Barbato Times: January 2010

Monday, January 25

A Bit of Backcountry

Decided after waiting an hour and a half in line to get to Alta that i was going to go to solitude for the day. Passed the Spruce campground in Big cottonwood and noticed that there were tons of people with the same idea that I had. I followed a bunch of people up through the aspen grove to this point. For my first hiking experience, I would consider it a success.

Great shot of Honeycomb Canyon at Solitude

The clouds cleared out just a I reached the top

The sun started peeking through the clouds as I approached the top of the trees.

Skied right through these trees on the way down.

The skin track was so serious. Everyone that passed me said that they couldn't believe how steep it was. The skis were slipping back at some points.

Tuesday, January 19

Dew Tour!!

Simon Dumont!!!

Sarah Burke!!

The winner Jossi Wells

Sunday, January 10

A close call!

Another Beautiful day in the Wasatch Mountains. What you cant tell is that there is a terrible haze in the valley. there is an inversion in Salt Lake and the mountains are warmer than the valley below. That means that the polluted cold air cant rise out of the valley and escape. So you just rise above it in the Mnts.

Jodi's professionally made snowballs.

I could see Jodi's eyes getting bigger as it kept getting larger. I was able to build it quick. There was a trail running diagonal up the ridge and all of the snow shoes had done some good packing. So i just cut out large bricks and stacked a nice jump.

This was just a test run. The skis sunk in to the snow about two feet right after the picture was taken. So i figured, Why not? Right? What you don't see is that i was on the way to the ER after because i thought i broke my back. I couldn't stand up for a bit. But chilled at the car in the ER parking lot for a bit and decided i was going to make it. Really Sore tonight!!!