Backcountry
Report from November 5, 2024
The legendary Andrew McLean & his wife Polly joined me today at Alta!
If you don’t know Andrew, here’s a little about his impressive life:
- 1st professional ski mountaineer in North America
- Designed the “Whippet” ice axe ski pole
- Worked as a designer at Black Diamond for years
- 1st descents on all 7 continents
- Powder Magazine recently voted McLean as “One of the Greatest Skiers of Our Time”
- Author of “The Chuting Gallery – A Guide to Steep Skiing in the Wasatch Mountains” which was the first skiing guidebook devoted to steep ski mountaineering
- The Lead Guide of the Ice Axe Expeditions Antarctica ski trip that I guide each Fall
- Guest on The SnowBrains Podcast
- Once skied 40,000-vertical-feet in 24-hours
The 3 of us pulled into the Alta parking lot at 8:30am in a driving blizzard for ski day #3 of the season (and ski day #516 in the past 2 years).
Strong west wind and moderate snow rates.
Those snow rates seemed to increase as we climbed up the initial slopes under blazing snow guns.
Andrew was out front because I can’t keep up with him.
Polly and I chatted and caught up as we sauntered uphill.
McLean stopped and waited for us at key points of the climb and he did slow down to chat with me for a bit halfway up before launching up the mountain again.
The coverage had greatly improved over the previous day due to the driving snow.
The moguls down low were filled in and some of the rockiest zones up high were a bit less rocky.
Overall, the mountain was powdery.
Shallow powder, but powder nonetheless.
We all 3 tucked in behind the patrol shack at the top of the Collins lift after a 1 hour and 18 minute climb.
In the shack’s lee we were able to chat and catch up some more as Andrew sipped his tea.
The wind was really honking up there at this point.
We battened down the hatches, stepped into the wind, and pushed ourselves downhill.
The upper section is still pretty rocky so we stayed on the cat track for the first slope before venturing off piste and into the soft snow.
The main Collins groom was delightful!
I followed Andrew and he made is trademark blocky turns right down the gut.
Powder snow sprayed off his skis and I couldn’t help smiling.
I’d gone to one of Andrew’s slideshows in Tahoe way back in 2006 and dreamed of skiing with him for about a decade.
That dream finally came true in 2014 when I first guided the Antarctica trip with him and now I consider myself blessed to have the opportunity to ski and hang out with him for a couple weeks per year.
The 3 of us didn’t talk much as it required screamed over the wind and snow guns but when we did it involved simple expletives.
“It’s pretty good!”
“Rocky in this section!”
“Nice snow!”
At the bottom we fist bumped, gathered up our gear, and scampered across the parking lot.
Boots off, quick hugs, and I did what I could to talk them into coming back on Thursday.
Thanks, Utah, and thanks Alta for being so cool and letting us ski whilst you’re closed.
