Dromedary and White Pine Couloir

This morning Jared, Louie (a writer and photographer) and I had an excellent steep tour along a couple sections of the Cottonwood Ridge.

We aimed for an ascent of Dromedary via Tanners, then to ski from the summit down the east face and over to Little Pine Couloir. Everything went as planned, semi early start, firm conditions along the south face of Dromedary and a really nice ski off the top of Dromedary. In working our way from upper Blanche area to Little Pine, we found things warming quickly. We reached the ridge and ended up skiing down the White Pine Couloir instead of Little. It was packed with avy debris, but luckily we could hang on the east headwall most the way down. It was good to get off the mountains early as conditions were obviously quickly deteriorating.

A side note- I had previously lost my pair of ski crampons. Jason, who recently started Skimo Co had just the crampons I needed. It is exciting to see a local business like this starting out strong and supplying exactly what we need. Keep at it Jason!

Approaching summit via exposed ridgeline

Jared, top of Dromedary, beautiful morning

Jared coming off of the East Face of Dromedary Summit

Jared ripping the East Face

Jared working towards White Pine Couloir

Winter's Reign- Y Couloir

As Spring works to take over the Salt Lake Valley, Winter is still the king in the mountains. Yesterday, Scott and I got in an early morning tour up and down the Y Couloir.  He had never been up this great line and yesterday seemed like a good time to do it. While conditions varied, the upper couloir yielded soft snow.  However, crossing over a day or two old avalanche debris, the lower sections skied marginally at best. Regardless, the time in the steep Little Cottonwood Canyon environment was wonderful. It was a great way to kick off General Conference weekend.

Scott, topping out the Y amidst falling snow