The White Baldy Ramp

The hanging ramp on the north face of White Baldy has always interested me but I have always been en route to other objectives when in the area.  Last week, I had a short window before work and it seemed to fit the timeline.  Thankfully, Matt Galland was willing to wake up in the dark to also accommodate my schedule.  

Once above the ramp, I was actually excited as it's reminiscent of a mini Otterbody snow field minus the rappels, the degree of steepness, and the grand scale of the Grand.  Nevertheless, it still gives one the experience of skiing out into space.  

Looking down from the top

Big Provo Ramps

There's a gorgeous ramp down into Big Provo Cirque that we've been eyeing for years.  It's hard to get to and is really short so I guess we never really thought it was worth the effort.  Well, it's nice to be wrong.  

Jason and I were joined by Tom Goth and Matt Galland for what turned out to be one of the cooler, albeit short ski descents we've done in the Wasatch.  Actually, Matt missed out as he kindly stayed perched above some cliffs to shoot photos of us in the chute.  I'll add those soon...

JD looking for the mystery chute

Tom Goth taking the fun way to the chute in the background

The top was STEEP and measured at 58 degrees.  Here's Tom peering over the edge into nothing. 

Beta:  We started in Dry Canyon from Lindon.  We were on dirt for a couple miles before dropping into the gully to the climber's right of the trail.  That will ascend to the summit ridge but the chute is still 400 meters to the south.  Alternatively, one could ascend past Stewart Falls into Big Provo Cirque or climb any of the other chutes from the SW.  

Red Castle Peak - Uintas

Jason and I both had the week off but weather and plans never materialized.  We were itching for some adventure and at the last minute, I hatched the idea of obtaining a snow mobile to go check out some rugged terrain in the Uintas.  Jason was on board immediately and Lars, after some convincing, finally agreed.  What's with that guy?  

I picked up a rental sled from Trax Power Sports in Woods Cross on Friday evening in between making a million trips between our old house and new house to complete an annoying move.  At the shop, I watched (and sort of helped) two burly dudes muscle the sled into the back of Jason's little truck.  I wasn't sure how we'd manage out in the wild but I've been bailed out of sticky situations by burly men before and we figured we'd figure it out or ask for help. 

With a 4 AM wake up it was going to be a long day.  Little did we know, we had about 20 miles of flat skinning in store making for a much much longer day than planned.  

We decided on the fly while looking at Gaia Maps and Google images in the car to go check out Red Castle Peak.  At least on the map, there looked to be some promising couloirs that we made our goal for the day.  

The snow mobile fired right up and we were soon riding deep into the Uintas northern slope.  Jason was on the back and Lars was towing on skis.  He only asked me to slow down once on the 8 mile ride over frozen tracks.  

Arriving at China Meadows TH, we could see two sets of sled tracks ignoring the wilderness designation and the sign that plainly stated that snow mobiles were not allowed.  Lacking the same disregard, we parked the sled and started slogging.  

The map hinted at an eight mile approach but reality was more like eleven.  Somewhere along the way, I realized that if we were to return the sled on time and make it home for dinner as promised, we wouldn't be able to ski anything.  I made a decision for the group that we would pay late fees and piss off our wives in the name of adventure and steep skiing.  There wasn't really any discussion as Jason and Lars were thinking similar thoughts of mischief.  

Approaching the Castle after two hours of flat skinning. 

We were horrified to see that our first two choices of chutes were blown free of any substantial amount of snow.  All that remained was red talus.  Quite disheartened, we chalked up the day as good recon and started walking up the talus to at least gain some vert and perspective on the place.  Topping out the dry chute, the mood changed in an instant as we discovered a cirque with a half dozen amazing chutes.  With any sense and planning, we would have been able to discern that recent 100 + mph winds from the west would result in exactly what we accidentally discovered.  Sometimes it's more fun to go in blind.

Option B didn't look any better 

Jason really wanted to go skiing.

Topping out the dry NW facing chute, we finally found snow.

Jason looking down our first chute of the day. 

I convinced the guys that anything would be better than the chute we just climbed and scrambled over to get a better look at a promising weakness in the cliff below us.  Finally, our luck changed and I got a clean glimpse of a nice sustained chute through the red rock.  I was also realizing that this was just one of many other worthy chutes in the cirque.

Lars, happy to be on snow instead of rock. 

JD working to the entrance of the chute. 

JD 

At the bottom of the first chute, I think we had all planned on skiing straight back to the car but one quick look around convinced us all to revise our timeline.  We gave ourselves thirty more minutes to climb one of the many tempting chutes in the cirque.  

Amazingly, the out was just barely downhill enough that with a lot of double poling, we were able to ski seven of the ten miles and made it back to the sled in half the time it took on the approach.

Also amazingly, we managed to rig up our skis and ride with all three of us on the snow mobile back to the truck, where a snow bank made for the perfect ramp to drive it right into the bed.  We aren't very good at power assisted adventures, but I'm intrigued by the possibilities.  

We made it home only four hours late.  

Some Grunge Parties

We spent a few days last week on the north end of Timp, playing around in some no name couloirs and tagging the Grunge a couple times.  The first outing was in our typical weekend style - early, efficient, and ultimately always short on time.  The guys rallied though and were understanding of my need to get home for family duties.

Tom at the top of the unnamed couloir on the north end of Timp

Big Lars

 

Tom taking the fall line into the darkness

Lars

Bart has the best bike handling skills of anyone I know.  He's not bad on skis either!

Grunge Party!

We went back for round two with speedy photographer, Louis Arevalo for a photo shoot of the SCARPA F1, which will be released again in North America next season.  Also working as foot models were my brother, Andrew McLean and Noah Howell.  My feet didn't feel worthy!  It was a fun day with all of us taking pictures of the guy taking pictures of the next guy.  

We bumped into Billy Haas and Colby while heading up.  It's fun to watch those guys ski.

Noah taking a photo of Andrew's turn

Noah's turn

Jason's turn 

Noah, working hard to get the shot.