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Show Page AS Thursday, April 30, It's over By Frank Erickson It's time to get out the bicycles and motorcycles. Dust off the sailboat and tow it to Rockport, or take the windsurfer out on Deer Creek. Crank up the roto-tiller, roto-tiller, plant some beets, peas and lettuce. Forget skiing, the season is over, right? Not quite. The hard-core are still at it, driving around the mountain moun-tain to Alta and Snowbird, or hiking up to hidden pockets of rock-hard or corn snow in the Wasatch. And the fanatics, fana-tics, those people who love pain as much as skiing, are putting on backpacks and cross-country skiing for days across the High Uintas. The snow is fast now. In fact, there's no faster way to cross the High Uintas than in the spring on skis. I joined two skiing crazies ' for a Uinta jaunt last week. Steve Erickson, my brother, skis in circles on the golf course all winter training for races in the Wasatch Citizen's Citi-zen's Series. Wally Chambers Cham-bers pursues the bizarre skiing-shooting sport of biathlon, bi-athlon, and traveled around the U.S. this winter participating partici-pating in contests. Both qualify as fanatic skiers, and are mountaineers as well. Steve has climbed Mt. Logan in Canada, canoed the coastline of Alaska for 70 days, and has been an Outward Bound instructor for three years. Wally did a long, winter solo trip in Wyoming's Wind River Range, climbed Mt. McKin-ley, McKin-ley, and is a smoke jumper for the BLM in Alaska. In the company of a couple of mountain screwballs such as these two, I knew there was little hope of getting out of the trip alive. I began the trip with no small amount of apprehension. apprehen-sion. I'd skied a long trip in the Uintas before with Steve and two other companions in 1976. On that trip, I'd blistered both ankles to the bone. There was the food cache we couldn't find for three days, which left us with nothing to eat but Miso soup. Upper right : Where do you get water when everything's frozen? Just dig a hole in a lake, and dip it out. Far right: Which way to the Bear River? The author navigates without the benefit of maps. Right : Steve Erickson and Wally Chambers cruising down the head of Lake Fort below Porcupine Pass. laaeps Featuring daily luncheon specials Monday through Friday 1981 i he Newspaper mot yet! And a terrifyine descent of Anderson Pass where our two buddies, who at that time were much more experienced ex-perienced in winter mountaineering, moun-taineering, scrambled down ahead of us by a route we couldn't follow, and left us to find our own way. We did, across a wide, steep slope that we knew was going to avalanche any minute. On that trip I knew I was sking through some of the finest alpine scenery I'd ever seen, yet I couldn't enjoy it. I was in shock. The plan for this year's trip was this: Wally had started skiing across the Uintas by himself from the east end. Steve and I were going to ski in from the north slope up Henry's Fork and meet Wally somewhere near King's Peak, and ski with him five days, departing via the Bear River. Wally would continue his trip alone to Kamas, making perhaps the first-ever solo crossing of the Uintas on snow. But there is a western extension of the Bermuda triangle that seems to foul up trans-Uinta trips. Near the same area where we couldn't find our food in 1976, Wally broke a bale on his ski binding. With no spare, he skied 25 miles to Roosevelt with the ski taped and tied to his foot, then rode a bus back to Salt Lake. But with binding repaired and a spare in his pack, he wanted to continue the trip. So, we all skied up Henry's Fork. Wally had a food cache hidden six miles up that drainage he picked up, and we proceeded to ski on the hard snow to the head of the drainage. Following are a few notes from my journal. April 14, Tuesday morning: Sunny and clear. Head of Henry's Fork, Uinta mountains, moun-tains, a huge glacial basin. Camped in a sparse grove of spruce trees. Windy last night, but clear. Skied 12-15 miles yesterday. Heavy packs break your back. Last night Steve climbed the steep couloir that short-cuts f - V--. " . s v.. i i Gunsight Pass to Anderson Pass, and glissaded down. We are considering taking the route tomorrow.' Although Al-though steep, it saves miles. Met a party coming out yesterday. Three men and one woman. They said they had tried to ski the couloir, but the woman had slipped and slid the whole way down, 900 vertical feet. April 15, 6 a.m. : Snowed in at Tungsten Lake. Heavy snow falling, a couple of inches on the ground. Looks like we may not be able to move camp today. Great day yesterday. Climbed the couloir, and then Kings Peak (15,528 ft.). Surprisingly little wind on top and great views of distant peaks Gilbert, Emonds, Wilson, Powell Red Castle and way off in the distance (could only identify it through Wally's binoculars), binocu-lars), Mt. Timpanogos