lightning bolt

The quest to finish the Chuting Gallery continues with the classic Lightning Bolt on Cardiac Ridge.

Rating-S6+, Pitch-60 degrees, Vertical 450ft

Some great quotes from the book- “hopefully avoided all together” “seldom in good shape, lots of rocks in it even with tons of coverage”

This is another one of those lines I’ve never really wanted to ski. I guess that’s not true, I’ve just never seen it in great conditions. Lightning Bolt is really steep and rocky which isn’t a great recipe for lines in the Wasatch. It doesn’t seem to get enough sun to bake a firm base into it. Also, it doesn’t seem to flush itself naturally until spring, so it maintains a nice rotten and rocky snowpack unlike most chutes. I’ve filmed Andy Jacobsen from the top as he hit rock after rock on the descent.  And I’ve watched the unbelievable TGR footage of Chris Collins somersaulting after hitting a rock midway, then somehow popping back onto his feet and skiing through the rocky apron (looked hard, but couldn’t find the video or pics). Jeremy Jones is the only one I’ve seen ride the thing clean and in good fashion. Deep down I’ve been hoping that the rocky traverse would somehow miraculously fill in one of these years. It hasn’t and probably never will, so enough excuses let’s ski the damn thing.

For some reason I felt like I needed to go this one solo. It felt great to be out breaking trail on a sunny day with several inches of new snow and nobody around. That is pretty rare these days in the Wasatch.

Temps were warming up fast so I dropped around Little Superior, skinned across the apron of North Superior and booted up Thunderstuck as quick as possible.

Looking oh so good! Too bad looks can be deceiving and sometimes downright dangerous.

It was the best of turns, it was the worst of turns. The upper was deep and soft and I was giggling inside thinking I had nailed it in perfect conditions. Then as it rolled over, the snow all sloughed out and I was left standing on a very firm, but breakable crust. I put in a few jump turns, but mostly side stepping through the gut.

The rocky and exposed zig, or is it zag.

The damn crust thickened up here, see it gleaming in the sun. I had to really stomp it out of the way.

Some ugly tracks in the chute, but If it were pretty it would be called ski ballet. The turns on the apron were a nice way to finish.

Some mellow pow sounded nice, so I hiked Mt. Superior for some PTSD turns off the summit

Finished a great day in the mountains by skiing Alta with Pricess Slaya (Zoe) and Lord Helmet (Jonah)!

Winter is turning to Spring and we’ll see if weather and conditions allow the final 2 descents this season.

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