Lone Peak: Round 1

Had two shots at the South face of Lone Peak this winter- both were following big storms; both were excellent.

The Round 1 crew consisted of Mark Hammond, Zach Grant, Cindi Roller, John Jamison, and myself.  It was an interesting day as far as as the weather goes.  When I left home, it was drizzling rain in the valley and was pretty socked-in with clouds.  I had my doubts, but the forecast called for gradual clearing so we decided to go for it.  As things turned out, the valley stayed socked-in with a low-lying cloud layer for days while the surrounding peaks poked through into beautiful conditions.

As I reached Alpine, things began to clear up a bit; however there was still a distinct thick layer a few thousand feet above us. The city lights reflecting off the low clouds resulted in a strangely comforting glow in the early morning darkness.

We fired up the headlamps and started up.   The snow was deep and a little on the heavy side at low-mid elevations for Round 1. It kept globbing up on our skins and my hip-flexors were punished.

It was manageable however, and before too long we had broken through the cloud layer to cooler temperatures, clearer skies and faster trail-breaking conditions.  The light revealed the recently plastered landscape resulting from 2+ feet of snow the days before.

 The climb from the second hamongog to the upper saddle was amazing.

 As we neared the upper saddle, the wind picked up and we were a little concerned about wind-loading of the new snow on the summit ridge, and debated whether or not to shoot for the top. We opted for what we felt would be safer conditions, and skied down from the Lone Peak/Bells Canyon saddle.

The conditions for the descent were a little unexpected, but super fun.  While there was tons of new snow, the warming temperatures had created a supportive top-layer across the whole South face so we didn't sink through as deep as we'd anticipated. Instead, it was almost as if the whole face had been meticulously groomed with a 5" top-layer of fluff.  As a result, conditions on the upper face were fast and soft. Kind of apples and oranges when compared to deep, dry powder, but combined with the rolling terrain, still among the funner descents I've had.

By the time we'd reached lower elevations on our way out, the sun had been shining through the cloud inversion for awhile and we marched out in a greenhouse-like atmosphere.