[wow]

I had a chance to stay in a yurt and ski the Tushers on Saturday and Sunday, so the heli-free party was left early, for the first time ever, to go.
I'd never stayed in a yurt or used the services of a guide.
We had great corn snow skiing.
Hopefully the guide isn't too tired.

We left the party and drove to Beaver, Utah and the closed down Elk Meadows ski area, found the trailhead and a map to the yurt.
It was after midnight, we couldn't see the map and just started skinning.
Tri-u didn't seem the worse for wear the next day.



The group consisted of, MC and gumby, Tri-u, dj barney, Alex, the guide and no gloss.
It wasn't quite an integrated group, since we had two splitters, a girl, with the rest on tele and no AT skier.
What'd ya do?

No gloss is just about ready to leave town, headed back to a summer in Cape Cod and windsurfing, kiteboarding.
But, a couple of days of Tusher corn had him grinning.



We spent the first day around the Mount Holly area, checking out the snow and getting a feel for the terrain.

From the top of Holly, we got a good look at the chute just right of MC's head, making a decision to go there the next day.



After a good long day of skiing, a fine dinner, cooked up by the guide and a fairly good night's sleep, we went on over and did the chute, combining a couple more runs there and back.
I think we named it the heli free chute, since NO Gloss lost his hat in the light breezes of 40mph+ on the ridges.
Naw, those Tushers aren't windy.

Thanks for the invite MC and thanks for the ride, tri-u.
Had a great time.
Gotta go out with some damn envioros filming a documentary, and there may be a vid posted, but I thought I'd start the thread.

edit to change links
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[jw]

nice pics to start with wow.
When I read who the participants were I almost felt sorry for the guide, hope you folks didn't work him too hard.

[trackhead]

I spent five nights down there 03/04 new years and got about 5 feet of snow in that time frame.

Fun range. Certainly not crowded.

Was Alec your guide?

[shredgar]

Yee ha, looks like a beauty, way to go get it.

Nice line. Which peak is that?

Tri are those the Surreals? Way to flex the rear ski.
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[JL]

Looks like you had nice weather!

When we were on top of Delano two weeks ago the winds were nuking.
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When all is said and done, it makes great toast!

[Tri-Ungulate]

Just finished catching up with work today. Great weekend with Team Voilé down in the Tushars.

As wow mentions, he and I had a great time at the Heli-Free Wasatch party, gathering with several bc stalwarts including bunionectomy, weatherman, David W, maynard et al. Again, great thanks to Norse, the Katz-woman and Sasha for being such gracious hosts.

No pix of the festivities this year, at least not from me, though there did seem to be a bigger turnout this year. wow was in the midst of convincing a sweet young thing to come down to the Tushars to join us skiing so's she could help keep him warm in his sleeping bag , but I had to cut his wooing short for our scheduled departure in order to arrive in reasonable time.

We loaded into the PoserMobile™, and hooked in the iPod, cranking B.B.King as we headed outta town. The drive went fast - a 200 mile high-speed straight shot down I-15 to Beaver, then upcanyon for 22 miles to the now-defunct Elk Meadows/Mt. Holly ski resort. We arrived at Puffer Lake a little after midnight, hailed MC on the radio, then headed in. Arriving at the yurt around 1, we didn't really bed down 'till almost 2am.

Morning dawned through the yurt skylight and we were up and about, preparing for the day. Alec, the proprietor and guide of Tushar Mountain Tours is a FOV (Friend of Voilé), and select members of the crew come down to visit him annually. Alec is privy to all the vast terrain and secret stashes of the sparsely visited area, replete with 12K' peaks, huge bowls and couloirs, gladed woods and plenty of snow, with over 500' this year. In fact, the section from the Tushars in Tyson Bradley's book on Ootah backcountry skiing comes primarily from Alec's vast experience in the area. I really had very little experience in Central Ootah, having skied in the Elk Meadows ski area about a decade ago when the lifts were still running, and doing a little regional biking, hiking and x-c skiing over the years; I had no idea of the potential of the touring terrain we were about to be treated to. Alec mentioned he'd had over 100 powder days this season, and with the paucity of fellow skiers and no helis, he rarely went a day without getting fresh tracks. It hadn't snowed for awhile but the weather had set up for a good corn cycle.


wow and dj barney waking up and getting ready.

As wow mentions, he'd never been on a guided trip before, and was a tad leery, musing aloud "Where is the line between guide and client responsibility?" as he signed the release form. Actually, since Alec is such a good FOV, it really was more like going skiing with a local bud. As mentioned, our group was MC, gumby, no gloss, dj barney, Alec, and of course wow and myself.


We headed up towards Lake Peak (in the background) for some early morning turns as the snow softened.


Atop lake peak, ready to get started: wow, no gloss, MC.

After a nice warmup, we headed up to of Mt. Holly, and spent the rest of the day doing laps off the summit in the ripening corn.


Pano atop Mt. Holly – click on image for larger view.


gumby's World.


Make sure to dig plenty of snowpits along the route.

The snow was classic corn-turning-into-slush with plenty of solar radiation yet very little evidence of instability or even minor sloughing. I felt a bit silly wearing the AvaLung in such low hazard conditions, but do it just to make it habitual – plus it's a pretty comfortable layer.

Shredgar, yes indeed, those are the Surreals – a dream to ascend with, due to the light weight, and a wet dream for skiing down, with power and speed to spare.

