Canyonlands Skiraft

 

    Spring of this year affords us a pleasantly unique combination in the four corners: near-record snowpack/coverage and a record low lake powell turned temporary river. The skirafter in me is incapable of ignoring such local liquid conveyance - off to the desert!

    The plan involved a ski over the Abajo mountains and across the Dark Canyon Plateau to access the bottom of Cataract Canyon. We started up the snowpacked road in Monticello, but a doctor from Blanding gave us a lift up to the winter trailhead on his way to a midafternoon backcountry sledding break.

    In the regional context of four corners mountain ranges, the Abajos are somewhat unremarkable to look at. What I wasn't prepared for was the caliber of long range views from them - Ship Rock, Chuskas, Sleeping Ute, La Plata, La Sals, Henrys, and even Aquarius, Southern Wasatch, Canyonlands and the Book Cliffs.

    After receiving our required March dose of desert wind on the Abajos ridgeline traverse, we dropped onto the plateau and transitioned to boat sleds.

Trip Video (click to play)

    About 50 miles of skiing delivered us to the first appealing crack in the Earth - Fable Valley.

    Most of Fable is just over 6000' evelation, but in this year we were able to ski over half of it - supportable crust through a sage maze.

        The severe drop from Fable Valley into Gypsum was a different story, but most of the snow was left behind at this point. I've never descended Gypsum canyon before - absolutely stunning with a spring drizzle and some light runoff, but the description of it as 'non-technical' was only technically correct.

        The number and scope of the falls walk arounds in Gypsum is now the benchmark against which I will compare all other canyon routes.

    At the risk of descending into a technical gear discussion, which is my nature, I still can't believe how far we as a community and sport have come over the past decade. Ignoring food, at this point my pack weighs about 35lbs with winter camping gear, ski and packraft kit.

    This Paleozoic semi-jasper replaced coral has more patience for skiraft gear discussion than most.

    Of particular interest on this route, in this year, in the context of a rapidly diminishing Lake Powell, is the re-emergence of rapids in lower Cataract. The rumors are true! Gypsum canyon is the only whitewater we'll have for 36 miles of river, though some interesting nick point / lake sediment incision features above and below the Dirty Devil are far from boring.

    After surveying the headwaters of Dark Canyon by ski, its brown foamy waters are ready to burst into life sometime in the next few weeks.

    The best thing to do on a long tiresome route like this one is to start your recovery before it's over. Hannah and Molly joined at the North Wash launch - the river has been incising so severely that even unloaded rafts would be a challenge to haul up to the lot from the river. A resupply of food and company was most welcome!

    The original goal of this route was to link all the way through a ski traverse of the Henry mountains, but weather, snowpack and body+gear conditions all conspired to draw this one to an early close on the flank of Mt. Hillers.