Throwback Thursday – Mt. Adams

It’s been balmy and pouring rain in Portland. I can’t help but think of what an epic storm this would have been, had temperatures been a few (20) degrees cooler. Nonetheless, the cold front is forecasted to move in any minute now, and snow is expected to fall in the mountains. As I was sitting by my powder skis, pining for face shots, I was reminded that ski season in Oregon is more than just early season dumps. The late season is often the best. While most of my top runs of all time involve deep, dry powder snow, one of the best was on corn snow on Mt. Adams. So, after an unfortunately long hiatus, the Kickturner is back with a throwback Thursday.

I skied the Southwest Chutes of Mt. Adams on June 7, 2014. Much has been written about the Southwest Chutes, but they are worthy of all praise. The climb is a little bit of a slog. The standard route is typically crowded. The false summit can be a total buzz kill. But the ski down is truly world class.

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. 

Throwback Thursday: Mt. Superior

The South Face of Mt. Superior

As the air cools, the leaves change, and the sun hangs lower in the sky, my thoughts once again turn to skiing…wait, who am I kidding? I’ve spent all summer thinking about skiing. Mt. Hood has been looking frosty the past few days and I think an early season tour is imminent. To hold me over until the season starts for real, I’ll be posting throw-back reports for trips I did before I started this blog. I know this blog is supposed to be about Oregon, but I did spend a lot of time in Utah, so some of these trip reports will be about Utah descents.

The South Face of Mt. Superior is also one of the classic descents in the Wasatch. The mountain dominates the views from Alta and Snowbird: a triangular peak that looks like it would be more at home in the Chugach than the Wasatch. Its ridges are knife’s edge sharp, and it’s descent is steep, complex, and avalanche-prone. It is the roadside attraction to end all roadside attractions. After a big snow, avalanches have been know to rip off Mt. Superior and carry across Highway 210.