Trip Report: Alpine Ski Tour: Intro to Backcountry - Uintas
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Alpine Ski Tour: Intro to Backcountry - Uintas By Kathleen Waller and Katherine Thom |
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| SKI | 01/17/2026 | NTD |
| Seven skiers met in Kamas and drove to the Wolf Creek area to enjoy a day of instructional conversations and low risk skiing under beautiful skies. It was very cold at the parking area, so we kept moving up the groomed road as we talked about avalanche problems in our zone, weather, turnaround time calculations, and risk management. After a thorough check of our transceivers in a wind-protected area in the trees, we practiced making enjoyable skin tracks (Wasatch Back style, not Wasatch Front straight up). Once near the top (to avoid shallow logs at the top top), we shared pointers for transitioning and skiing. The snow was supportive but a bit choppy on our short north-facing slope, but we lapped it a few times for practice. We had placed a car further West of our ultimate parking area so we had the option to take a fun pitch down. Once over the top of our knoll and on the other side looking down at the road, we noticed we were in breakable crust due to all the wind. After some debate about trying it out versus turning around, we all made our way down, enjoying some powder turns in a brief middle section. The car shuttle worked beautifully and we got humans, cars and gear re-sorted to head back to Kamas. The Mirror Lake Diner was expecting us (seemingly) and we enjoyed a hearty refuel after an intense day of learning and reviewing. We did a thorough debrief and came up with some good ideas for tweaks to future tours of this type. A bevy of courses and resources were discussed as well to inspire more learning in the areas of medical skills, avalanche safety, and tour planning and mapping. |
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