Skiing in the Wasatch
A lot of sentimental value coming back here as the Wasatch were my first “real” mountains I saw up close, and where I learned to really ski, which is probably responsible for this whole phase of my life. I wanted to write an entry for each outing I did in Utah but frankly I didn’t have that many pictures that I felt were all that scenic, so combining all of the pictures into one post with a bit of thoughts at the end.
First day exploring, just observing the rime and facets.
Bit of a departure from the crummy conditions we’ve been having back in Washington.
The views of Salt Lake City below soon became very familiar this trip
This is one area I never got to explore this trip, the southern LCC terrain
With Pfeifferhorn prominent.
Would’ve been cool to ski this one.
Hypodermic Needle through the binoculars
Cool rocks
The northern BCC terrain I also never got to explore as well, but that area seemed a little uninteresting with the rolling flat hills in contrast to the steep peaks everywhere else in the Cottonwoods
Big tree, me like
Cardiac Ridge
Avalanche crown through the binoculars
Looking at the Kessler area
A group of five or so completely tracked out the Benson & Hedges Couloir
Looking at the Olympus area.
Jagged looking rock formations that are a bit different than the smoother slopes in the rest of the range.
You can see Waldo, the curved line, and Whipple, the snow couloir just above it.
We got on these lines a later day and it was probably my favorite outing this entire trip.
Looking back from Neffs Canyon
Hobbs Peak(s) behind
The unique rock/snow formations seen from the Whipple line
Northern gulches of BCC
We skied the south face of Superior in whiteout conditions with breakable sun crust immediately after skiing the Whipple/Waldo lines lol
Approaching Tolcats from the backside via the Memorial Couloirs
The view from Tolcats.
This was a cool one because I saw the line from the highway then did my research later without prior knowledge, as have most people who’ve been inspired by this line probably.
Doing the sneak to get to the Apollo Couloir
Ready to ski from the top of Apollo
Unsolicited Thoughts on Skiing in the Wasatch
A quick rundown of the days:
- A couple days interspersed lapping the Alta & Snowbird terrain (Patsy Marley, Emmas, Flagstaff, Scotties Bowl, etc) - Pretty safe, mindless, and fun for both of these areas. Utah really has it good even when it’s bad.
- A quintessential West Porter lap - I always see my friends lap this on Strava so had to take a look for myself. Pretty fun and cruiser, with a lot of locals just hanging out on the Porter Fork road itself.
- Argenta - Also a fun low hanging one, but this required hitchhiking back which I’ve been told is unusual because they only stopped plowing the trailhead this year.
- Bonkers - Some variable snow, but great to farm the wide open slopes that we often lack in WA.
- Little Pine bail - Would’ve been cool going up LCC’s straight up chute but wasn’t the day for it.
- Days Fork to Mineral Fork - Great day lapping Chicken Shit Ridge, then Benson & Hedges, and then Dark Ebony to do a nice little “ski traverse”. This kind of cemented in my mind how small the Wasatch is in terms of acreage.
- Whipple and Waldo - My favorite day of the trip. I think the Whipple kind of used to be a lower key classic, as with everything in Neffs Canyon, but definitely experienced the crowding on this one. Still fun and the Olympus mountains are unique from everything else in the Wasatch. Waldo was also a see-it-ski-it line with a cool geographical feature.
- South Face of Superior - Took a gamble on this one, with whiteout conditions and breakable crust, but might as well tick off a classic while we’re here eh? I think this line is overloved, so I probably don’t expect to hit it in good conditions in my life.
- Tolcats Couloir - A mellow see-it-ski-it line feeding straight out into the valley. Good one.
- Apollo Couloir - Skiing more Neffs couloirs with the Wasatch locals. Fun, although I might’ve torn my meniscus a tiny bit on this one even though I don’t recall anything of note.
- Suicide Chute - Great way to end the trip, this was a line I’ve wanted to get done after seeing dozens of videos about it like this one. Even better in pow!
Snow, Snowpack, Terrain
Yep I think the Wasatch is the GOAT of winter skiing in the Lower 48, and I don’t even think it’s close. Most of why is because of the actual quality of skiing itself, directly influenced by the prodigious amount of snowfall, the right quality of snow, and the insane density of interesting skiable terrain in the Cottonwood Canyons. I don’t know what else is there to say.
I guess a couple things I learned actually was that the amount of snow actually helps the avalanche danger. The dry spells + cold temps are actually what create the danger when the next snow dump gets packed on over what becomes a weak layer. This is the problem Colorado has, where the snowpack is so touchy because of all of the layers of facets that form due to not snowing all that much there, in addition to the even colder ambient air temperatures.
But we came at a time in the winter when we had decent avalanche danger while we were in Utah. And that was another thing that spooked me: the persistent layers. Obviously there is a degree of unknown risk in everything we do in life, and obviously avalanches happen in Washington too, but you’re telling me you’re rolling the dice on an avalanche breaking off meters below the surface? At least in Washington, the avalanche problems are usually confined to the surface where you can gauge the conditions more easily, but I did not enjoy the feeling of unease traveling through the Cottonwoods in considerable or even moderate danger.
