PIPE DREAMS
Spring Skiing-Snowbird’s Pipeline
Sure anybody can ski 20 to 40+ inches of fresh pow at Snowbird and it is truly a wonderful experience. Floating down steep terrain is something that many of us eastern skiers relish the most. I've been lucky enough to have more than a few of those days. However spring skiing at Snowbird is highly under rated. In fact one of the the most memorable days I've ever had at Snowbird is skiing the Pipeline Chute and Bowl in mid April.
Located 1000 ft above Snowbird’s Little Cloud Chair and far to the right off the Summit of West Twin lies the Pipeline. The Pipeline Chute is at the top of the Gad Valley and dumps into the Little Cloud Area. To get there start off the Road to Provo and hike a steep and at points narrows to 3 ft wide ridge line to the top of East Twin. One misstep on this part of the journey and you might find yourself tumbling down a cliff and most likely end up taking a dirt nap!
“Auntie Claire & Uncle Tim” (Wife Julie’s brother and sister-in-law) lead us. Tim is on the Snowbird Ski Patrol
The ridge line hike to East Twin
From East Twin looking back to where we began. Road to Provo cat track on the left and Mineral Basin on the right.
After summiting East Twin we hiked the saddle to the summit of West Twin. By far the most pleasant part of the hike as you don’t have to pay such close attention to where you take your next step. One can actually start to look around and enjoy top of the world mountain views
The saddle looking towards West Twin
Wife Julie at the Summit of West Twin
At the top of West Twin we sideslipped down the apron from the summit to the entrance of Pipeline. Once again that was a bit hairy as there were cliffs on both sides. It took us almost an hour to get to the entrance from the Road to Provo.
Yours truly sideslipping towards the entrance to Pipeline
The entrance to the actual chute is wide and narrows substantially as you head down towards the open bowl and then into the Little Cloud Area. If you ever skied the Baldy Chutes at Alta it’s about the same pitch… steep but not quite as steep as the head wall at Tuckermans.
Auntie Claire at the entrance
The Pipeline
The author in the Pipe
It took all of 4 or 7 minutes if you stopped half way down to ski the Pipeline. Corn snow that sloughed off and kept you company on your ski down. My memory of this event, on a blue bird day in April with temps in mid 40°s is almost unsurpassed.
At the bottom of Pipeline, funny how it doesn’t look that steep!
The Skiers Talkin’ Trash at lunch
Back in the parking lot for a late lunch barbecue. We all hoisted a few and talked like skiers about all we could do.
Greg Anthony