Alpenglow

10/30/13
With the death of the fall leaves comes the birth of my favorite season, winter. As the beauty of fall fades away sights  like this one all fade 

to the dull gray before snow. So as tradition, I find my self praying more than normal. Praying for snow! A few early winter storms did grace the Wasatch but none with enough snow to get out into the backcountry and tour around. Seems sad, as in years past I can remember skiing in the backcountry several times in October, and many times in November waiting until the resorts opening days. 
So with a storm lasting a few days dropping around 10-15 inches in the mountains I decided I could not wait any longer. I dug out my skins, pack, beacon, and trusty ol' splitboard and decided the next day would be the first day of the season. My buddy had to be back for work by 11:00am making this a good old fashion dawn patrol. Woke up at 3:30am loaded the car and headed for Little Cottonwood. Skinning by headlamp in very minimal snow coverage was interesting to say the least. Grass snakes and snow sharks lined the mountain like landmines. All hopes of getting even just a couple turns in were disappearing quickly, with the now all too obvious lack of snow. I was staring to feel slightly foolish, sleep deprived, out of skinning shape,  and a little bummed out we made the trip “for nothing”. We reached the ridge line and decided to take a coffee break. As we rested on the ridge in the darkness we talked about how even though we did not get to ski the trip was a good work out at the very least. Our spirits lifted a little and we headed towards the car wishing the snow that was now lightly falling would have showed up earlier. We came out of the trees to the alpenglow of morning as it crept slowly up the mountains. 

As if being slapped in the face by the sunrise I remembered, it is not always about the adventure on the way down. Sometimes it is all about the adventure as a whole. Just getting up in the Wasatch mountains was perfect. As we left the parking lot around 9:30 it was snowing, really snowing. Until next time... 
Wasatch Nomad