The start of December welcomed a much needed snowstorm in Utah’s mountains, with high winds and 8 inches of snow falling on the western Uintas. The day before, Adam and I drove to Wolf Creek Pass on State Route 35 to explore a bit of Uinta goodness, and hopefully score some powder shots in the process.
Sunday was warm but the winds were blowing fierce as we parked at the pass summit and skinned alongside snowmobiles that buzzed around like insects on the snow. An obvious ridge rose straight from the road with a nice head wall where old ski tracks proved we came to the right place. We skinned up the shoulder and switched to ski mode behind a stand of pines to block the incessant howling air. The north face was crusted and rocky at the top, but a few turns later all things became soft and fast. But it was all too short as only 400 feet of vertical put us into the flats and the end of the run.
Skinning back up, we traversed west along the ridge to another bowl that feeds into Neeley Basin. It was clearly wind loaded so we stayed along the trees where more wind crust scattered our ski tips until more protected snow could be found. Going back up, we discovered a protected area where recrystalized powder sat undisturbed by ski or air, so we made another lap through the best snow of the day yet.
Another run on the first headwall returned us to the highway where a short skin back up to the road put us at the car where cold beer awaited.
The next day we returned, convinced that there was more to explore. Topo maps showed immense cirques radiating out from Wolf Creek Peak that invited us to see if anything was skiable. But summiting the peak led to disappointment as all aspects were scoured by wind. So we skied the gladed, north-facing pines back to the road where a local directed us to drive down canyon where we would find a slide path that has more skiable vert than anything else around. Skeptical but intrigued, we drove a few miles down canyon and found what he described – a swath of an old avalanche path with plenty of coverage that rose right from the road.
We quickly geared back up and broke trail through pine and aspen forests to the a ridge that we followed. Topping out above the start of the slide path, we took some photos and then skied fresh powder that had fallen the night before. Low angle meadow skipping is the best way to describe it, though the aspect steepened up at the bottom where a mess of fallen trees conspired to break our legs. Keeping tips up, we hopped logs and linked turns all the way back to the “yurt on wheels.”
While the skiing wasn’t terribly amazing – short vertical, variable snow – we still had a fun time checking out a backcountry ski area with zero crowds that can be accessed right from the road. Wolf Creek Pass seems to be a perfect, high-elevation area for early season touring.