Skiing in the Wasatch hasn’t been off to the best start, so we headed South to explore Bryce Canyon and Cedar Breaks. We have been talking with Jay Beyer about doing some reconnaissance for years and now seemed like the perfect time. The southern part of the state had just been hit pretty hard by 1-2′ of snow and Brianhead area was reporting a deeper base than Alta.
We weren’t able to recruit anybody besides myself, Jonah and Jay for this last minute excursion.
When entering a new area it’s always important to test the snowpacks stability. Jonah has developed a new and very unique method, he said it was ‘good’, so we skied it.
We arrived mid afternoon and Bryce was looking Nice!
Conditions were much better than expected, almost skiable even. The plan was for Jonah to capture video, Jay on the still camera and I would destroy my skis attempting to make it look deep.
It was mostly one turns for the camera, or ‘wearing high heels’ (modeling) as a good friend disparagingly puts it. Simply amazing place to be no matter what you’re doing here!
The snow settled QUICKLY as the day was warm at this latitude and low elevation. We made the Navajo Loop trail with only seeing two other folks, I doubt that’s possible in the summer season.
Cedar Breaks is only an hour away and faces west. Sounded like a good place to play around and catch the sunset. The road along the rim of Cedar Breaks is closed and unplowed, but a quick skin gets you right to it.
We toured around the rim in awe at the colorful contrasts.
Even found some patches of snow deep enough to turn in.
And some patches not quite deep enough. The thrill of the early season is you never really know until you commit.
I really like this fish eye shot. So did Jay, until I pointed out his jacket in the lower left corner.
We don’t often have a moral to the story besides ‘ski as much powder as you can before you die’. But you do learn bits and pieces along the way sometimes. Never pass up a chance to watch the sunset. Never pass up a road trip to new locations. Never forget your helmet and knee pads.
And never pass up a hot spring on the way home!
As always, many thanks to Jay Beyer for the still images. He captured some amazing stuff and shared the B-roll with us.
Posted by NH
Nice trip. I had the same idea to go south over the weekend for deeper snow. Went to the Skyline Drive thinking all those southerly storms would have pounded it but unfortunately they went even further south than that. Only a 2 foot base near Huntington Lake. Still found some nice terrain and good snow on the wind sheltered east aspects. Just have to dodge the legions of slednecks.