Utah Adventure Journal

You are browsing the archives of 2016 January.

The smell of gasoline fills my nostrils, a high-pitched whine fills my ears, and a bumpy vibration fills the space between my legs. Though this may sound like a teenage boy’s fever dream, I’m actually riding on the back of a snowmobile down the closed-for-the-winter Mirror Lake Highway to the Ridge Yurt in the Uinta […]

Mount Warren’s north face was as yet unclimbed, winter or summer. We needed an excuse for a nine-day ski tour into the northern Wind Rivers, and a first winter ascent would be a nice coup. On top of packs towering over our heads we added rock and ice gear, easily the heaviest load I have […]

  You have probably seen them:  the skinny guys wearing the neon yellow boots with almost no buckles, carrying poles that are too long and packs that are too small, on kid-sized skis with toy bindings…and going past you remarkably fast up skin tracks.  “Ah” you think, as you step aside to let them swish past.   “Skimo guy.  Dork!  Why don’t […]

  To say I was sucking wind would be an understatement. At one point, I wasn’t even sure I was skiing. Yes, things that looked like skis were attached to my feet though they were only about an inch and a half wide. And there was certainly snow all around with views of mountain peaks, […]

Photos by Mike Schirf The winter mountains are a sanctuary, a world of glittering wonder. Freedom is the quiet serenity found while skinning and skiing untracked winter powder. In the realm of earned turns, notions of controlled slopes and corporate responsibly hold no validity. The mountains offer extreme opposites; mighty destruction and absolute peace. Overwhelming […]