The Central Wasatch may be overrun by backcountry skiers at just about every trailhead, but not all is tracked out. American Fork Canyon in Utah County is basically the “backside” of Little Cottonwood Canyon, and is blessedly devoid of skier traffic. We decided to explore this little-skied canyon and chose The Three Temptations as our destination. The “three” refers to the triple ridges that spill down from the Little Cottonwood divide for nearly 3,500 vertical feet to the bottom of Deer Creek.
We started out by picking up my Uncle Tim, who was visiting from California and wanted to join me, Mike and Adam on a backcountry ski tour. Having eyeballed The Three Temptations for the past few days after a somewhat weak snowstorm, I thought the south-facing slopes would offer up good snow. After loading up the car, we went south around the Point of the Mountain, drove up American Fork Canyon to Tibble Fork, paid the $6 recreation fee, and skinned up the groomed road into Deer Creek Canyon.
Immediately, The Three Temptations became visible – a huge, tasty-looking face with three spines holding dozens of skiable lines. The approach was long (as is typical in American Fork Canyon) but only for those of us spoiled by the Wasatch’s usual short skinning. It took two miles of flat tracking just to get to the bottom of The Three Temptations, where we finally could skin up something steep and gain true vert. Boy, was it steep. Our route took us to the middle ridge, where steep faces undulated with flatter shoulders for over 1,000 feet as it rose into the alpine. The snow was soft under morning sun, and switchbacking became a chore as our downhill skis kept releasing small sluffs that broke away from the skin track.
Hours later, we made it to the top of the spine and traversed to the next one over, which I dubbed “West Temptation.” It seemed to have a more consistent fall-line and climbed all the way to the top of the ridge near the back sides of White Baldy and The Pfeifferhorn. It was hard, exhausting work, and Tim decided to hunker down 1,000 feet below the top to save himself for the ski down. The three of us continued on, choosing to turn around in one hour due to the lateness of the day. We switchbacked higher, and made it to a sub-peak at almost 11,000 feet. It would have been pointless to go further, as the only good skiing was already below our skis. In the cold wind, we hastily ate lunch and switched to ski mode.
We were too late. The sun had softened the snow into creamy goodness, but clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped, creating a zipper crust on all aspects. Only speed and powerful turns could get us down as we made turns on the ridge before dropping onto an east-facing headwall. Finding softer snow, we made fun turns down to a flat where a short traverse back to the ridge got us to a new fall-line. Tim was waiting for us there and joined our zipper-crust cruising.
I like to call it “survival skiing,” that certain form of descending that requires a style suited to not going on a slide-for-life above dangerous terrain. The tail slide, crust buster, thigh ripper, and falling leaf are all techniques we had to employ to make it down through scrub-oak groves and stands of pucker brush. One thing became clear, The Three Temptations has amazing fall-lines, playful terrain, and some of the best views I’ve ever seen in the Wasatch, but it requires soft, deep snow to be truly skiable.
Glad to be down, and buzzing from the workout, we followed our tracks back to the parking lot where our traditional microbrews were consumed on the tailgate. Holding a 3.2 can of IPA up, I said to Tim, “Welcome to Utah.”