Throughout the day, I found it amazing that I could actually keep up with (and sometimes even get ahead of) wow, until I realized:

1) He wasn’t even trying that hard.

2) He was prototyping a stiffened-up set of these:

(image - jw)

that were paired with some beat-up skins far too narrow for the ski.

3) He hadn’t brought his secret ingredient:

and was therefore as mortal as Superman exposed to Kryptonite or Popeye sans a can 'o spinach.

wow made sure to demonstrate plenty of reverse snap kick turns for the video camera for ttipsters' edification.

We finished the day dropping down a nice red rock-lined couloir off Lake Peak, continuing below to an aspen grove with soft corny turns.


After lounging around the yurt in the afternoon sun, napping and recovering, Alec cooked a great dinner for us. We stayed up 'till around 11 with good conversation, rum, wine and whiskey.

The next morning's objective was a cirque out past Mt. Holly. We hiked up to the pass, and dropping down the saddle, we were surrounded by a magnificent snowy amphitheatre.


Pano surrounded by the cirque – click on image for larger view.


MC contemplates the chutes on the East Face of Mt. Holly while g prepares a snowball for murph.

The plan was for a run down an unnnamed couloir off of an unnamed peak opposite Mt. Holly. gumby and I headed up the peak, while the rest of the crew did a warmup lap (only about a 1000' or so) across the ravine.

Feeling adventurous, we did a bit of steep bootpacking up a couloir, ascending pitches over 60 degrees. The snow was easily kick-stepped 2-buckle deep, but it still was good to have the Whippets handy.


g climbing - the pic on the left doesn't do justice to the scale, but the closest rocks behind her are several hundred feet below. The valley is almost 1000' beneath her boots. Pic on the right is where it levels off a bit as we approach the ridgeline.

The winds really whip, coming off the Central Ootah plateau at a steady 40mph that day. Several times I felt like my A-framed skis would carry me away when an especially heavy gust hit me.

The team gathered at the summit for a snack and some recuperation.


Pano atop no name peak at ~12K' – click on image for larger view.

no gloss lost his vintage Heli-Free Wasatch cap to a mighty 60+ mph wind gust and sadly watched it sail off the edge of the mountain. We therefore christened our descent the HeliFree Couloir, in honor of his sacrificed hat, as well as another way to commemorate the end of the flying season.


wow descending HeliFree Couloir, with no gloss and Alec above.


MC and g make some nice tandem turns.


MC 'The Puma' in his characteristic stance.

The descent was fantastic, some 1400' in wonderful corn. After making our way back and regaining the pass, we did one last run off Mt. Holly, which had now turned into windhammered sastrugi/coral reef. We skied back to the yurt, packed up and skied back out to the cars. We stopped for a nice Mexican dinner in a campground (of all places) downcanyon named Maria's. The cook is from Mexico, and the place has limited hours and is open only half the year, but Alec knew it would be the best place for good food and lots of it. After saying our goodbyes to Alec, wow and I headed back north in the PoserMobile™ with the rest of the crew in MC's VoiléMobile.

All in all a great weekend with great folks, good skiing and great terrain. Well worth returning to or checking out, and a gem off the beaten track.
(edited to add tripreport search term to thread)
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[peteMimmack]

T_U - Great report. Been waiting for it ever since wow posted the first pics. Thanks for meeting expectations.

Love the shot of Tandem Turns. And yes, I clicked thru to Christina's World - good eye/memory on your part.

[HB]

nice TR - looks like a great area - another spot to add to the list

[trackhead]

Nice trip guys. Cool panoramic pics too.

That east face of Holly is no piece of holly. I remember looking at that from Delano. Burly.

[Seymour Skinner]

Very nice trip report. Who is it that runs the yurts there? Alec?

[trackhead]

[Bob T]

Great TR, and my favorite TR style so far. (regular sized text telling the story with small text captions and some thumb-nail panoramics) Nice!

[wow]

Nice pics and play by play, tri-u.
I've sat down long enough to have a couple of additions.
The first peak seen on the skin from the yurt was called Lake Peak.



We couldn't pass up the oportunity to try the run off the top, lookers upper left corner in the above photo. It was done as a home run to the yurt at the end of the first day.
Alec entering the apron.



Tri-u coming down the skier's right side.



MC on the buttah run offa Mt. Holly.



I was indeed using a pair of stiffer Insanes. I like the stiffer version, better all around IMHO. Great fun blasting down the corn, gsing it.
Little much for me and I've passed them on to the rightful owner, who enjoyed their use today.

We took a different up, than the steep boot hike done by gumby and tri-u, meeting them on the summit, traversing over for a sideslip down to the heli-free chute entry.



We were a bit late and it was sloppy, but user friendly.
This one's a favorite photo from the tour.



As for sking the Tushers in spring:
The yurt we stayed in is on the southern end of the Tushers. From the top of the un named peak, a great number of summits and some steep runs can be seen to the north.



If it were me and there was a group, I'd see about renting one of the empty condos for basing out of, providing a short drive or a walk across the road, to access some of the northern peaks.
Slghtly different routes could be used each day and the enlistment of Alec's help, would provide more than a day or two of steep descents, as long as the corn harvest window remained open.
It was closing off as we left on Sunday evening.
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[trackhead]

You guys were in the Puffer yurt? We stayed in the Snorkeling Elk Yurt at the base of Delano.

I agree with the condo approach. That is the way to do it.

Kimberly and Bilknap looked good.

[Flash Gordon]

sweet TR