Powering up Powerhouse
It was thursday night after a long week of school, and I couldn't take it any more. As I walked out of class at 8 o'clock I decided I just had to get some skiing in. I had been looking at a line near the mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon. It was a 2,200 vertical foot tall, 40 degree couloir that ascended the south side of the canyon. I figured that this would be a good option for a quick night mission. I called my buddy Andrew to see if he was down and told him that I figured we would be back home and in bed by one o'clock. He was psyched to ski, so we headed off on another night mission.
We parked on the side of the road and were on our way by 9 o'clock.
The hike started with an exciting river crossing that thankfully didn't end up in any wet feet.
We took our skis off and started to boot pack. The farther we went the more gorgeous the night became. It had just snowed recently and the clouds were wispy as they started to lift. It was a bright night and there was a warm glow from the city of Salt Lake.
As we got into the chute we had to make a decision on which fork in the road. We decided to continue straight up instead of veering to the left. Well unfortunately this was the wrong choice... right away we were closed out and couldn't continue. At this point we decided to cruise back down and head off to the left. The snow was really good and I was able to snag this sick picture of Andrew.
At the junction we headed left up a very sketchy slope. The slope sat precariously above a small cliff. It was essentially a slab of rock that was barely covered with snow. The small amount of snow allowed us to climb up and get back to a wide couloir. (photo inserted later)
As we continued to hike and the minutes turned into hours... and our pace gradually slowed...
We were getting towards the top of the couloir and it began to open up.
Finally at 4 o'clock we were to hungry and tired to continue. Our beds calling us was just to much to take.
At this point it was time to take a short breather and get all geared up to ski back down.
The view was amazing. You could see the city lights in the background and the snow was sparkling all around.
We enjoyed a snack and got all set to ski down. The snow was fantastic as we started out decent back down to the valley floor. The couloir just seemed to go on for ever and we kept having to take rest breaks. Finally we reached the sketchy slope that we had to scramble up. Unfortunately from the top it looked even scarier, even with our skis on. We started sliding down slowly over the rocks and little bit of snow covering them. As we got fully into the slop it got even scarier and then all of a sudden there was a spot where our skis just started to slip and we were forced to leap to a small ledge. Thankfully it worked out well.
We continued down our decent and soon found ourselves at the base of the couloir. All we had left was to bushwhack our way through the trees back to the river and across to the road and my truck. This couloir ended up being one of the best lines I have skied, and one of the longest. We skied for almost two hours and the snow was really good.
We Finally reached my truck at 6 o'clock and started the drive home. It felt really weird to be headed back from skiing as many people were headed to work. We got home just as the sun was starting to show its face, and got to bed at 7am. . . ZZZZZzzzzzz
