TR: 2-16-2008
Location Vail Pass-Utopia (delivers...)
Participants: killclimbz, Jon, Mark, Cody, Bella
3 miles round trip less than 300 vertical gain
2200 vertical climbed and descended.
Utopia...
We all seem to look for it. Fortunately for me it lies on Vail Pass or at least the mushroom mashing pillow case smashing land of Utopia does. I've read several trip reports on this place on TGR and have looked it over driving down I70 from Vail Pass. This is within the sled zone, so most people use 'biles to get out there and do laps. Vail Pass is also a hot bed of sled skiing/riding and 'biling in general. It is quite a shit show actually. Fotunately the sledders are considerate for the most part, and there are human powered only trails you can take. Still, you hear the whine of the engines all over.
Getting ready to go.
and of course there are rental outfits on the pass. Judging by the fat assed 'bilers (the worst kind at least the sled riders are doing to slide not just for fun) we saw at the end of the day, this is a good business.
The skin in is about 1.5 miles. You only gain 300 vertical in that 1.5 miles. It's pretty flat. Making for an easy hike out. It took us less than an hour to get there.
The Shrine Mountain Inn is located in this area. About .3 of a mile further than we hiked out. Talk about an easy hut trip. There are three huts located here. This is one of the larger ones. I am not sure which one but it looks super nice.
These huts also have running water, showers, and a sauna from what I understand. Talk about luxury. They are also very close to Utopia. Plans are in the works...
Here is a shot of the ridge that is within striking distance of the huts.
Definitely looks worthy. A bit far out for a day trip. Unless of course you were on a sled. No tracks up there leads me to believe that is a non-motorized area.
We got to the top of the ridge at Utopia and the first 100 or so vertical of this thing is steep. Tipping at around 50 degrees maybe steeper in spots. Piled with snow. Avy danger had been trending down in this area but before dropping in we dug a pit to take a quick look at the risk. The top 3-4 feet of the snow was fist soft. Going from fist to 4 finger at the next layer to finger hard beneath. So the soft layers were on top, but they were sizable. We did a quick shovel shear test.
A column test popped at the first pull.
The shear was fairly rough but did have a nice bed surface to slide on. This of course was the top layer and the layer beneath was basically of the same consistency. The second layer popped out with a much cleaner sheer.
All things considered, the results did say it could be touchy. Two other things to consider. Lot's of pillows here and ribs to ride on. Anything that slid would be short lived. A good chance most of you would be on top. Unless of course the hard slab at about 5 feet down went. Then that could be trouble. The snowpack seemed deep enough that there weren't many shallow triggers to make that go. So Jon held onto Cody and I gave it a drop.
I did a slope cut on a more conservative line. The top layer released but just sluffed off. I let the sluff settle and dropped a little double pillow line as it turns out. Oh man that was good.
cont...
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