Coalpit #4

In between road-trips, competitions and luxurious days of pottering I managed to squeeze in a 5am ski tour.

Last week Bova, Josh, Stefan and I waddled up the Coalpit 4 couloir, one of the first chutes as you ride up Little Cottonwood Canyon.

some fun river-bed skinning

It started off with some open touring up the bottom of the couloir, but as it got a little steeper and thinner, the skis were off and on our packs......then we ran into this little bugger of a choke. Sheet ice with a smattering of rocks to one side and a dusting of Utah's favourite light powder--- that definitely doesn't stick to ice.

The eternal struggle

Finally a solution was found........................................

zen master

pretty stoked at this moment....I vanquished the choke.

The 5hr hike was worth it for the view to look up Little Cottonwood Canyon

LEG BURN!

....the snow was variable, a little bit of pow, a lot of wind crust but it was pretty amazing descending from that high down into the valley! Yeah Utah.......hopefully spring will bring a lot more of these adventures.

Photos by Josh Daum