Trip Report: Two Ski Tours to the Catherine's area
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Two Ski Tours to the Catherine's area By Eve Kovacs |
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| SKI | 12/15/2025 | MOD+ |
| We headed up to the Catherine's area on two separate days in mid December. On the first day, Lisa Verzella, Vicki Turner and I started at the winter gate on the Summer Road at Alta. The conditions were quite icy and not very friendly for Lisa's split board, so she elected to stop and do laps on the Summer Road whilst Vicki and I proceeded to Catherine Pass. The snow was much better on the shaded north facing slopes near the pass, but of course that was also where the PWL still lurked, so we avoided any slopes with steep rolls. Once at the pass, we climbed up the ridge towards Point Supreme. At out high point we were able to see the carnage in Dry Fork, but noted a few possibilities for another day. We skied down through the woods to skiers right of Last Chance and, amazingly, found some untracked cowboy powder. Then it was down the icy trail and another descent through chopped up snow to regain Home Run for a pleasant quick descent back to Sunnyside base. A few days later, Vicki and I decided to try for Point Supreme. We rode the Sunnyside lift and started skinning on an even icier trail than we encountered on the previous day. After reaching our previous high point we tried a lap into Dry Fork. We were able to thread the needle between old tracks and found surprisingly manageable conditions with only a hint of a temperature crust in a few spots. This was good enough to try a lap off Point Supreme. After a couple of chewed up turns off the top, we found a clean, supportable line with a couple of inches of soft snow. We headed down via Last Chance and again found some good untracked snow near the ski area boundary. The return to Home Run and Sunnyside base was similar to day one. We both agreed that the skiing, although somewhat challenging, was really good technical practice and kept us on our toes. |
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