nebo- garden of skiden and genesis

Andy Dorais and I headed down to Mount Nebo yesterday to check out this area that I spotted with the aid of Google Earth. It looked like a fun little cluster of chutes off the summit shoulder to the west.

Google Earth image.

I’ve been up on Nebo a bunch and it’s one of my favorite peaks in the Wasatch. The access is pretty straightforward, but I’ve never done it in mid-winter. I usually wait till spring where I’ve driven my truck and or motorcycle up the Mona-Pole road much further than we were able to access yesterday.

Some snow machines had blazed a trail half-way up the road and then it was tail-breaking time. we veered to the south of where I normally ascend in the woods. Andy is really good at trail-breaking.

We popped out and got our first live view of the Garden of Skiden. The bad news was that they weren’t all filled in and they were much shorter than we’d hoped. We decided to have a go at a few of them anyway since we were in the neighborhood. We skinned over to and the booted up the chute that went up cleanly from lookers left of the biggest clump of pines.

The chute was around 500-700 feet, but the climbing was rough. The snow was nothing but facets on rock. Andy punched it hard almost to top then things got bad.

Real bad.

Andy said it’s the hardest amount of work he’s ever put in for the smallest reward. It was fun to actually see him suffer for once.

We topped out and then decided against skiing back down it. We moved higher along the ridge looking for bigger and better. We found a keeper in the Garden of Eden, named it “EVE”. I won rock, paper, scissors with paper over rock and got to drop first. (photo: Andy Dorais)

The snow was wind effected and fluctuated from soft, to breakable, to firm.

Andy searching for the soft spots.

There were plenty more mini shots in the garden, but we looked up towards the peak and spied a substantial looking line and headed up. Andy breaking trail of course.

Skinning turned to booting.

We topped out on the ridge about 500 feet shy of the summit. Those desert valley views though!

Andy poking around with the huge NW couloir in the background.

We considered the summit, but the snow ended and it would have just been a loose nasty scramble. We decided to transition and drop in. (photo: Andy Dorais)

We didn’t rochambeau on this one, Andy just let me have it. (photo: Andy Dorais)

We cut all around back and forth looking for good snow.

At just under 12,000 ft. Mount Nebo is the tallest Wasatch peak. Being further south it doesn’t get as much snow as the central range and even when it does it gets hit really hard by the wind.

Andy working the skyline.

At 2,500 feet long this run would be a classic if it were closer to the heart of Wasangeles. But, here on Nebo it’s just another good run off one of the many aspects of the mountain.

(photo: Andy Dorais)

Even a fun little hidden gully to finish on.

Looking back up at “Genesis”.

The ski out was better than I’ve ever seen it. Soft powder all the way to the car on one of the longer possible runs in this lovely little range.

(photo: Andy Dorais)

The whole upper Nebo basin from our friends in space at Google.