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...

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...