Silver Fork Canyon Backcountry . 02.19.2011

I had an amazing Presidents Day weekend riding. Today and yesterday were spent at Snowbird in some amazing conditions, but nothing topped Saturday in the backcountry.

My buddy and I had never really gone into the backcountry when it was really snowing, that changed on Saturday the 19th. We started from Our Lady of the Snows at Alta at about 9:30am, headed up Poleline pass until halfway, at which point we took the right turn to head up the ridge to Silver Fork. The ridge was extremely icy at points but also had some deep snow. We skinned mostly, but had to bootpack a little too.

We reached the ridge and decided to head up to Flagstaff Peak. We had an amazing run down into Silver Fork. Skinned back up (luckily two people broke the skin track just before us), then took more amazing turns down. We then headed back up and down to Alta. The final ride down was the deepest of the day. We were out by 3:00pm.

http://vimeo.com/20157786

Daaaaaaaaaang look how deep that is :slobber:

Nice one!:2thumbs:

I rode the Bird on Sun. So deep that there were bodies laying everywhere. I counted 30 skiers digging for ski's just up one Peruvian lap while on the chair on the way to the top. You had to straight line every thing or you were not going to make it. My last run, a skier ran into me on a traverse on Baldy and I got stuck in a forbidden zone for like 20 min. At least I got to watch him go over the handle bars shortly after, double ejection out of his skis to at least 3 cartwheels. Karma. It was kind of a junk show, so passed on today figuring it would be a repeat.

I rode Peruvian and the traverse out to mid baldy all day on Sunday and had a blast. There were a few people but none that affected my riding.

I was up to Snowbird by about 9:00am yesterday and headed for the Tram to find a 40 minute wait. It was well worth it as high Baldy opened shortly before I got up there. Baldy was amazing and I did three laps on it and left early. My second tram was a half line and third was almost full which is normal or better than any weekend day. Where I go on Baldy you don't see the crowds (although the line hiking up was pretty silly).

Both days were well worth it in my opinion. I also worked at the Bird for 4 years so I know where to hide, keep your speed up, etc.!

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Originally Posted by tmartenst

I rode Peruvian and the traverse out to mid baldy all day on Sunday and had a blast. There were a few people but none that affected my riding.

I was up to Snowbird by about 9:00am yesterday and headed for the Tram to find a 40 minute wait. It was well worth it as high Baldy opened shortly before I got up there. Baldy was amazing and I did three laps on it and left early. My second tram was a half line and third was almost full which is normal or better than any weekend day. Where I go on Baldy you don't see the crowds (although the line hiking up was pretty silly).

Both days were well worth it in my opinion. I also worked at the Bird for 4 years so I know where to hide, keep your speed up, etc.!

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I have had a season pass to the Bird the last 5 seasons. Quite a few not so smart riders on the hill Sunday. Saw a nasty collision where a guy was hit so hard by a moron not looking where he was going it caused a crash where the guy I saw get hit bit all the way through his bottom lip. The guy that nearly ran into me was not even looking where he was going. Its like he left his brain back east. I hate holiday weekends at any resort. We made the best of it.

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Originally Posted by tmartenst

IMy buddy and I had never really gone into the backcountry when it was really snowing, that changed on Saturday the 19th. We started from Our Lady of the Snows at Alta at about 9:30am, headed up Poleline pass until halfway, at which point we took the right turn to head up the ridge to Silver Fork. The ridge was extremely icy at points but also had some deep snow. We skinned mostly, but had to bootpack a little too.

We reached the ridge and decided to head up to Flagstaff Peak. We had an amazing run down into Silver Fork. Skinned back up (luckily two people broke the skin track just before us), then took more amazing turns down. We then headed back up and down to Alta. The final ride down was the deepest of the day. We were out by 3:00pm.

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Uhh, sounds like you skied Days Fork? If you took the right hand turn off initially heading to Poleline Pass, and, went up the bowl (Toledo Bowl?)? Then, up to Flagstaff? Dropping off just skiers right of Flagstaff is Days Fork. You have to hike horizontally a fair ways to get over towards Davenport Hill and Silverfork (west bowl, then, past Davenport, to east bowl).

Not that it matters that much, though, awesome day!

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Uhh, sounds like you skied Days Fork?

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Dude, so right. We actually thought it was Days and a guy at the top (that was with a Snowbird Patroller!) said it was Silver. It was so snowy that we couldn't tell and I didn't even check the map again but definitely Days Fork. Good call. I'll have to update the video!