Timpanogos

Christmas Eve was a great tour of some Wasatch Classics including Silver Fork, Days Fork, Holy Toledo, High Ivory, and South Black Nob exit. Christmas weekend was enjoyed with family including a MTB ride in Provo and Hike up Rock Canyon.

By Monday I was ready for some more skiing. While in Provo, I figured it was a good opportunity to take advantage of the huge snow and stable conditions. Timp was looking good!

Picture taken on Christmas from the Farm. South Summit is the 2nd high point from the far lookers Left. Wish we had that blue sky!


Set a track up Primrose Cirque and got to inspect the mighty power of the Avalanche. 3-6" of new snow had fallen over the piles and bed surfaces to soften things up. Multiple large slides were inspected from nearly all aspects. This debris pile was huge and looked to have initiated up in the "Hilary Step" area of the Cirque which in this picture is at the top of the Saddle. This is surely a place you don't want to be picnicking during a natural cycle.



Up at the lake looking for the sun up through the Summer snow field. Unfortunately the sun was never really found and we had to make do with clouds and limited visibility.


Looking from the South Summit down the South ridge. We did not partake in the incredibly fun sport of cornice cutting but there was a few bus size prizes to be had for the adventurous cutter.

Tom and Jason both laid some nice tracks that I was hoping to catch with my new camera but the visibility did not cooperate very well. We did get a little practice vertigo skiing which is always kind of fun. Here's Tom enjoying the new wind blown Snow on the SW face of Timp.

After skiing the West face from the South Summit we flipped a U and went back to the top rather than exit out the dirt into Pleasant Grove. Climbing up the West Face and Ridge is nearly as cool as skiing it. This allowed us to get back to our car at Aspen Grove and enjoy another nearly 5k descent.

We did run into a couple rouge wind pockets in Primrose Cirque that could give you a scare. Although they were small and not burial material, in the complicated cliff strewn terrain they could easily get you off your feet and heading in a wrong direction. As expected they were stubborn wind slabs about 8-10" deep that would run maybe 50-100'. Although the danger rating is low, these unpredictable slabs need to be watched for.