Chute the Moon Trip Report

I once heard a great quote from one of the best distance runners of the modern age. It was back in the day when ABC covered the Olympic Games and they were interviewing, I think, Kip Keino (could have also been one of the other great African runners of the day). I never missed the Olympics on TV when I was a kid. It captured my imagination like no other spectacle. Keino was one of the most prolific distance runners of all time winning multiple medals over a long career spanning 3 Olympics. It was probably during the 1972 Olympics in Munich when they were doing a feature on him and his background. They showed him running near his home in Kenya. I believe he worked as a coffee farmer and ran to a from work each day, covering thousands of vertical feet and many miles. The interviewer asked Kip about his training program and Kip said that he did not train. The inteviewer, quite perplexed at this statement uttered by the greatest runner of his generation asked about the daily trips to and from the coffee plantation. "Isn't that training?," he asked. Kip responded in that glorious Queen's english spoken by Africans..."That is not training. That is running as God intended." And therein was the secret.

I love that and all it implies about what we do in the mountains. Sure, I spend a lot of time on Snow King doing intervals, accumulating vertical and intensity that will hopefully prepare me for competition. But I also love to just go out and ski in the high mountains, take in the scenery and ski some amazing terrain just because. To paraphrase Mr. Keino, "It is skiing as God intended."

With that in mind, Dina and I headed out today to ski a line we eyed two days ago while skiing in the vicinity. Along the way we picked up our friend and climbing ranger Chris Harder (same last name, no relation) on our way up 25 Short and he joined us for the remainder of the tour. Chris is an NPS ranger and was actually on the clock so we felt extra safe. Not sure if he was "packing", if you know what I mean.

Dina topping out on 25 Short

Most weekend skiers hit the green-light terrain on 25 Short and call it good. It's nearly 3,000 vertical of fun open glade skiing. For the more adventurous, there are several moderate couloirs to the north and south of the ridge. Although we have not had much new snow in over a week now, the cold temps have held things nicely and the snow pack has stabilized a bit. The shaded powder continues to be fun.

Two days ago we were skiing nearby Turkey Chute with several friends. While shamelessly farming that we spied Chute the Moon further up the ridge and vowed to return as neither of us have skied it. The ridge leading to the entrance is magnificent and the track was in. The cold temps kept us moving but the sun provided some respite. It was mostly clear with a few odd flurries coming in and out from the thin clouds forming over the peaks.  

Dina ridge running

Chris looking southeast with Maverick behind

We were never in any hurry. Chris has been skiing these mountains for a long time was pointing out all his favorites as we cruised the ridge. Before long we were at the entrance and we ripped skins and regrouped. After some snacks and more layers we poked our noses into the couloir. Although sometimes the top is scrubbed clean or laiden with bullet proof sastrugi, today it was nothing but fluff.

Although it had seen some tracks over the last few days there was still plenty of snow to go around. We hugged the margins and found enough to keep us smiling in the near effortless conditions. 

Looking back at Chute the Moon

The funny thing about skiing with Chris today is that he was carrying an NPS radio and was wearing official ranger garb. Hmmm, let me think about this for a minute. He's out on a perfect day, touring on skis for 4-5 hours and he's getting paid? Actually, I was paying him. Tax dollars at work. Keeping it safe out there for the rest of us. Too bad we didn't see some of those powder skiing drug dealers up there. Maybe I could have been deputized and participated in some real crime fighting!

The ski out of Avalanche Canyon is the typical Mr. Toad's Wild Ride affair snaking through boulder fields and trees going too fast around blind corners and hoping for the best. Once out of the canyon, it's another 20 minutes across Taggart Lake and down to the car. Turns out to be about 9 miles of touring and 4,000 feet of climbing and descending.

It was a nice, easy day of skiing. Never got the heart rate up too high. Covered some ground and enjoyed good company. "Training as God intended," indeed. - Brian

Comments

[Ralph S.]

Very nice! I might have to make my way over there! We had a pretty good day in the Sawtooths on Sunday ourselves:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkEly3PDPzM

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