The winter of 2022/2023 was the best backcountry season of my life. The record snowfall combined with the personal challenges I was going through made a good excuse to get into the mountains. This year, I haven't been out nearly as much, but we worked in a spring tour yesterday.
Greg picked me up at 6, and we were geared up at the Rock Canyon parking lot by 6:30. We decided to climb Provo Peak. It is just of 11,000', and it felt like a good choice since I had broken my ribs on that mountain in June of 2023 on my last ski tour of the year.
Rock Canyon never disappoints. There were a couple of avalanche tongues across the trail about a mile up.
Above the Rock Canyon Campground, there was just enough snow on the road to put on our skis.
We didn't plan our matching creamsicle outfits, but we were pretty pleased.
We took a hard left a couple miles up the snowy road and followed this ravine almost all the way to the top of the mountain.
The sun came out, and the lake was beautiful.
We had to boot up about 50 feet at the top of the ravine (can you find me looking like a tree?).
There was about an inch of fresh snow, but it had been blown around. It accumulated on my skins, which added weight, but let me climb straight up (no switchbacks needed).
The final approach from the north was glorious, and not too windy.
You can see Cascade and Timpanogos in the background.
Greg is a much better skier than me, so he dropped off first into the main cirque.
Skiing is always fun, but especially with views like this.
We were expecting icy crust or corn snow at best, but instead the cirque was filled with
graupel. It was super surfy and stupid fun.
We leapfrogged down the mountain. It turns out going downhill is almost as fun as climbing uphill.
The snow was good all the way down. Not bad for the end of April.
The pitch is super regular, and the snow was consistent enough to make endless turns.
Maple Mountain and Utah Lake in the background.
We traversed to find a fun and fresh line down the bottom third of the mountain.
The snow got slushy and grabby on the wide apron slope that leads back to the valley.
Still darn fun, IMO. I like the lower angle stuff better anyway.
Our snow line home had melted appreciably during the tour, so we put our skis back on our backs early.
It felt like summer at the mouth of the canyon. This view kills me every time. It's like a reminder not to lose yourself in the minutiae.
