Thursday, January 16, 2014

Santaquin Peak

This Southern Wasatch peak sits just to the north of Mount Nebo and is around a thousand feet lower.  Friends have been talking about it as a great skiing mountain for a few years so in spite of Utah County coming up short during this last storm, we decided to check it out anyway.

I love going to new peaks, trying to access them without pissing people off by parking in their neighborhood, looking up and deciding how to most safely climb and then get down, and generally just getting out of the Cottonwoods for a change.  Jason figured out how to get through Spanish Fork on his Iphone and then we found a quite suburban street to park on before walking maybe 100 yards to where we put skis on and then skinned nearly 5000 feet to the summit.

En route there was much fighting with scrub oak and facets but eventually we got there, took in the view, and had perhaps one of the best descents of the year (not the way we went up), skiing all the way back to the car.

We tried shooting some ghetto footage for a video to hype up Outdoor Research and the upcoming GoreTex Grand Traverse so maybe Jason will quit being lazy and produce something pretty.  In the meanwhile, here are some photos from my phone.

Finally through the hateful scrub oak and onto a pleasant ridge.  Timp and Utah Lake in the background. 

Nearly 5000 feet of breaking trail made it a slow outing
We ski a lot but Fabby skis more.  He's like a long haul diesel truck...goes all day and carries a lot of stuff. 

Windy Santaquin Summit

We thought the snow would be wind and sun affected but it was just right.  

Noodling 



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