The powder train didn't stop...

It's currently raining at my house, and after a week of hot weather, it seems the powder train has taken a different course. In Utah, we hopped on just before Christmas, and we've been riding that train every day since then. A great start to the winter, although with a complex snowpack always on our mind, we looked for safety in the trees. Steep skiing season is upon us, but I sure hope this thing keeps on chugging. We need the water, and a few more deep days.

Finding new lines in my backyard

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^heading up "Jim Bridgers Ridge" 10,790 steps

   Meteorological winter is over, and I must say, it was a good one. Depending on where you live, or where you traveled, it was a bit hit or miss. In places like California and Washington, it seems like winter never even happened. I spent the entire season at my home in Utah. If you look at the snow numbers, you can see that we didn't exactly have a spectacular winter here either, but the lack of snow didn't stop us. 

^feasting on some glorious Uinta powder

  With powder hungry skiers and boarders tracking up every nook and cranny of the Wasatch mountains this year, my brother and I looked to the Uintas for our own secret powder stashes. Living at the foot of this lonely and elusive range has allowed us to develop an intimate relationship with the seemingly infinite sprawl of peaks and valleys. This winter we searched for the perfect line. We developed a routine of going out every day in our backyard, putting in a new skin track, and exploring a new zone. 

   

   I used my Fitbit Surge as a tool to help me get a visual on where we were going, and what was happening with my body on the way there. I've never been big on statistics, but it's been really neat to catalog some stats on the ski tours we've been doing this year. Monitoring my heart rate and pace while on the way up helps me find the right zone for efficiency. But I think the best feature of the Surge for me is being able to log into my account when I get home and see a complete visual of my day. I can see where and when during the tour I was working the hardest and consuming the most calories. By using the GPS function I can map out all of routes we take. 

   Having a catalog of all the tours will be a huge help in the future. If I ever need to remember where to put up the skin track (or where not to) I'll be able to look at my previous routes. 

   Going into the last few months of my ski season, the most important ones, the ones I spend in Alaska, my body is feeling stronger than ever. I credit that to all the days my brother and I spent using our legs to find hidden powder stashes in our backyard. I'm really looking forward to testing out my new levels of fitness in my favorite mountains in the world.

   

Good skiing in Utah lately...

A storm arrived around Christmas time and delivered a much needed coat of fresh snow for the mountains of Utah. Things have been filling in nicely ever since. In the last few weeks, I've skied a lot of powder, some of it better than anything I've had in Utah in years. Granted, the last few years have kinda sucked around these parts, so I've been gone a lot. It sure does feel nice to be skiing pow again in our own backyard. Some photos that my brother Neil and I have shot lately.....

^ It got cold for a little while, and deep.

^ we found solitude and untracked deepness in the Uintas

^ Neil doesn't mind grinding out a few thousand feet of Wasatch wiggles

^Trent and his pops. Father and son Wiggles. Bruce laid down an epic figure eight.

^deep, blower pow for Neil

^ Jonny G, the Uinta snow scientist taking pictures of crystals and stuff

^ Aspen trees catching the glow from the first few moments of sunshine. 

^ Mt. Raymond

^Had a great bluebird day with our friend, Nick Russell, hitting lines off Raymond Peak. Huge smiles all day!!!

#filmisdead

^ Watching my brother slash turns between the sharp rock fins of Raymond's east face

^ Nick Russell following my track because he liked how I worked those waves!

^ Even on a down day, I can't help myself from heading into our backyard for some powsurf laps.

The Forgotten Trails of the Uintas

One of the most stimulating adventures I've ever done, right here in my backyard, the Uinta mountains. Alongside my brother Neil and Eric Porter, we used mountain bikes to access 4 different trout streams along the north slope, creating a loop out of dirt roads, game trails, and long forgotten single track, camping along the way. Agonizing stretches of non-existing trail and deadfall, hurdling our bikes and heavy packs over no less than 200 trees, led to some beautiful lengths of uninterrupted and largely unridden single track. At the end of each descent was a trout filled creek. I can't think of much else that makes me happier in life. Fly-fishing, mountain biking, backpacking, getting lost with your friends and exploring new routes, wild, fresh caught fish over the coals with grandmas fish spice? What more?