That’s the tradeoff I’m willing to make though living in a maritime snowpack environment. Having days if not weeks of crap snow in Washington for the snow to consolidate in order to form a safer snowpack without persistent layers. You won’t ski powder everyday, but you’ll ski powder in fun and sometimes steep conditions you wouldn’t find in more continental snowpacks (although people ski steep in the Wasatch regardless).
The terrain here is fantastic though, the south facing stuff can be steep and fun, and there is no shortage of north facing lines when the souths get bad in both the BCC and LCC gulches. This is certainly not the case in our closest area back home, Alpental Valley, where you have to put some amount of work to get to the north facing stuff.
I guess the only negative thing I can say about the terrain is that the Wasatch is quite small as a mountain range and it’s not all that scenic. For the former, I imagine it wouldn’t be too bad getting across the entire canyon in a reasonable day. That’s not a knock on the range, again it’s more about the sheer density of interesting ski terrain. For the latter, the mountains look pretty uniform and everything seems approachable - more playground vibes than adventuring. And because the range is small, and with the SLC valley being right down there all of the time, the views are pretty samey and get stale quick.
Oh one more thing about all of this is how much local knowledge and micro-terrain mattered with respect to avalanche conditions. There are definitely areas that are more historically prone to rip that locals are familiar with, that you couldn’t probably glean on your own. It would be extremely prudent to consult with some locals before pushing the terrain and conditions here I think.
Mountain Access, Salt Lake City, Culture
The excellent skiing terrain doesn’t hold up in isolation though; it’s because there are so many starting zones that feed into these north/south facing lines and everything in between that makes you appreciate the terrain even more. And that’s the other half that makes this area the GOAT for backcountry skiing I think - the accessibility. If you can avoid the traffic, Alta and Solitude (the terminal ends of LCC and BCC respectively) are both about 25 minutes from Cottonwood Heights. Weekday laps before or after work seem to be quite popular.
I also love that Salt Lake City is a proper city at that, instead of some small campy overpriced mountain town. I think the mountain town aesthetic is pretty tired for me, just give me a Costco, cheap groceries and housing instead. And having the airport twenty minutes away is super convenient.
And people love to complain about the crowds due to the increased access, but we personally did not run into that many people while we were out in the mountains. It’s possible we were lucky, but we’ve also been told the crowds thin out quickly as soon as you get a little off the beaten path. Therefore we were a little insulated from the “culture” of the Wasatch, but we did have one episode where we got flamed behind our backs by some boomer on Strava for half lapping Bonkers when there was clearly a ton of wind affect/windslab hazard that day. And someone did pop off a sizable windslab in the upper mountain, so we absolutely did make the right decision then - what a dickwad. Oh and I guess my friend got a talking to when we half lapped the upper part of Argenta instead of going to the bottom like a man. So maybe some curmudgeons in the Wasatch.
All this bad behavior is probably caused by the scarcity mindset with the small range being shared by a (perhaps unsustainably) growing population. Washington doesn’t have this problem because there is so much to do in the Cascades I think, and the range itself kind of weeds people out naturally. But I guess the other thing that surprised me was that, probably due to the scarcity mindset, people were much more willing to push the avalanche danger. I would have thought that the nature of the snowpack would spook people out, but it seems people get out here more versus say Colorado in similar conditions.
For the most part though, people seemed to be chill. People are clearly into the sport of backcountry skiing here and it shows. The avalanche forecast infrastructure is excellent (I’ve always enjoyed watching the utahavy YouTube vids for my personal edification), UDOT Cottonwood Canyons is pretty on top of their communication, and it’s also helpful that someone put this map of prominent ski lines together, which adds to the shared culture/knowledge within this place.
Future Trips and Considerations
I’m pretty happy with this trip overall - just feeling out the range, learning more about its snowpack, and it was great to revisit the city that I’m quite fond of. It was just fun getting out with some buddies who are just dipping their toes into ski touring, the thing I love so much.
The only things I’d do differently are related to my regrets, which is not coming here in 2023 when it snowed 900 inches, and not staying longer this year for the snowpack to settle to ski some of the more steeper classics. I would also love to explore a bit outside the Wasatch like Timpanogos, Provo, Nebo, etc, and maybe even all the way out to the Rubys and La Sals. And skiing in Cedar Breaks NM is a life goal of mine.
SLC has it good and I’m grateful that this place exists. The secret has been out (about how SLC is really what people conceive when they think of Denver as a mountain city) and it’s probably getting overloved now, and there are definitely some shenanigans I’d have to deal with (culture, gondola project, other wacky stuff), but this probably takes second place for where I’d be living in the Lower 48 if not for the Cascades. I’d be skiing a lot more powder that’s for sure :)