Utah has a brand new yurt system, and it’s in one of the most spectacular mountain ranges in the country – the La Sals of Moab. Just this winter, Talking Mountain Yurts opened their doors to backcountry and nordic skiers (and summer mountain bikers) with two yurts, the Gold Basin Yurt and the Geyser Pass Yurt. Both offer all the amenities for a several night’s stay and serve as the ultimate base camp for long-range excursions deep into the La Sal Mountains.
In early April, myself, along with some good friends, stayed at the Geyser Pass Yurt for three days and two nights. I chose Geyser Pass because, at an elevation of 10,500 feet, it allows quicker access into one of the most remote sections of the range – the North Group. The yurt is nestled in a meadow right above Geyser Pass, where skiers can get to Mount Mellenthin, Haystack Mountain, Mount Tomasaki, and Manns Peak with relatively short approaches.
To begin, we parked at the Geyser Pass Winter Trailhead, located at the end of plowing on Geyser Pass Road. From there, it’s a 3.7 mile skin to the yurt. It’s a bit of a long approach with a heavy pack, but both Sean Zimmerman-Wall and Mason Diedrich were smart by bringing pulks (sleds attached to harnesses) along. Upon reaching Geyser Pass, finding the yurt was easy as it’s just 100 yards from the Moonlight Meadows Trailhead, near where the Whole Enchilada mountain bike ride begins.
The Geyser Pass Yurt is a huge, 24-foot structure. I think it’s easily the biggest yurt I’ve stayed in, and I’ve been to all of them in Utah. It houses two bunk beds with thick mattresses that sleep six people, and there’s a futon that can sleep two more. The kitchen is all decked out with dishes, pots and pans, silverware, glasses and all the utensils you might need to make gourmet yurt dinners. A three-burner Camp Chef stove pulls cooking duty, and a large wood-burning stove keeps the interior nice and toasty. A large kitchen table and wood chairs encourage everyone to gather around for meals and drinks at the end of the day. A dozen yards from the yurt, a well-built outhouse uses rafting-style groovers for waste disposal, and there’s even garbage and recycling bins.
But you don’t go to a yurt to hang out at the yurt, you go to ski. So we immediately set out for a late-afternoon tour of Haystack Mountain. Clouds came and went all day, alternating from sun to graupel showers. As we approached Haystack, thick fog socked in and we began to rethink an above-treeline ascent. But when we reached the pass on the peak’s northeast side, the ceiling lifted and we could see the incredible La Sal Mountain views around us. A short boot pack took us to the summit, where we quickly transitioned from skins to skis, and made turns on creamy corn snow down Haystack’s open, east face.
The following day was our only full day, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. So we went on a big tour. From the yurt, we skinned down to the base of Mount Tomasaki at a place called, “The Gates of the North.” This awesome name evokes Game of Thrones style images of giant walls keeping out the undead armies. This cliff-walled cleft into the mountainside is the only easy entry into the North Group of the range when approaching from the south, and it actually does feel like you are entering another world as you pass below the shadow of Tomasaki.
Our goal was to ski Tomasaki, but when we got there, it was obvious that winds had scoured every aspect of the peak. But at the head of the canyon, Manns Peak came into view, and she was totally cloaked in a gown of white snow. We continued on, and an hour-and-a-half later, we stood on her summit. Sean and Preston Griffall dug out the summit “hot tub” ring of stacked rocks, and we huddled inside against the cold wind to drink celebratory summit brews and eat a lunch of mini naan and tuna packets.
I think the view from the top of Manns Peak is easily the best on the entire La Sal Mountain Range. No other peak affords a view of both the Middle and North Groups in the range. Mount Peale, Tukuhnikivatz, Tuk No, Laurel Peak, Mount Mellenthin, and Tomasaki can all be seen rising to the south. To the north, Mount Waas, Castle Mountain, and La Sal Mountain beckoned us for further exploration.
After beers and lunch, we chose to ski the east face off the mountain’s south shoulder. The snow had been cooking in the sun all morning, and was now smooth corn. Skiing one by one, we made fast turns all the way down to the bottom of the canyon. Not ready to end the day, we then skinned up the southwest aspect below the ridge connecting Manns Peak to Mount Tomasaki. Open glades cover the entire face, making for some serious hero turns, and again, the snow was classic spring skiing.
Back at the yurt, at 4 in the afternoon, Adam Symonds and Eric Ghanem decided to call it a day. But Sean, Mason and I needed more, so we pointed our ski tips to Mount Mellenthin. It only took about an hour-and-a-half to skin up through what seems like a never-ending forest to the foot of the upper mountain. With plenty of daylight left and perhaps too much enthusiasm, we decided to summit the mountain.
But 1/3 of the way up, where we needed to switch from skins to crampons, the snow turned to rock-hard sastrugi. I had little enthusiasm to climb the rest of the mountain just to ski such… challenging snow. My compadres agreed. So we descended from there and navigated the lower apron through alternating patches of frozen sastrugi and graupel pools.
On our final day, we only had time for a morning tour. So we went back to Haystack to ski a different line off the east face – one that is longer and more direct from the summit. The morning was overcast as we feared that the snow would not soften up enough to ski. But as we skinned to the peak, the sun came out and we had blue skies once again. We retraced our route from two days before and found absolutely no wind at the top. With a clear view down to the red rock desert of Moab below, we set up chairs made from our skis and packs, and cracked open beers to celebrate the yurt life.
The descent was a little trickier, as the sun had not warmed the snow as much as I would have liked, but it was still edgeable as I picked my way down through patches of exposed rock and mid-slope cornices. Back at Moonlight Meadows, we skinned to the yurt to pack up, clean, and head home.
The Geyser Pass Yurt in the La Sal Mountains provided for one of the best yurt trips I’ve ever had in Utah. The yurt is easily the nicest I’ve stayed in, and the only things that would make it even better is a front deck, and a sauna. With those two things installed, I would come back to Geyser Pass year after year.
To book your own trip to a Talking Mountain Yurt, go to their webpage. They are taking reservations for not just winter, but summer mountain biking as well. The Geyser Pass Yurt stays open year-round for riders on the Whole Enchilada Trail, and the Gold Basin Yurt gets moved to Jimmy Keen Flat to be a base for mountain bike rides halfway down the Whole Enchilada Trail.