102 | Utah . Day 03: Cutler Ridge

With shinbang kicking in from some extensive activity on Friday and Saturday, I put the Lord's day of rest to full use and pretended to be Mormon for just a few brief moments ... then the non-3.2% beer arrived and all was wonderfully balanced in the universe. People say three-two beer isn't all that, I beg to differ. When a bottle of Dos Equis tastes more watered-down than normal Coors Light, then we got some issues. But enough of Utah's beer and religious issues (nevermind a state filled with motor vehicle drivers that make people from Jersey seem safer than Mother Theresa having sex).



This is how Gary and I spent Monday which was our third and final day of touring:




That's Willard Peak which rises above 9,700 feet. We began our tour at 10am while starting at an elevation of 5,800 feet. Three leisure hours later, we found ourselves 2,500 feet closer to the sun. Although we didn't quite make our goal of reaching Ben Lomond, we did manage some decent turns through a flaky surface hoar layer that was roughly six inches deep in some spots. Can't complain with those conditions especially when it hasn't snowed in almost a week.


Our uphill route which was about 2.5 miles long:




Idiot's guide to the area:




Gary taking a short break while ascending:




The view below towards where we had started the day:




One final look at a beautiful peak that offers over 2,000 feet of terrain-trap-skiing that eventually funnels into a very narrow chute:





And now a little video:


Cutler Ridge . North Fork Park . UTAH (2009.02.02) from Thomas Armento on Vimeo.




Reflecting back, it was a very fun tour and one I hope to do again with better conditions and higher aspirations. The wind had been hammering hard on the slopes above treeline, so we had to stay below 8,000 feet where the snow had much better quality.