It's been a record snow year in the Wasatch, and the cool trend has continued through June. With the mild weather many local peaks have been stubborn yieding their snowpack, and skiing potential persists.
A few weeks ago, my friend Mike ran a race called the Squaw Peak 50. I tagged along for the last stretch and as we passed by the base of Cascade Mountain just to the East of Utah Valley, I coudn't help but notice a great-looking couloir off the SW face was still filled in. I'd seen the line before and it looked pretty awesome, so I set aside a Saturday morning and asked Dave Jenkins if he wanted to go check it out.
Being June, the snow on the approach had long since melted, so we packed our skis in and eventually made our way to the base of the chute (after ascending an adjacent slide and a heathy-dose of bush whacking).
It was clear right out of the gate that the snow was in pretty rough shape. Due to repeated slides, the couloir had become riddled with rockfall and debris was everywhere.
Given the steepness of the slope and the time of year however, this was somewhat expected and we began booting upward. It was an enjoyabe hike.
As we ascended and surveyed the conditions, we joked about the minefield and hoped things would improve somewhat with some altitude. It did a little, and there was a decent, soft corn layer on the way down that was nice in short glimpses (when your full attention wasn't on avoiding the rocks). Out of pure sympathy for our skis, however, we ended up carrying them through the final stretch.
We followed a different drainage out to avoid a repeat of the jungle traverse, and were on our way. Granted the snow could have been
On that note, I was driving up Provo Canyon afterward and came across the following scene at the South Fork turnoff. I've been told the driver made it out okay.
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