Headwaters: BDOTY : Best Day Of The Year

I use superlatives carefully, especially when it comes to adventure. Because any word ending in "st" is sure to raise eyebrows. Examples: cutest, richest, smartest, funnest. But the superlative of all superlatives is "best." And if people see these superlatives too often, then people will just numb to them and eventually ignore it. If everything is the "best", then eventually and unfortunately, nothing is the best.

Having said that, after today, I can unequivocally make this superlative statement about back country skiing:

Today was the BEST DAY OF THE YEAR. I have decided to call this the BDOTY

The reasons for calling today the BDOTY are summarized below, as grouped into 4 buckets: snow, weather, location, companions.

Snow

The Central Wasatch has received over 4' in less than a week. It has been a ski season-changing weather week for sure. If you don't believe me, let's go to the "snow received" numbers recorded up at Alta. After all numbers don't lie:

Speaking of Alta, it finally passed 400" on the year this past week. The bad news is that it's March and we are not even average (500") at Alta, and less than half of the '22-'23 season of over 1000" at Alta. The good news is that March and April have been the best months in the past few years - so we may get some more BDOTYs before this season is out.

Weather

Today was the text book definition of a "blue bird" day. I searched and searched throughout the day, but the only two colors I could find in the sky were yellow for the sun and a whole lot of blue for the sky, which I like to call the Utah Blue Sky. The weather was perfect (sorry for yet another superlative). If I really wanted to find something imperfect about the weather, I could complain about wind on the ridge tops and open slopes in the morning, gusting up to 20 mph at times. But this was rare and rapidly as the morning wore on.

Some wind kicking up on the ridge below White Baldy

From Lake Shots across the boulder field and on to Lake Peak.

The skinner to Lake Peak was gratefully already "installed" by someone else.

Location

Our original target for the day was Maybird Aprons and The Church, all in the Maybird drainage. When we arrived at the turn-off bridge to leave Red Pine drainage and head into the Maybird drainage, we noticed something very intriguing - there was no skinner into Red Pine. All the traffic went across the bridge an up to Maybird at this point. That meant we would get first tracks in upper Red Pine! That was a no brainer for us (with Corey's prodding helping us avoid more "analysis paralysis") so we quickly decided to call an audible and make a change of plans from Maybird into Red Pine. When arriving in upper Red Pine, which I hadn't seen in a few years, I forgot how unbelievably big this terrain was. Shortly after the frozen Red Pine Lake, there are no more trees, wide open expanses, and gorgeous views in all 360 degrees of this boulder-strewn cirque. Upper Red Pine and Maybird are like nowhere else in the Wasatch. I've never been to Alaska's mountains in the winter, but I imagine this is a tiny glimpse of what they must look like. We took our first lap underneath No Name Baldy, borrowing another group's skinner that had now caught up to us. It was thigh-deep and all smiles, the whole way down.

No borrowing of the skinner for this friend; he set it all himself and therefore had the whole mountain to himself this morning...at least until 8 am when the crowds arrived.

Our first shot under No-Name Baldy.

With a good set of eyes, you'll see our tracks (and a bunch of others) under No Name Baldy, far right.

Breaking trail above the junction in the pre-dawn (thanks Corey)...on to Upper Red Pine!

Companions

The older I get, the more I appreciate what I like to call "Cardio Companions." These are people who actually like the feeling of a pounding heart, sweat-drenched clothing, a purple face, and shortness of breath, all between 8,000-11,000 feet above sea level. Sound uncomfortable? It's all in the eye of the beholder. After a half-century of life on Earth (I turn 49 next week), these types of friends become increasingly rare. But having these types around you help you mentally, emotionally, and physically when you're in the high country. So today, I am just grateful for Scott, Corey, and Tyler, which comprised today's 4-some. And I am also incredibly grateful for a bunch of other Cardio Companions who I've skied with over the years - way too many names to mention here. You know who you are. Anyways, we finally summitted Lake Peak, evaluated our descent options with a priority on safety and awareness, and then ultimately descended down Lake Couloir. We did kick off a bunch of cornices to see if we could get any direct, indirect, or remote slabs to crack, fall, or slide. Nothing happened - we felt good about our decision. I volunteered to go first and I'm glad I did. I forgot how much fun this line was with 2' of powder, blue skies, and an easy slope down to the lake. Adrenaline still feels pretty darn good - even after 5 decades of life!

This was the perfect "cherry on top" of the Best Day of the Year, which consisted of 9.23 miles and 4459 feet of elevation gain.. It's a day I won't soon forget.