Trip Report: Skyline Traverse

[matt dadam]

Finally got the chance to go for a trip I've been thinking about for a long time. It turns out Eric Gustafson had been thinking about it even longer, so we made a plan and set out for an adventure. We started with a simple plan, snowkite, ski, and hike as far along the Wasatch Plateau as possible. When we got tired or ran out of food we could simply exit out of one of several canyons that run to the towns below in the San Pete Valley.

After snowing hard for 3 days straight the sun came out on Tuesday March 20th. The wind forecast wasn't very promising, but it's always windy in the mountains, right? Heather Schenck kindly drove us to the summit; it was an exceptionally beautiful morning up there. Lots of fresh snow... and not a breath of wind. We skinned up the ridge for 5 minutes and the wind came on. Love Skyline! Our kites carried us, tent, bags, clothes, stoves, fuel, and couple days worth of food easily through the cold powder for the first 2.2 miles. At the first group of trees, dubbed the "French Connection" we packed the kites and skinned up and through.

The wind had now backed off considerably, so we opted to just ski the terrain as it fell to the south in our direction of travel. It felt good to make some carving turns and we were all smiles. We saw a very large doggy (Wolf!?) charging full speed down the mountain in deep powder. Very cool. Another hike, rip skins, ski, hike, and repeat. All headed south. At some point we began to realize the burden of our heavy packs. The walking was grinding and the sun intense. We were relieved and excited when the wind came back up in the afternoon. The terrain looked kiteable as far as we could see and we rigged kites quickly. But this time was different. We made it only a few hundred hards before the wind let us down, our backpacked bodies hit the deck first, then came our kites. Sucker wind. Lots of work for no gain, and our energy and sprits were momentarily zapped.

Skinning along again we fell into a rhythm and covered some ground. We picked a spot high on the ridge, a NW aspect in the protection of the pines, to set up camp. This camp spot was particularly appealing because it sat atop a thousand foot gladed run perfect for skiing laps out the back door. Not bad at all.

Ironically, the wind blew 15-20 mph all night long and quit for good at dawn. No worries, fantastic skiing was to be had everywhere we looked, and the scenery was great. The second day was spent hiking and some excellent skiing was had on northerly aspects. We rode lines falling off both the west and east sides of the summit ridge, which was pretty awesome. After some head scratching and lots of squinting at a really shitty map, we decided that it would be too committing to push past Mt Pleasant Canyon considering the amount of food and energy we had left. A good ski run down into the canyon and a somewhat arduous pole and push out the sticky snowy road brought us to the pavement some 3,500 hundred vertical feet later. Brian Schenck pulled up in my truck a half hour later, grinning and with PBR's on ice. Yes!

This was a great adventure. Despite the lack of wind and some difficult decision making at times the dynamic and moral was positive and we made good progress. There's lots of little decisions to make when you add kites to a ski tour. Rig or not? Hike or ski? Push for distance or carve turns and have fun? The weight of the kite on our backs along with other gear was a huge factor and definitely burdensome. We left a good chunk of the route on the table, but that just provides the stoke to go back for more.

Eric's experience in the mountains as a professional guide was huge, and the help that the Schenck's provided was beyond generous. I'm still recovering physically and mentally but somehow I'm already scheming the next adventure into the Wasatch Plateau.

Photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/61699331@N ... 287819902/

[Jon Manwaring]

Matt & Eric.
Thanks for sharing. You are Da Mans. Looks like a Great adventure. Any worries about Avalanches? How did the split board preform?, mainly the skinning part.
JonMzee

[Mark Johnson]

I was wondering who that was kiting on the west ridge, with no car parked anywhere in site. Thanks for posting, Sounds like quite the adventure.

[Eric Gustafson]

Matt, Great job writing the trip up and letting me relive it . Enjoyed your company, hard work, and preparation! Much respect.

Jon, Splits work great skinning . I have been guiding on them for 15 years. Just avoid some of the recent boards that are full rocker. Great on the downhill, will punish you on the uphill. I was prototyping the new designs from Voile which is their first venture in to twin tips. i have been very impressed with its touring ability in most conditions, powder, crud , firm. Did not get a chance to put it thru the kiting test but the short amount of time i did kite was great. Definite avalanche concerns. Mostly rapid warming on southerly aspects. Still a persistent weak layer deep on the north aspects. We kept our slope angles down and moved to the correct aspects as the day warmed up.

[DimitriMilovich]

Great adventure you guys! So cool you had the multifunctional way of traveling. And I appreciate the writeup with details of what worked and what didn't. Killer photos, too! Thanks for posting all of it.