The Pinecreast to Avenues tour ....via Black Mountain.
This is a 10 miler treck. Behind Christy on the right, is the pass we came thru about 2hrs before this pic was taken. Getting to that pass was a bit of a slog. And at the time this photo was taken, our noon "finishing" time was now a few hours ago. We estimated we were a little more than half way through the trek and would be making the car late in the afternoon.
One of the objectives of this trip was to get beta sightings of the Google Earth Drool Line. This was a line sussed out by my buddy J. It is a 2000 ft shot that looks like a beauty on the computer screen. Glimpses of it through the trees did not seem to lie.Finally the Drool revealed herself in full glory. Quite a southern corn beauty.
Many other beauties surrounded us.
..Here the beloved Main Wasatch, her numerous tasty lines hiding in a skirt of clouds.And below....
....we have two beauties here. My wife! And the western bowl off of Grandview peak.
But it was getting long in the day. And it was time to head home.
Then the crux move hit us. A ridge of spiny rock. Impassible over the top, I started to switch the route to go right, but then set off a massive 3+ slide.It started off as small rolllerballs. These are clumps of snow that role like a snowman snowball. Remember as kids we would roll a snow ball around the yard and it would get bigger and bigger as the snow compressed into in as layer upon layer. the same thing happens here when the snow surface goes just above freezing. Gravity provides the "push" to get the layers building. Then momentum splinters the role into many more starter roles and they spinter and start more, etc.
From the small stuff at the point of release at my skis, then 100 ft down slope, the whole face started to mobilize. This then grew wider and wider further below. Then got mean and nasty. Big branches cracklinging, rock-rolling thunder. Big pines were shaking in terror as the malevolence shook their foundation.
Well I try to be a wise man, I want to keep myself alive. So, I abandoned trying to find a passage around the rocks on that dangerous north side. South side was then our only option. Strapping ski to the backpack, we down climb the south face. The coverage was so thin that sliding it on skis was asking for trouble both to equipment and personage. Down 300 yards the rockiness smoothed and we were able find a thin slimy ribbon of snow to slide a half-mile traverse. Then it was more backpacking the skis up through the remainder of the rockband. Finally reaching a smooth slope with sufficient snow for sliding a traverse back to the top of the ridge.
Adventurous it was, but boy did this ever eat up precious time. Time was a worry, not only for our sake, as it would be easier to get off the forbidding mountain in the light, but we also had Alexi to worry about. He was in daycare and the place closed at 6 PM. A look at the clock on the cell showed it a half our to sunset at 5:30. Assuming no more adventure detours we still were at least an hour away from the car (~2000 feet down over 3-4 miles on wet, sticky snow). A phone call was place to some sympathetic friends who we were very grateful to to mobilize a rescue pick-up of Alexi (thanks Chris and Em!).
As dusk started to set in we were given an errie view of City on Fire.
This is one of the least pleasurable things about winter in SLC. The muck. The gunk. ....A thick, acrid smog fog.The Brown above the city is primarily the fault of all us valley denizens. Its mostly due to the exhaust from our automobiles. The pollution gets trapped in the inversion of cold air pooling down from the mountains into the valley bottoms.
Now we cuddle our Alexi and wait for a storm to come blow the toxic muck away.
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