in the Wasatch. Descended the feared Anderson Pass, nemesis of our last trip. Very soft snow, but not very much of it. Easy descent. Then we beelined to Tungsten Pass. Clouds were rolling in and they provided relief from the intense high mountain sun we'd experienced ex-perienced all morning. Above Tungsten Lake, ' bare ground! We camped on -a grassy knoll. Above Tungsten Tung-sten Pass was a slope that Steve couldn't resist, so he climbed up and made a run. Looked like tough skiing. The report: "good enough for one run, but not for two," so he didn't go back up. Camped on dry ground, with water close by in Tungsten Lake. Amazing. All we did to get water was shovel the snow off the lake, and there it was! We theorized as to why there is free water on top of the ice on the lakes, but could come to no concensus. Sure is handy, beats melting snow. About midnight, the moon disappeared behind clouds, then snow began falling. It hasn't let up since. Could be a long day in the tent. . April 15, Afternoon: Storm let up about 2:30 p.m. Steve and I went skiing. Wally stayed in camp nursing foot blisters. I toured down the Yellowstone River for two or RESTAURANT Park City's Tinest Restaurant Closing until Friday May 8th Adolph's at Shadow Ridge Remains open eerwat cwai$ zcrrGris& Open for Dinner Seven Nights a Week 6:00 to 11:00 p.m. Sunday Brunch Live Entertainment ll:00to2:00 TomDistar1 ? k J. n , three miles, then took off my skis and climbed up on a rocky hill. Looked back on King's Peak. I swear, South King's Peak looks taller, although King's is supposed to be the tallest mountain in Utah. Tremendous winds this afternoon. When I returnedoll of Forest Service signs on io camp irom my ski lour, Wally was staking his tent down. It had blown away earlier. Steven got back to camp an hour after me. He'd skied to a pass west of camp, then climbed an unnamed peak and skied the face. In his honor, we named the peak Eddie Mountain. (Steven's middle name is Edward.) April 16, Evening: Long ski today from Tungsten Lake over Porcupine Pass, down and up Lake Fork, over Red Knob Pass and down to Dead Horse Lake, which is the head of the West Fork of Blacks Fork. Wally estimates esti-mates we traveled 17 miles. Steven made some great turns down Porcupine and Red Knob passes. On Porcupine, Porcu-pine, he threw his pack down ahead of him. It pinwheeled down the slope, and as it accelerated, things began flying off. At first he thought it was his avalanche shovel disintegrating, but when he retrieved it, he found it was only his wallet and everything every-thing in it scattered over the snow. Overcast weather today, saved us again from the intense high-elevation sun. - . i --'.,' yV 1 . - V Above : Wally Chambers and Steve Erickson on top of Utah's highest mountain, moun-tain, Kings Peak, 15,528 ft. Right: The wind and weather take their thehih Dasses Wgn passes, Only real problem is soaked boots. April 17, Bear River Scout Camp, Noon: Made it up out of Dead Horse Lake and down the steep chute to Alsop Lake at the head of East Fork Bear River. Easy climb, scary descent down an avalanche chute between the cliffs. Steven sent his pack pin-wheeling pin-wheeling again. This time it went off a cliff and flew through the air for 150 feet before landing. His journal fell out of one of the pockets, but he found all the pieces, and a plastic bottle of stove fuel smashed and leaked on his gear. The price of skiing without a pack! Pack recovered, we headed downriver from Alsop Al-sop Lake. Excellent cruising through trees and open meadows. " Parted company with Wally at Dead Horse Lake. He intends to cross over Dead Horse Pass into Rock Creek, over Rocky Sea Pass into Naturalist Basin, then m 3FlneC5ennan !l ii ifiL Ar.i II Restaurant II DatltJ S-pCCtala I Seafood Beef Oyster Bar I SPeC.nIlZ II Set Sail For I I ffl r n . Wl I I Park City's Finest 8 mv rmederman Pastries Jrftk ill J If Cappuccino lixpresso $ f Restaurant I W 8 UNTIL MEMORIAL DAY i I 402 Main Street jfej Park City gj j At the Resort 649-77781 follow the ridge West to Marion. Above the falls on Left Hand Fork I broke one ski right behind the boot. A mile later I broke the other ski, same place. I placed blame for the breaks on holes I'd drilled in the skis for heel locators that I'd later removed. re-moved. Traded with Steven for one good ski and we hobbled four miles to the scout camp. Luckily, there was a spare pair of skis in one of the back closets of the cook's cabin. We made it out to the Bear River parking area without further incident. Five days later, Wally had not only made it through the Uintas, but had hiked across Kamas Valley and the West Hills and into Park City where he, ended his trip. And except for the stretch between Chepeta Lake and Anderson Pass, he skied the entire length of the High Uintas, most of it alone. l 'A " !! i ,- k' ----- V f i 4r; 3 y .jy I j ' 649-7177 6497060 442 Main Street |