Monday, May 23, 2011

The weather...

here in SLC has been very, very wet--in the past week, the mountains received over two feet of new snow, bringing the season total to over 750 inches!  Lower down in the valley, it's mostly come down as rain, making this desert-basin city as green as I've ever seen it.  The climbing's been off-and-on due to storms; just last Saturday in Little Cottonwood, some friends and I were just about to launch into some interesting, new territory when a rather exciting thunderstorm rolled up unexpectedly from the west...  After a quick retreat, my buddy Shaun--the same friend from a few of this season's earlier posts, I just learned that his name was spelled with a "u," instead of a "w"--and I took cover in a small cave I'd noticed the week before, a spot I dubbed, "the Dog-House Cave," as it's most likely where I'd come to bivy in the event I ever really pissed Coby off, or was ever to be, "on-the-lamb."  The feature is an enormous, house-sized granite boulder that, as it fell down the gully some time ago, split in this most elegant way, creating a gap that--from a distance--appears as if framed by the outline of a large standing wave.  We sat underneath the huge natural roof and sipped cans of Coors as the storm passed, every now and again catching the fleeting arc of lightning in our periphery.  After about an hour-and-a-half, the thunderstorm subsided and the canyon was, once again, filled with Sun, it's long, unbroken slabs glistening.  We descended; all along the trail, boulders had already dried--just another of the canyon's secrets, as the dry, desert air which, in the valley is responsible for the static shocks I've become conditioned to fear from our car door does a wonderful job with rapidly dessicating our beloved stone.  Nevermind that it rained this morning--it'll be drier than you think! 


The mighty Gargoyle Wall in LCC:  the shaded, right-facing corner near the photo's center is the goal.  Could it be that it has gone unnoticed and unclimbed all these years?  I wouldn't be surprised to find some sign of passage beneath the prominent roof!  The Dog-House Cave is a few hundred feet below, in the gully. 

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Spring's first nice day and the view from 454 S 500 E


Yesterday morning, Tyler and I skied the two main shots on Gobbler's Knob with nearly a foot of fresh, on top of roughly a foot from the storm three days prior--which we also got to ski first, incidentally.  Yet today, it seems that Spring has finally arrived.  I had plans to be picked up at 5am this morning for another round, but fortunately, my partner bailed, and I stepped out to see this from our buiding's front step. 


This last one I took from the second-story parking lot of the Smith's across the street.  Of the entire Central Wasatch skyline, this part's my favorite, as you can see--starting just right of the light pole, from Little Cottonwood to the Draper Ridge--the Coalpit Headwall, Thunder Bowl, Bighorn Peak and Lone Peak, with Peak 10,292, the Crow's Feet and the Dolphin, visible as well.  This is the backyard, and just one reason I tend to be so distracted at home!