Ben Lomond, UT

[DJC]

First trip report, trying to make it a good one. I live in NYC but have a small place in Eden, UT in the Ogden Valley between Powder Mountain and Snowbasin. I was lucky enough to be able to live out there for about 5 weeks this winter and was a Powder passholder. Everyday when I left my condo I saw this:

That is Ben Lomond and Willard Peak. These are the mountains that seperate the city of Ogden from the Ogden Valley. Here is a better view from the Ogden side:

Ben Lomond peaks at 9712 feet and is impressive to view from Ogden because it rises straight up above the city. It is not a very popular backcountry venue (as compared to LCC and BCC anyway) but certainly has been skied plenty of times. That being said it is a fairly difficult hike and presents a pretty big challenge (for me anyway). This past weekend I decided to go for it along with two of my local friends, Jarred and Jessie. Conditions were right - the temperature dropped significantly behind a cold front on Thursday that dropped a little bit of snow. Conditions were stable and we even had a shot at a little May powder.

We are all snowboarders, I ride a splitboard but found that this hike would be accomplished all on foot due to snow conditions and our approach. We decided to make a long ridgeline approach which increased our mileage but decreased our vertical slightly. We started at approximately 6100 feet here:

We were able to follow a summer trail up the steep canyon initially. We must have hit at least twenty switchbacks:

Eventually we gained the ridge:

But not before seeing fresh mountain lion tracks:

We had climbed about 1000 feet at this point. I tried to hail a cab (I am from NYC after all):

Unfortunatly, no cabs came, so we kept going. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the next section was a steep climb:

Once we made the next ridgeline we were rewarded with an amazing view:

And we got a look at our goal...still very far away:

More to come...

 

[DJC]

So we kept hiking:

And hiking:

We eventually made it to Chilly Peak and then had to deal with an intimidating downclimb. We had to cross a scary cornice and I was never comfortable with hiking down (probably because I can see way too much):

View of the downclimb from the bottom:

Our next reward was a great view of our goal. This is the south-east face - we skied the north face, but this face does get skied. It is very steep and clearly very slide prone:

We also took in a great view of the salt lake:

We continued to make our way across the ridge to the base of Ben Lomond face:

 

[DJC]

We had about 1000 feet to go. The climb was tough here. Clouds were moving in and out and it was quite cold for May - about 30 degrees. Everytime a cloud moved in front of the sun the snow hardened quickly. The face is steep and was becoming icey. None of us had crampons...that will not happen again. Jessie also made her own poles:

Eventually we struggled to a false summit, which really pissed me off. We had to cross another scary cornice that really got to me. Luckily Jarred went full steam ahead and we stayed as far back from the edge as possible. Another 200 feet to go:

Eight miles, 3600 vertical feet, and seven hours into our day we made it. My stupid summit pose:

I will post the descent soon...

 

[cbcbd]

That looks awesome!!! Can't wait to see the descent pics!!

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice report..serious Utah stoke!!!

 

[DJC]

The first 200 feet was hardened wind slab. Tough going especially considering our legs were pretty shot.

After the first roll over, however, we found May powder! The snow was perfect for the next 1000 feet or so:

Jessie riding over a bit of old slide debris:

A little sluff chasing me:

Jared making turns:

Jessie nailing a low angle cornice:

Looking back up at the first 1500 feet:

We made our way into the trees. The snow had become a perfect corn at this point, the riding still excellent:

As we got lower and lower the snow turned to mush. I was amazed at how far we were able to ride. The snow pack has been amazing in Utah this year and this northeast facing bowl was really blown in. Regardless, it is May, so the snow had to suffer at some point.

Jessie:

Jared in the deep woods:

 

[DJC]

We eventually reached a creek bed and had to unstrap. We were totally spent at this point and had to hustle out of there because there were fresh moose tracks and droppings everywhere! Moose in Spring (with their young) can be very dangerous.

We made it to the campground where we had dropped a car:

Exhausted but thrilled, we looked up one last time:

And smiled:

 

[andyzee]

Schweet, great first report!

 

[DJC]

Thanks for the compliments! May go for a few couloirs we saw off of chilly peak in a few weeks, so I'll be sure to take more pictures.

 

[cbcbd]

Lol, those "deep woods" look very thick

Excellent stuff, keep on posting... good BC stuff!!

 

[DJC]

Lol, those "deep woods" look very thick

Excellent stuff, keep on posting... good BC stuff!!

yeah, the woods at that point were pretty tough, especially considering I could hardly move my legs. We needed to traverse a long way to get back to the car and all I wanted to do at that point was not hike anymore, so I basically bounced my way from tree to tree for as long as possible.

 

[kingslug]

Nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[arik]

well told and illustrated!

 

[ComeBackMudPuddles]

Thanks for that!

Great combo of pix and text made for a superb story.

 

[severine]

Awesome report!!! Thanks for sharing it with us!