Timp North Summit: The Front Porch Couloir

Aerial Photo from Summitpost.org

Little brother Sam had a rare day off work so we were delighted to get to ski a special line with him today. Back in 1999, while I was living out of the country, my family moved to a house on the hill in Pleasant Grove, UT.  They sent me a photo of the view from the front porch which was of a snow capped peak (North Summit of Timp).  I've been captivated by that picture since.  So today, we started from our doorstep around 6:30 to ski a subtle couloir that drops west from the saddle between the true and false North Summits on Timp.  Not knowing the name, I'm gonna call it the Front Porch Couloir since it's highly visible from our front yard.  If someone knows the real name, I'd love to hear it.

JD and Sam from 635 Dalton Ave

We were on dirt in our running shoes until crossing the bridge at the head of Grove Creek Canyon.  From there, we were able to skin to the summit ridge.

Heading up through the cliff bands to the N. Summit

Rather firm conditions made for fast travel and in just a couple hours we found ourselves through the couloir and working our way up the massive upper snowfields.  We felt that with the new snow (even with a hard crust) and the predicted 70 degree temps, the West Face would turn into a war zone later in the day.  Even so, while Utah Co ate breakfast, we were putting on beanies and drawing our hoods tight as it was still nice and chilly.

Ascending the upper snow fields with a look back at Utah County

The pitiful little storm that skirted around us yesterday did do us the favor of enhancing all the cliff bands with a gorgeous coating of rime ice that became the subject of many pictures throughout the morning.

There was a nice coating of rime ice from yesterday's "storm"

On the summit ridge, we took a peak down into the Grunge Couloir which we skied from just below the top earlier in the year.  At that time, the entrance seemed to be loaded up and guarded by a nasty cornice.  Today, it looked worse.  Right at the fixed pins/rap station, we were able to peer over the edge and it looked loaded to the brim.  HUGE cornices overhung the entrance elsewhere, threatening utter destruction.  We passed.

The Grunge filled to the brim...loaded and ready to kill

Numerous rime enhanced pics telling the rest of the story:

Traversing over to the N. Summit (photo by JD)

More rime ice en route to the summit

Sam making his first turn off the N. Summit...6,200 feet to go

This pic is cropped and it still makes the skier look small (photo by JD)

Sam on his new TLT Mountains laying waste to the ice crust (photo by JD)

Rime and JD

More Rime, More JD

Sam with no concern to maintain our skin track (photo by JD)

The view from the front yard.  Front Porch Couloir and N. Summit in background.

That was so fun that I think Timp will be on the agenda again for tomorrow...