Hand Crack and Singletrack: Skiing the Bird(not the one you think)

Great sky from the top of Maybird

"The Bird" is the abbreviation most skiers from around SLC use to describe Snowbird(as in, lets go shred the Bird!), the world class resort located up LCC. We skied "the Bird" yesterday, but one of a different character. Rather than high speed quads, thousands of skiers, groomers, and overpriced restaurants, this "bird" contained a beach of uncovered rocks, chest high graupel, a whole lot of exertion, and some of the best couloir skiing we've had all year.

In a canyon full of 5 star couloirs, Maybird is just that, another 5 star couloir. In my opinion, the "Big 5" of south facing couloirs in LCC are, top to bottom,
1. Little Pine
2. White Pine
3. Tanners
4. Maybird
5. Lisa Falls

This would be our 3rd of the 5 this year.

Jake, Court and I started up the boney and somewhat technical skinning entrance due to low coverage. The snow had the consistency of sugar, with every flavor of "dippin dots" imaginable as we like to refer to the graupel. It was fairly miserable to skin in as it was totally unsupportable. Booting was no better. Somehow the 7" of newly fallen snow had turned into 3 feet of loose confetti.

Skinning through rocks into the rocky maw ahead

Finally some decent coverage

It was hard to keep your head down when this was behind you

We pressed onward, but were making poor time. Jake called it quits about 7 pm, 3/4 of the way up, due to ensuing darkness and a crappy headlamp, but Court and I punched it to the ridge, arriving at 7:35. The lighting was fantastic but we didn't take too much time to stop and enjoy it as we were stoked to ride the great snow below us before the sun completely disappeared. And it was good. Really good. We cranked out as many powder turns as we could handle before quad failure ensued. I managed to ski out all the way to the car, which boosted both my pride and my ptex needs.