Check out the video below, and pick up a copy of the December adventure issue of FREEHUB MAGAZINE to read the full story from Porter, and see the photos in print. 

Mountain Biking around Utah in the fall

It's my favorite time of the year to ride. The air is crisp and pungent with the smell of decaying leaves, signifying the end of yet another growing season and the emergence of winter. Better get my legs in shape. All of the maple trees around Utah are going off right now with vibrant displays of color, and the aspens will be soon to follow. There is nothing quite like turning off your brain and racing through the mountains on a bicycle, the forest becomes a blur of color, like a two wheel trip with kaleidoscope eyes.

Reconnaissance Loop - Uintas

   The Uintas are right out my front door and have provided us with years of easy access to mountainous adventures of all kinds. But I hadn't been up there all summer, and a quick retreat to Utah's largest wilderness seemed long overdue. Four days should do it. You could traverse the entire range from west to east in 4 days if you wanted, but that doesn't leave a whole lot of time for fishing. My summer itineraries are usually based around fishing, so I thought about a loop out of the Highline trailhead that would take us through some new terrain, over a few mountain passes, down and up a river valley, with plenty of scheduled stops to wet a line.

 Kalen and I took the highline trail about 17 miles east on the first day before we setup camp. We wanted to make it to a secluded basin on the far side of upper Rock Creek drainage where a fantastic scene awaited us. Halfway there, the weather changed and set the tone for the rest of the trip.

We came across these goats on Rocky Sea pass and I thought, "I should have a goat".

The hike went by quickly, and before I knew it we were in the basin, in the alpine. The joy of reaching such a spectacular place after a long day of hiking was short lived. Before we had a chance to set up camp, thunder claps and cloud to ground lightning strikes had us running for lower ground. A few hours later the storm pushed on, as they usually do, we built camp, and I raced with my fly rod to the upper lakes to get a few casts in before dark. 

Reconnaissance Lake is an alpine jewell that I was very happy to finally see for myself. 

The second day we came over dead horse pass which is where our hike officially turned into a loop. Crossing from the upper rock creek drainage to the headwaters of the west fork Blacks fork river, and then over another un-named pass into the Bear river was our plan for the day.

We decided to camp at dead horse lake. Getting caught in the lightning storm the day before scared us enough that we didn't want to cross another high mountain pass in the afternoon when the storms roll in

There are many things that make the Uinta mountains unique. All of the headwater systems provide refuge for two of Utah's native trout, the Colorado river cutthroat and the Bonneville cutthroat. You can fish for them both in a single day, separated only by a few mountain passes and a mile or so as the raven flies. This fish above lives at the source of the Colorado in a small lake at 11,000', feeding on anything thats been blown in by the wind.

Continuing our loop, we made our 3rd camp along the banks of the east fork of the Bear river. This drainage is home to the Bonneville cutthroat and the headwaters of the largest terminal river in the western hemisphere.  Our last day of hiking would have been a big one. My feet were cursed with blisters from not wearing shoes for a month, and the weather kept us from our intended pace. After a little debate, we hiked to the Christmas meadows road and down to the mirror lake highway where we hitched a ride from a friendly old couple back to the truck. We didn't make the full loop and the weather was kind of shitty, but it was still one of my favorite treks through the Uintas to date.

Castle in the sky

The Bald Mountain trail is a relatively unknown track in the Uinta mountains that begins at the rivers edge, and delivers you to the vast alpine plateaus at the roof of utah. At the end of the trail is an incredible area known as Red Castle. The trail is steep until the 11,500' contour line, at which point you step out onto the tundra, and for many miles the sky is big and views of the north slope and Utah's largest wilderness are massive.