Report from July 19, 2020

I arrived in Utah after a long absence on Friday and paddle-boarded the Jordanelle Reservoir after 75 ski days in a row in Mammoth and the Eastern Sierra, CA.

I went tubing down the Provo River on Saturday (and got a $140 ticket for no lifejacket…).

Paddleboarding the Jordanelle again on Sunday.

I spent Monday catching up on work.

Tuesday I had 2022 Big Air Olympic Silver Medalist Colby Stevenson on The SnowBrains Podcast.

Yesterday, it was time to ski.

My buddy Daryn and I started up Alta in sneakers at 9:30am.

We took the normal Baldy Shoulder route first touching the top of the Wildcat chair then following the trail to the summit.

On the true summit of 11,068′ Mt. Baldy a cornecopia of butterflies and bees flapped and buzzed over brillant purple daisies.

Snowbird and Pipeline. image: snowbrains

I was in awe…

The main reason to venture to the summit was to see if Pipeline Couloir at Snowbird went or not.

It went.

Mostly…

We clicked in at the top of Main Chute and the thing looked good.

Clean snow, smooth bumps, a tight choke, and explosive debris saturated the chute.

I wanted to do a follow cam with Daryn and I told him to go as fast as possible.

Instead, he thought he needed to slow down to allow me to catch up.

I did so then blasted past him as I realized how good the snow was and how fun the ski was going to be.

45-seconds later I was at the bottom of the chute and not even panting.

Suicide Chute on Mt. Superior, UT. image: snowbrains

The snow was that good!

Daryn showed up right behind me and we hit the reverse wiggle with glee.

The final snowfield down to the road skied like a parking lot full of rumble strips.

Paddleboarding the Jordanelle. image: snowbrains

We re-shoed our feet and started the casual walk home.

The flowers were nice.

The whole ordeal took 3 hours and 30 minutes including our jaunt to the butterfly-infested summit.

Floating the Provo. I got a $140 ticket for not wearing a life jacket. Make sure you are wearing it. You don’t have to wear a helmet when driving a motorcycle on the freeway in Utah… image: snowbrains

On our drive home, we examined Suicide Chute and how it was hanging in space.

“Tomorrow,” we said…

Immediately after skiing I went to the doctor and got PRP injected into my knee for the 4th time since February 2022.

The first time I got the injections they didn’t do much and I experienced typical arthritis pain and swelling (I have no cartilage nor meniscus left in the lateral compartment of my left knee).

The 2nd time I got the injections they worked and I was completely arthritis free for 7 months.

Then I did the Eastern Sierra Blackjack Project – 21 new-to-me ski mountaineering lines in the record snowpack of 2023.

Towards the end of the project, we started walking downhill due to a lack of snow.

My knee swelled up 3 times.

I started taking Celebrex (NSAID prescription drug) as a band-aid and it worked.

Yesterday I got PRP in the knee again (I usually get them done every 6 months, but this time I did it again after only 3 months) somewhat prophylactically knowing that I was about to head down to Argentina and Antarctica for 3 months of hard skiing.

Fingers crossed it helps 🙂