Report from December 8, 2022

I got back from ski guiding in Antarctica late last night.

It took me four days to get home from Antarctica via boat, plane, and automobile.

I showed up in Park City spent, tired, and it was snowing.

The forecast showed 4″ of snow overnight, then the next day was the only sunny day of the week.

The avalanche forecast showed only South aspects being safe.

This combo only meant one thing to me: Suicide Chute.

I knew I wouldn’t be the first one down (I was wrong…), but I was confident it’d still be good.

Jetlag didn’t allow for early morning sleep, so I tossed and turned and sprung outta bed at 6 am (10 am Antarctica time).

It took me until 8:45 am to get all my stuff unpacked and organized and get outta the house.

SnowBrains senior editor, Martin, met me at the Peruvian at 9:30 am. 

Suicide looked good.

It was fresh after the 4″ of new snow that fell overnight, and a group of three was skinning up the apron.

Not bad, I thought, only three ahead of us!

We followed them up the skinner and bootpack, then they disappeared…

They dropped off the back into Homicide – a different chute.

Great news for us, this meant we got fresh tracks in Suicide, and I was pretty stoked about it.

It’s tough to get a line this coveted fresh in the Wasatch nowadays…

The hardy group in front of us came back up Homicide while we were getting ready.

They turned out to be some folks we sorta knew:  Rose, Grant, & Mike.

I dropped in first, and the snow was dry and billowy.

I decided to drop in aggressively and pull back if the snow wasn’t great.

But it was great, so I kept the speed up.

Honestly, I was still worried about hitting rocks still, but nothing turned up.

I last skied this cute on November 30, 2022, and it was pretty boney, I hit a few rocks, but the snow was great.

I’ve skied Suicide quite a few times over the years, but today was the best condition I’ve skied it in.

I skied the chute in under a minute, which I’d never done before.

It felt great.

The very bottom is still rocky, narrow, and pretty beat up. 

I slowly skiddered my way down that ugly choke and then out onto the apron.

The apron skied like a dream.

True powder.

It was tough to get moving this morning after all that travel, but it was definitely worth it to drag myself up Suicide before the big storm rolled in.

PHOTOS