Skinning up Grizzly Gulch with Mount Superior in the background. Photo: Jakob Schiller/Element.ly
Backcountry skiers in the Wasatch like to set a steep skin track. The quicker you go, the quicker you come down. Photo: Jakob Schiller/Element.ly
Ripping skins. Time to ski. Photo: Jakob Schiller/Element.ly
It was still soft out there even more than a week after the last storm. Photo: Jakob Schiller/Element.ly
There's lots of terrain to ski in the Wasatch. But also a lot of skiers out to ski that terrain. Photo: Jakob Schiller/Element.ly
Shredding. Photo: Jakob Schiller/Element.ly
Backcountry skiing has a way of making people happy. Photo: Jakob Schiller/Element.ly
The only way to properly end a day of backcountry skiing is with beer. Photo: Jakob Schiller/Element.ly
Before I ever backcountry skied in the Wasatch Mountains outside Salt Lake City I’d heard all the stories. Parking lots filling up in the wee hours of the morning with powder-hungry skiers chasing fresh lines. Super steep skin tracks to help those powder chasers maximize their time before sun rise. And epic, lake effect snow that came down thick and deep.
Now I’ve skied the Wasatch a couple times, and it seems all the stories are true. I have no scientific proof to back this up, but the per-capita ratio of backcountry skiers in SLC seems higher than anywhere else in the country. It’s crowded out there. But you can see why. Access to the Wasatch is as easy at it gets. You can leave downtown SLC and be skinning in about an hour.
I also found out that those skin tracks are indeed steep. Not so steep you can’t make it up, but steeper than other places around the country. A couple weeks ago I headed out with a group of skiers and more than once wondered if my skins were going to stick as I placed ski to snow. The reward, however, is worth it. The faster you climb, the sooner you ski.
Then there’s the snow. Even though it’s been mostly dry in the Wasatch for the past couple weeks, they got enough early season snow to make our recent trip plenty of fun. On north-facing aspects we found stashes of soft powdery goodness.
You can also be sure that sometime soon it’ll start dumping again. It always does.