List #1 Provo Peak

Persistency of a backdrop.

I have been staring at this ridge line (from a different angle) for the past 5 years.  For those who do not know what this is, it is the ridge line containing Shingle Mill, Freedom, and Provo peaks.  I have been dreaming mostly for the past two years about climbing Provo peak in the winter, the tallest of the peaks, and snowboarding down it.  It has been an obsession that has cost me hours of web searching and probably and GPA drop.  Every day I look out the window and see theses mountains something insides tells me to drop school, drop work, and just go for it. This is where my problem comes in.  The Utah backcountry is beautiful but deceiving.  There are a list of things that I must do first in order to make my goal.

1) Avalanche awareness and experience. This is number one for sure.  Understanding the weather patterns and snowpack and knowing how to apply that knowledge is the difference between me having the time of my life and dying, and dying is not conducive to me accomplishing the rest of my goals.  This task has been taking me the longest but i have already started this journey. This past December I received a book on avalanche awareness called Avalanche Terrain.

I'm currently in the middle of mastering this book.  Understanding avalanches is extremely difficult because of how many variable there are.  It takes patience.  This book is great but the next step in the field is taking actual avalanche safety courses.  This is my next step.  That is for next winter. 

 2) Obtaining the correct equipment.  This is going to be the most expensive part of my venture.  Before I fell comfortable going out I need the right equipment.  That is not to say i need the best equipment. Five years ago I broke out into the snowshoeing field on the back side of Mt. Timpanogos  and got a field for travelling in the snow.  Then a year ago I actually bought my own snowshoes and was determined to start on the road to more serious winter mountaineering. This past December I took it a step farther by getting a backpack, that can carry all the necessary gear, ski poles that were lacking from last winter, winter hiking shoes, an avalanche shovel, and a slope meter to judge slope angles.  I still need new ski pants, snowboard, boots, ice axe, and avalanche beacon.  This is something that takes time and money.

3) Improving my snowboarding skills.  This is my favorite part.  For the past two years I have either been too poor and too busy to really put in a good winter's worth of snowboarding.  I am very confident on groomed anything.  There is nothing like diving straight down a black diamond and opening my arms and the bottom. It feels like flying!  I'm equally confident and a fresh slop of powder. The last frontier for me is light turns in powder with obstacles and mastering the cliff jump.  If anybody has suggestions as to the resort with the best cliff access and most powder days i would love to hear your input.  I have extensively snowboarded at PC.  Well this goal will be met next winter when i get my ski pass.  I'm so excited to get back to the place I love! The mountains!  I love snowboarding, winter, the cold, and everything that comes with it.

This list might change as I continue to learn what I need.  My goal date for this is FEBRUARY 2013.  I'm going to be updating this post as more develops on this goal.  If there are any suggestions let me know.

That is one sexy spine.

Nothin like a little inspirational video to get you out the door.