Lake Blanche

With avalanche danger pushing into the extreme realm following a deluxe delivery of some sorely needed pow pow, Travis was open to my suggestion of relatively safe, low angle powder turns on Sunday. But where to find ‘em? If you’ve been paying attention, you know that conditions are about as dangerous as it gets out there right now.

We headed up Mill B to Lake Blanche, encountering a few snowshoers along the way. We quickly caught and passed each party, simply because snowshoes aren’t nearly as effective for crossing snow covered ground as skis are. That left us breaking trail the rest of the way to the lake.

Ah, the old 'skinning by a stream' photo. They have no streams at Brighton. A fine change of scenery..

All I can say about that is that it’s most excellent to be able to break trail again. It’s been a long time, Obi Wan Kenobi… Aside from these newly delivered pleasures, the agenda was to have a look at some natural slides. Oddly enough, we didn’t see any large ones as I’d hoped. A very few small crown lines here and there, but not the mass carnage I’d anticipated seeing. Still, that didn’t tempt us to start heading towards steeper lines..

A bit of shrubbery beneath blue skies.

And as you’d expect if you’ve been following the happy snow arrival story, we heard an impressive number of whumpfs as snow collapsed beneath our ski boots. Since we were on incredibly low angle terrain, no snow moved in any direction but downwards. However, each collapse shook the trees and shrubbery around us in every direction. Being on low angle terrain kept our nerves in check; but it’s still an interesting game for the mind to witness the far-reaching effects of settling snow upon surrounding trees. It was a great way to remind oneself that on any sort of angled surface, this stuff would be tearing free, likely causing a slide and burial.

Just a safe, very chill backcountry outing. Given current, extremely dangerous conditions, that was as perfect as the untouched powder felt. And having thousands of acres to ourselves was a good reminder of how delicious it is to get off this year’s well-worn path(s).

The Wasatch finally gets some winter.

Travis in the mountains.

The Sundial.

A OK getting some sunlight above Lake Blanche.

Travis getting some low angle goods.

Turns above Lake Blanche.

It's HOW deep out there?