Delano Peak

We snowshoed in from the trailhead to the Yurt (4.5 miles) the first day; the weather was warm and sunny but the snow conditions were very poor for shoeing; soft and wet snow the whole way. We followed a trail well worn by snowmobiles. Even in a thin workout shirt, I was hot all the way to the Yurt. Jack started out skiing up with skins but switched to snowshoes due to boot problems.

Snorkeling Elk Yurt is the Marriot of winter camping. A large dome skylight enabled the sun to warm the Yurt to 72 degrees when we arrived. The Yurt has a good sized wood stove which we fired up to dry some wet clothing. Jack and I both got our skis out to take a spin a while after arriving at the Yurt. I was tired but needed practice for the trip down the next day. In the evening we cooked on the provided propane stove and had a quiet evening.

After turning in early, Jack and I took turns stoking the stove every couple of hours. The Yurt stayed fairly warm as long as the fire was going. I went outside at one point for a 'natural break' and the stars were amazing. In the morning we made hot drinks to have with breakfast and prepared for our summit attempt. The weather report had predicted strong winds in Beaver, UT so we were worried that the summit might be crazy.

It was fairly cold but sunny when we started out for the 1.7 mile climb to the summit the second day, the snow was very firm, great for snowshoeing. We were able to go up steep slopes with no worries about grip. The sun was out most of the way up, as we got about a half-mile from the summit the wind picked up quickly. About 300 yards we dropped our snowshoes to cross the tundra ridge blown clear of snow by 50+ MPH winds. At the 12,174 ft summit of Delano Peak there was hard snow and the wind was slightly less fierce. We only spent about 6 min at the peak taking a few photos and some video. Luna was franticly trying to find some shelter from the wind. We headed down quickly fighting the wind and blowing snow. We strapped our snowshoes back on and high tailed it to the shelter of the ridge. The transition to and from gale force wind to the pleasant weather behind the ridge was sudden and amazing, light night and day. On the way down, we glissaded a few sections to the delight of Luna who loved running down the steep slopes.

Unlike the day before, the snow was hard and crusty between the Yurt and the trailhead. It was very difficult skiing down with a heavy backpack on the snowmobile tracked trail.

Trailhead to Yurt: 4.75 miles 1700 vert ft - 2:45 up )snowshoes), 1:40 down (skis)
Yurt to Delano Summit: 1.7 miles 1800 vert feet – 1:45 up, 42 min down

Note: Jack could have skied down in under an hour if I hadn't been slowing him down.

Photos: FB
GPS Tracks: kml gpx
Google Maps: Terrain

Big Baldy - Winter/Snowshoe Trip

Jack and I planed a trip up Big Baldy and undertook the trip just an hour and a half later. We left the vehicle a little after noon and headed up the road to the trailhead. The Dry Canyon trailhead is closed in winter so we departed from the gate in Lindon and headed up the road which was snow packed in hiking boots. We greeted several groups coming down the road.

As we started up the hiking trail (049) in Dry Canyon the surface continued to be snow packed with a few bare spots and a little bit of mud. The air temperature was fairly warm, I was hiking in only a long sleeve exercise shirt. We continued in hiking boots up past the Curley Springs Trail (051) junction.

We put our snowshoes on at the turn off of 049 onto the Big Blady south ridge trail. At the turn the trail had was untracked snow. Near the bottom there were a few rocky spots in sunny exposures where the snow had melted through but was mostly snow covered. As we climbed the snow became deeper, we picked up several tracks on the way, a few boots and a few snowshoes. At times the snow was heavy and wet and a short distance away, around to the east was light and powdery. This is a very steep trail, Jack and I took turns breaking the trail keeping up a good pace. Existing snowshoe tracks were often but not always the best line up the ridge. The sun was making the exposed areas of snow wet and soft, Jack had problems with snow sticking to bottom of his snowshoes.

We reached the flag pole at front peak in about two and a half hours. We took a few photos and decided to continue on to the snowy summit. We shoed along the snowy ridge and made it to the summit in another 15 minutes.

We spent about 25 minutes at the summit before heading down. The steep parts of the decent we quite unpleasant. The footing was unpredictable between sliding and stopping on buried rocks or brush. The less step sections were quite a bit easier but the existing packed trail we came up was usually not the best footing. One of Jack's snowshoes had an equipment malfunction near the bottom of the south ridge and he was forced to hike the rest of the way in his boots. When the trail turned to as much rock as snow I took my snowshoes off and wished I had my Yak Tracks. The footing in boots was very poor.

The mile on 049 was very muddy, a noticeable amount of the trail had melted since our way up and we kept out of the mud as much as possible walking on the side of the trail in grass or snow. The trip down took us about an hour and 45 minutes.

To front peak (flag pole): 2:30 hrs:min
Front peak to summit: 15 min
Vertical: 3500ft
GPS Tracks: kml gpx
Google Maps: Terrain