Since leaving Salt Lake on the 21st December, 12' of snow had fallen. My attempts to go on Jan 5th were thwarted by the flu so even though I wasn't completely recovered I was raring to go when I arrived on the 12th. Despite the enormous amount of water-weight that had been added to the snowpack stability was generally moderate on the proviso that if anything did go, it would go big. Given that and our desire for an 8,000' day, there was only one option: Kessler.
Kessler is probably my favourite place to go in the Wasatch. There are a number of reasons for this:
To see the Lawnmower in all of its majesty really is something: the straight sides, the absence of 20 year trees, the obvious starting zone. This is just above the mid roll-over, looking down at the runout with the BCC road in the background.
Starting early from Spruces we took the direct route up the front side. The skin track was generally visible but had been filled in by some reasonably heavy snow. Up to around 9,200' things were going fine. As the track became covered up things became a little tricky. Go too right and you would hit the exposured Lawnmower: go too left and the windloading was deep and a little sketchy.
The last few hundred feet became a heinous slog though heavy snow with one switchback after another.
Finally we were there and the Lawnmower beckoned! We had some intelligence from the previous days and with the absence of cracking in any of the new snow we felt it would be good to go.
The snow was good if a little strange. There was rather a lot of graupel on top of what seemed was a rime crust (check out all the trees!). NA coming through the tea-strainer.
Up we went again for a second lap. We were making good time though I was not exactly feeling great or moving particularly fast. At the top we met another group who gamely volunteered to be the avalanche poodles for the Hanging Meadow. This time we took a more central line down the Lawnmower which was somewhat better.
Up again, and this time the Hanging Meadow. The previous group had set a conservative line on lookers right and we followed it. As usual it did not disappoint with some deep, if a little heavy powder. Starting in the trees at the top.
And then the Meadow. Ahhhh the Meadow.
Looking up at the Hanging Meadow.
We skied down to the top of the final pitch above the road which following a skin to the top would give us exactly what we needed. We were quite excited about skiing the Meadow again, but even more so at the thought of bagging 8k. Then the day changed.
As we prepared for the skin back up, a heli came into view. On closer inspection it appeared to be a Medivac. When the phone rang from the common friend of ours and the group we had met earlier (NA knew one of them), we knew there was trouble. Upon hearing what had occured we raced up - they were a few hundred feet above us and 2 of the party were not in a good state. Quite sensibly in our haste we had left all our gear on the flats, so we raced back down and up again to give them all of our clothing. Back again, this time to help the Medivac (which had subsequently landed by our packs), stamping out the track and carrying the medical gear whilst the medics clambered up in their snowshoes. By the time everyone had assembled at the incident site, things seemed a little better and within 30 mins, the injured party was being airlifted out and we were covered in rotor-wash. With the freezing cold snowboarder no longer cold, we skied down the run out of the Hanging Meadow to be met by the Sheriff's snowmobilers. Back down the road to Spruces by 5:30pm, where there was even more going on.
Long day, with the lesson of the day being: don't forget to pack your Puffy. A jet-boil will help you too. The patient seems to be on the mend so everything worked out OK. 7,000' logged.
Route for the day.
