Xplore Utah

Sam uses the last bit of snow to do things the easy way

  

When the ski resorts close for the season most sensible people move on to other spring time activities like gardening or mountain biking and hang up their skis for the season.

I am not one of these people. I just want to be up in the mountains and the resorts closing just means I have to start hiking for my turns. Lots of wet heavy slush and corn snow up there plus I can bring my dog to the local resort. Having the entire place to myself is worth the effort to me.

 The days are much longer in the spring and I can usually go ski touring and on a bike ride in the same day without even waking up early.  Spring makes me feel the need to get it all in before the heat of summer melts away all the fun. 

With this in mind I recently attempted to ski up the road from Mantua to the northern cirque of Willard Peak. Problem is the road is closed by a gate and much of the low elevation snow has already melted to gravel. Late season skiing can be logistically difficult without a four-wheeler or snowmobile to tow you to the snow line. So we made friends with a local to hitch a wild ride. The driver told us he was testing out his new machine to see if he could haul an elk carcass out of the mountains. Mission accomplished. He got both of us up the road and our dead weight on front and back proved the power of his four wheeler.

From there we used our own power to proceed up the sloppy soggy road as the rain started to fall while the hot sun was shining. It was soggy in my boots and I still have a blister to prove it. 

We didn’t reach Willard peak but we had a fun adventure intentionally starting wet slab avalanches on the ridgeline. It was one of the those days where sliding down seemed as difficult as hiking up but there was still a feeling of success and fun just being in the mountains. 

After leaving the road the steep fun begins

  

Sam makes sticky telemark turns past Meg dog