Decided to drag out and finish up this post from the unpublished blog files of winter 2014.
For years I’ve been wanting to do a Parley’s Canyon to Provo Canyon tour because these canyons bookend the meat of the Central Wasatch. I couldn’t really find a way to cleanly connect to Provo Canyon, but this was pretty close. This hasn’t been high on my hit list, but with a thin and sketchy snowpack there wasn’t much other skiing available. It seemed like we could avoid avalanche terrain once we safely got up onto the ridge.
The red line show the approximate route from Toll Canyon (originally planned on going up Lambs, but it’s private property) in Summit Park to the Aspen Grove parking lot near Sundance.
Tom Goth’s definition of what it means to go skiing “with” someone looks a lot like this photo below most of the day, with him well out in front. I could use the excuse that he was on race gear and I wasn’t, but that wouldn’t have changed much since he was breaking trail.
We were pretty quick in topping out onto Murdock Peak and then lots of ups and downs along the Great Western Trail.
It was much more trailbreaking than we’d imagined. Tom didn’t seem to mind and I didn’t mind since Tom didn’t mind.
We’d stayed on the ridge until we hit Hidden Canyon where we decided to cut through Brighton resort and up to Alta through Catherine’s Pass. Tom tried to wait patiently while I melted some snow for re-hydration. Those 10 minutes may be the longest he’s ever stood still in the mountains?
Daylight was running out, but we were right on pace. The ski down Dry Fork was great and the skate/push/pole out American Fork was long. We started clacking along the pavement from Tibble Fork Reservoir, but opted to hitch a ride up to the Alpine Loop road. The little bump saved some valuable time. All smiles after many miles!
The Alpine Loop was rather uneventful and maybe it’s an unnecessary edition to the traverse, but Tom’s car was at the other end so off we went.
Ok, so it was worth the scenery. Sorry for the shitty I-phone pics. We skied down the winding road to Aspen Grove and after 9 hours of moving (minus the 10 minutes Tom let me rest) we ripped off our boots with the last of the light.
Great day of travel up high on the backbone of the Wasatch. Maybe not a “classic” traverse, but always fun to move light and fast while covering a lot of ground.
noah, thanks for the recap of a fun day!
your writing is more entertaining than pretty much anyone’s, and i love that.
Thanks Brody! That means a lot. I really enjoy the adventures and the telling of the tales. We’re lucky there’s folks who want to listen!
Keep crushing!