Wolverine Bowl above Brighton is an upper elevation area where skiers are forced to go in late spring in search of corn snow. This time of year it may seem foolish to drive up the canyon wearing ski pants and jackets while rock climbers and road bikers recreate in the lower parts of Big Cottonwood. But up around Solitude and Brighton, winter still exists and excellent can still be found.
Although one must go high in spring to find good turns, some of the elevated terrain in the Cottonwood Canyons has the best terrain anyway. Patsy Marley, Wolverine Cirque, Mount Millicent and Tuscarora all have deep snowpacks late into the spring, and there are a variety of aspects to choose from depending on snow conditions and time of day.
Recently, Mason Diedrich and I chose to poke around in Wolverine Bowl. We parked in the Brighton parking lot and skinned up to the top of the Millicent lift. Above the ski patrol shack, the mountain becomes steeper and is covered in windblown snow and rocks. Strapping our skis to our packs, we bootpacked to the top of Millicent and continued on to the saddle before skinning up the ridge to our destination.
At 10,800 feet, Mount Wolverine is the largest peak between Brighton and Alta and allows for descents on Wolverine Cirque, Wolverine Bowl and Tuscarora. Based on the angle of the sun, the bowl had softened up nicely so we did laps for most of the morning. The bowl had about 3 inches of spring corn where we could open up the throttle and make fast, sweeping turns down to the flats above Lake Martha. On some steep sections we set off very small, wet slides that didn’t go very far, but the feeling of our skis sinking into a collapsing snowpack was disconcerting enough for us to find an escape route back to the car.
To exit, we skied down a large chute on the western face of Wolverine Cirque that had not yet been touched by the sun. The snow was crusty but somehow easy to carve on. We made slalom turns around wet avalanche debris and icy rollers before traversing above Twin Lakes back to Brighton where the corn snow was amazing all the way back down to the car.
Based on snow coverage, soft corn, and clear weather, Mason and I both decided that the skiing was still too good to call the season quits. Yard work and home projects are calling, mountain biking is seductive, and my hands are craving the feel of crack climbing in Little Cottonwood. But as long as the mountains are skiable, we’ll continue on, despite looking ridiculous wearing ski pants in 70-degree weather.
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