Ski Touring close to Salt Lake City

I have heard a lot about skiing here, saw a lot of pics from this area so we thought we give it a go. The area is huge and you can actually take public transport from Salt Lake City (SLC) downtown into the alpine. SLC is at around 1300 m or so, public transport drops you off between 2000 m and 2400 m, pretty nice elevation gain. You can take public transport up one valley, skin up to the peak, drop down the other side and take another bus back to town or back to your car. We actually got a permit at REI and stayed at the only winter campground, Jordan Pines in Big Cottonwood Canyon. From here we started our tour at around 2200 m.

We had a map and a book but there were so many trails so we just followed the valley up called Mill D South Fork. Since we followed a trail we got into a anyon which was a lot of fun.

 

Well, only for that long until we couldn't skin anymore and had to boot pack, fun times :-). What did we learn from this: Never follow snow shoe trails.

 

Once we got out of there the terrain was a lot easier.

 

Spring is coming.

 

That's where we were heading, amazing terrain.

 

Reminds me of a ski movie I watched last., I guess they used to do some mining here back in the day.

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Kerstin still going uphill strong ...

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We got to around 2700 m (I guess you realized that I got an altimeter, thanks mum and dad) and thought we can do more.

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Still uphill, the air got pretty thin now at around 3000 m.

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At the top, done for today!

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So many mountains!

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So many lines!

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The snow was actually pretty bad.

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Heading home.

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That's one thing this area is famous for, skiing in birch trees.

 

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