Cold Fusion Attempt Summary
4 April, 2020
Before I start, we did not make it to the peak so this will not be a rad success story. That being said there is still good beta and other takeaways from failed missions. We had a learning experience where no one was hurt and I believe we made a good decision. So here we go…
With a few days of cool temps (for April), clear skies and previously light winds the idea of skiing the Cold Fusion Couloir off of Mount. Timpanogos could become a reality. The chute/couloir is really a massive 2000+ ft slide path off the direct north side of the mountain. It stays well shaded the majority of the time which could be great for snow quality, but also make for a sketchy weak layer early in the year.
-Photo from Wasatch and Beyond
We left Sugarhouse, Salt Lake with myself, Jeremy Collette, and Alex Arnis. We then met snowboarder/friend Grady Mellin in the Mutual Dell parking lot of American Fork Canyon, after chatting we skinned up and started walking.
Skiing Cold Fusion is not a small matter, mostly in the approach, it is over 5 miles with 2000 feet of elevation gain. The first mile was a sheet of ice on a somewhat steep hiking trail. Jeremy dropped some sarcasm at this point saying, “You know it’s good conditions when you can see your reflection in the skin track.” This trail then meets up with a road which you skin on until you reach the lower apron of Cold Fusion, on the way you get to go under some massive faces that would be really cool to ski, and very scary to be near if avalanches are on the menu.
-Slide path and chutes on the NE side of Timp.
When we reached the bottom we looked through the bushes and could see the chute. This was when I first noticed the wind…
-Looking at Cold Fusion from the base, wind pluming off the top.
Cold Fusion has three main parts: the lower apron and tube, the middle/choke, and the top. The lower part is fairly low angle with a really fun gully to party shred. The middle is likely the steepest part and has some cliff bands running across it. But, both of these sections are more sheltered from the elements due to trees on either side of it. The top is a whole new monster. It isn’t sheltered from the west, which is where the wind is often coming from. Despite forecasts showing mild winds, this is a high and exposed peak and is usually an outlier from those.
Sure enough we see large plumes of snow getting blasted off the west ridge of the top. It is obvious that the top is being heavily loaded. This was a big red flag for us.
We continue to skin up and see if the wind dies down, which it doesn’t, and pretty much make up our mind that we won’t be skiing this classic from the top. As we continue we start to notice more areas that have been wind effected. This skin track goes up the gut for a bit but then veers right out of the couloir and into some spaced trees. Here we notice the wind scouring and cross loading the slopes. After digging some hand pits I could see some hard slab development with facets underneath. The crust was supportable and on a lower angle slope, but spooky.
-Textured wind skin snow next to Cold Fusion
Once the skinning on this aspect became difficult, we moved back into the chute. Before we headed out we opted to dig a pit and do an ECT. Where we did this we noticed a large slab on top of facets. But it did not propagate, the facets seemed to be healing well and the slab on top was very cohesive. Despite this, we knew it was not going to be representative of the top. We decided to let our poor feet rest, transition, and head down.
I ripped some turns of really good snow and stopped to take some photos of the crew rip the skiers left wall. We then regrouped and party shredded the tube, which was an absolute blast!
-Jeremy ripping the left side of the middle section of CF.
-Alex boosting off a little cornice into the soft cream.
-Tube Shred!
The tube constricts and meets up with the road we came in on, we were able to push for a while then had to transition while getting one last look at the one that got away.
-The one that got away
We skinned for a bit, then arrived at the last downhill, which was a heinous ice, almost melted out hiking trail. After being terrified on this for the majority of the way, we took our skis and boards off and walked the rest.
-Icy death track
Making it to the bottom all I could think about was taking my boots off, then promptly sat in the parking lot and drank a beer with my socks off. Our normal stoke from a big line was not there, but we were positive and thankful to be there.
-All the blisters and bone spurs.
Skiing the backcountry is a special thing that is very physical, but also so mental. The planning is one aspect, but so is the psychology of decision making. In decision making there are many traps that can catch us and put is in a bad situation. On that I and others can fall into, is the trap of being goal driven. This is a common trap for backcountry skiers and it can lead to ignoring red flags, or justifying why questionable decisions are okay. In this scenario it is hard to put in all the work and decide that it isn’t a good idea. But looking back, there are so many good days out there that we owe it to the mountains not to win them all. If the mountain says no, listen to them so it doesn’t have to make listen.
We will be back!
-Views looking back at the valley.
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