Managed to finish up last weeks “week of new” with a real beauty. It was many, many years ago that I first saw what looked like a possible connections of chutes on the Northeast side of Storm Mountain. If you’re one of those couloir seekers, chute tweakers, or steep freakers then no doubt you’ve seen it on the drive down Big Cottonwood Canyon. Lean snow years have kept me away, but this season I bumped this line back towards the top of the hit-list after staring at it from across canyon in the Whipple and Waldo chutes. Matt Primomo and I have been texting back and forth about getting out all season. When he sent over recent images he’d taken that confirmed that it appeared to be in good shape, we decided to give it a try. I convinced Ben Peters mother that we were just going to ski some mellow angle pow and she let him come along to play.
This slightly possible passage down this complicated face is called the “Spindrift” couloir. It was first descended on snowboard in April of 1998 by local badass Bill Hunt. I just found this information out after our descent and we didn’t have any beta going into it. We did a slight variation to his line. Our line is marked in red below, Bill stayed on the ridge up top and managed it in only one rappel. That was a big snow year and Bill rode several other “lines” in the area that season.
It was all new to us!
Sunrise over the smog-blanketed valley.
Our approach of choice was up Ferguson Canyon since Ben and I had put in the trail only a week before and it seemed much easier than booting up Stairs Gulch to the ridge.
Ben and I have been cutting things a bit close on some of our recent outings by going light on rock protections, a single 60m rope, no crampons, etc. On this day we agreed to go heavy and come prepared so we could save time and stress by having what we needed.
Gaining the ridge was pretty simple and easier than the week before.
Photo: Ben Peters
Matt was like a kid in the candy store with this new perspective on the Wasatch.
I’ve already posted a few times in recent trip reports about how incredible and exciting it is to find new lines to explore right here in our little backyard, so close to the valley. I’d like to repeat that sentiment again with an exclamation!
We referenced Matt’s photo’s and found what we hoped was the entry. It was perfect and sunny out, but we were about to drop into the shadows and remain for most of the day. Ben slowly working his way in.
Matt and Ben dropped first and second. Coming in third, I took about 4 turns before the gripped feeling of anticipation turned into pure jubilation. The upper treed chute was great powder at a nice steep pitch! It was hard not to get too excited since it was possible we were just getting ourselves deeper and deeper into trouble. Off to an incredible start though and I couldn’t hide the excitement.
Ben Peters tracking it up.
Matt Primomo getting into it on the split-board.
My silly self following suit. Photo: Ben Peters
The chute had some rocks and some tight areas to work through and then it opened up out of the trees.
There was a small ice bulge that we could just sneak by. After that it opened up and clearly cliffed out below us.
We had spotted this live tree in the recon photos. We quickly slung it, clipped in our two 60m ropes and rapped into the unknown.
The first rap got us to a little cave where Matt looped some webbing around a rock pinch for our second anchor.
We trended skiers right and one more full length rap barely got us to the top of the next skiable section. We were using dynamic ropes which allowed enough stretch to reach, two static 60m’s won’t get you there.
Matt Primomo long lining it.
Ben Peters on rappel.
Fully committed at this point! Photo: Ben Peters
Nowhere to go but down, but we were into the chute system we had been aiming for and it looked promising below.
A fun rib and some of the steepest turns of the line were shortly followed by a short rappel.
Ben pounded in a pin and Matt found a nut placement while I watched and posted on instagram for those joining us and our “live feed”. 😉
We dropped into the narrow chute. The section that is clearly visible from the road.
High walls, perfect chalky snow and room to turn. I know most skiers don’t get off on this, but for those of us that do, this was steep skiing at it’s finest!
Matt Primomo diving deep into the well.
Ben Peters always on the shred.
Old man Howell with the hop and chop. Photo:Ben Peters
Photo: Matt Primomo
Photo:Ben Peters
Photo: Matt Primomo
The chute opened up and we snuck out skiers left through some shrubs and across a ramp. Ben aired out a small patch of rocks covered in ice. The apron was firm and he almost pulled off the landing, but ate shit and tumbled. Matt and I looked at each other and decided to do a short rappel. One could also down climb this section with crampons and tools, or I’m sure it fills in later in the year.
We were getting closer and closer to the apron and we could see two tracks from skiers coming out Stairs Gulch.
Matt working the good snow on the periphery.
It chocked back down and we encountered a small patch of icy snow, maybe from the recent rain event? 
And then three thousand feet later we dumped onto the soft powdery apron!
Maybe our expectations had been really low, or maybe the snow really was that good, but we looked back up in disbelief at how easy our passage through the “Spindrift” Couloir had been.
Enjoying the friendly apron after spending hours on edge. Photo: Matt Primomo
I can’t think of any other Wasatch chutes that offer up around 3,000 feet of great skiing at a steep sustained pitch with just the right amount of technical spice?! It really is a steep skiing classic and I’m already thinking about going back and skiing it again, possibly sticking to Bill’s original route and eliminating some of the rappelling. Huge thanks to Matt and Ben! The perfect team to quickly, safely and easily pull this off.
We hitched down the canyon and happily crammed into the first car that stopped. Followed by a proper celebration with large quantities of Mexican food and cerveza at Lone Star!
For sure, I have seen it. digging online has confirmed some photos of stairs with much better coverage. Hopefully a pattern will set up for a moist productive spring. There are also some great link-up possibilities with the spin drift, I’m sure you are aware.
Strong work,well documented passage. I have been looking at that thing for quite some time. Good to see a group stone-up and get it, Cheers!
Thanks Dan! It really can be better than it looks. And I’m sure in the wrong conditions it could be bad.
Cheers,
Very cool, Noah, it looks really fun. You could easily write a route description with anchors, etc, on a pic and publish it, like a climbing route. Not like it’s going to get crowded, or maybe it will?
Yeah, I’d like to go back and see if it can’t go a little cleaner with only one rap. I think that would make it a much better route.
Looks fantastic! Love the look of the couloir with the steep walls!
Keep it coming!
Thanks Jim! So much fun stuff out there.