Wind Rivers

For 5 days myself and 7 others skied in the "Cirque of the Towers." The "Cirque" is located in the southern portion of the Wind River range, Wyoming. The tour in was a little trickier than expected due to a lower-than-anticipated snowline. Ryan and myself arrived a few hours before the rest of the gang so we were the first to find this somewhat surprising discovery. We estimated that the road was blocked by snow approximately 8 miles from the trail head. The tour into the Cirque is approximately 9 miles from the trail head, so, tacking on another 8 miles meant a good solid 17 mile one-way adventure. Simon, the leader of said expedition, wrangled up some snowmobiles (here on referred to as 'mowers) which allowed us to travel the first 8 miles rather quickly. It was still, however, a bit of a logistical nightmare because we only had 3 mowers for the 8 of us, so it took roughly 3 hours to get us all to the trail head. These difficulties were of course exacerbated by the scant 3 hours of sleep and copious amounts of alcohol that were ingested the evening prior.

Yours truly getting towed (photo courtesy of http://www.mintchewsessions.com).

Elle and Johnnie packing up one of the 'mowers for the journey in.

The scene at the rigs

The first night we stayed at Big Sandy Lake. Not much really happened the first evening, we pretty much ate dinner and went to bed. That first day in was pretty exhausting. Everyone carried 50-70lb packs and we also managed to get a bit off-course, extending a 7 mile journey into about 8. The next morning we awoke to pretty nice, partly overcast skies and made our way to the Cirque. Only 2 miles to go, but about 2000 feet of vertical. All and all the second day of travel was pretty easy and straight-forward, we were even able to get a few quick turns in that evening.

The weather over the next 4 days was quite variable. One morning we awoke to 6+ inches of new graupel that made made for some excellent morning skiing. This graupel, however, was quickly warmed by that big fire-ball in the sky and turned to glop. Quite a bit of wet-avalanche activity kicked up on south facing slopes and so some of us decided to relax awhile.

Simon, myself and Sam chillin in the lounge. Drinkin' wine, eatin' cave-aged gouda and dry-salami (photo courtesy of mintchewsessions.com).

Ryan skiing with Pingora in the background.

Ryan making some nice turns in the fresh chowder.

Ridge-line winds were pretty high at times in the Cirque.

The journey out of the Cirque was made more interesting by the fact that Ryan and I needed to leave a day earlier than the rest of the gang. This meant we would have to skin (walking with skis on, kind of like cross-country skiing) the 8 miles that we cruised with the 'mowers. We didn't give too much thought to this until we were at the trail head, somewhat tired, with still 8 miles to the 'Cruiser. What was really a mind-f*** was that 4 or so miles of the 8 remaining miles were through giant meadow/prairie areas. Whole hours would go by with no change in scenery, which, when your tired and pretty beat down can be a real deal-breaker. In any case, we did in fact make it to the 'Cruiser, just before dark, and made it to a Village Inn in Rock Springs where we had pretty "classic" Village Inn/Dennys/Sherrys service. Whew. Then, all the way back to where we started this trip in SLC.

For more photos go to my flickr account or Ryan Hayes' "mint chew" page.