some of whatever that dude was on. How does one lose their skis? Lol

Alice Dee

[brutah]

Dude who’s skis those are walked down to the parking lot from baldy last night, as he couldn’t find them. Someone who lives up there told me they talked to him in the parking lot at 10pm and he told them someone stole his skis.

Alta dispatch has my phone number. I placed them in the bushes right next to where they left em as they originally were on the edge of the cornice and looked like they could have fallen down main chute. I was up there for 30 minutes trying to figure out whose they were.... I dropped right at sunset so it seemed pretty odd to me.

[altacoup]

He said he was hanging out on the snowbird side watching the sunset. Patroller he talked to told him to check with the main office, so hopefully he can find his stuff.

[glademaster]

I was taught at a young age that if something doesn't belong to you, you don't touch it.

Sorry to hear someone was inconvenienced by a person not learning the fundamentals of existing in a society, but also not the least bit surprised.

[brutah]

Well I certainly feel bad about this whole ordeal but happy to report that the owner of the skis was able to recover them this evening

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk