After reading Kim Havell’s Tick List, I was inspired to make one of my own highlighting my list of ski descents from the winter of 2012-13. Even though our Wasatch winter snowpack was deficient in water weight, we were blessed with good avalanche stability. Ridgelines and chute entrances were rocky, but there were good windows to hit big lines.
For me, a lot of my motivation to ski a line comes from seeing it. What I love about living in the Wasatch is that there are so many skiable peaks that you can see from the city. You can scout your lines as you run errands. In the case of Cold Fusion, it was on a drive down the I-15 to a party at Sundance. The line looked perfect that day, and I couldn’t get it off my mind.
This spring, I made a goal to ski all the 3 stars lines in “The Chuting Gallery.” I’ve had a trusty copy of this book since I was 16 and ever since I can remember, I’ve always craned my neck out the window on the drive up Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons to gawk at all the big chutes and mountaintops around.
The big mama couloir of the Wasatch. It is such a beautiful line. Having skied Coalpit and Hypodermic Needle in the past month, I had spent quite a bit of time staring at it. (more…)
