Throwback Thursday: Seagull Chute, Alta Backcountry

Brendan in Seagull Chute

So it looks like a real-life ski tour is on tap for this weekend. In the mean time, here’s your weekly
edition of Throwback Thursday:

When I was living in Alta during the winter of 2009-2010, I skied every day (except for four). Despite the frequency, sometimes it was hard to escape the patterns. There were only so many tours to do before or after work that didn’t involve a butt-crack-of-dawn start or a late finish. By March, my buddy Brendan and I were looking for something new. It was then that we heard about Seagull Chute, off of Tuscarora.

It was funny to me that I had walked by Seagull Chute close to a dozen times without ever knowing it was there. The standard route up Patsy Marley starts from Catherine’s Pass, ascends Tuscarora from the West side and then North to the Top of Mt. Wolverine. Seagull Chute is on the East side of Tuscarora, unviewable from Alta. 

Seagull Chute runs about 500 feet before it opens up into a beautiful, open apron. It's named Seagull Chute because, if you look at it sideways, it looks like a seagull (sorry, I didn't name it). Anyway, it is a fun, short ski that you can do in less than two hours from the base of Alta (if you have a lift pass).

Brendan and I decided to give it a go in March, so after work one day we grabbed our packs, hopped on the Collins lift at Alta, and began the long traverse through the resort to Supreme lift, and then to Cathrine’s Pass. We hustled up the bootpack to the top of Tuscarora. From there, the entrance to the chute was easy to find.

The upper section of Seagull Chute is steep (~45 degrees) and pretty narrow. The day we were there, the snow was fairly manky and heavy in the sun, and crusty in the shade. We made jump turns through most of the upper section. Once you get past the first “wing” of the chute, the pitch decreases to around 30 degrees, and things open up. This is where you pretend you’re in a TGR movie and point ‘em. The chute opens up into a beautiful apron, just begging for GS turns all over it. So, go get it.

Wolverine Cirque (Photo by Brendan Conboy)

Once you’re at the bottom of the apron you have two options: traverse beneath Tuscarora back to Catherine’s pass, or climb up Wolverine Bowl back to the top of Mt. Wolverine. From the top of Mt. Wolverine, the world is your oyster: drop directly back into Alta, Brighton or Wolverine Cirque, or traverse out to Patsy Marley and drop into Alta, Grizzly Gulch or the Twin Lakes Basin.

Powder lines down into the Twin Lakes Basin
(Photo by Brendan Conboy)

Brendan and I opted to skin up to Mt. Wolverine, ski the Cirque and down into the Twin Lakes basin. From there it was a quick skin up to Twin Lakes pass, and a victory lap down the Grizzly Gulch Cat track back to Alta.