I got a call from my climbing partner 30 minutes before we were scheduled to depart to Indian Creek, UT with a report of rain, snow, and recent flooding around Moab. We decided to postpone departure a day to let the rock dry and accordingly, my first day of vacation was wide open. What to do, what to do? The Sawtooth Ridge Traverse was a line I had intended to do with my "ski traverse only" partners so I thought I could use the day as a recon for the upcoming trip. I was not sure of the amount of new snow deposited in the Sawtooths since the recent trip to Eocene Peak so I was going down with an open mind and an intention to turn back if the snow was sketchy. At the trailhead at 6:15 AM and at the juncture of the Mt.Walt route at 7AM. The lower snow was firm and I booted the entire way.

Right after the above foto at 7AM, deeper snow became more consistent, not just wind-blown settlement, yet it was still dry and booting was fast. I was at Glacier Lake at 8AM and made my way up to the Hawks Head Notch which gave a much better view of the Eocene descent route.


This is the view looking NNE from Hawks Head Notch:


It was 8:45am and I was a bit suspicious of the 6-10 inches of windloaded powder down from the notch. This was the first sunny day after the recent snow. Fortunately, it was still cold and my hand were numb and I was still wearing 2 hats from climbing in the shade. After cutting the slope (no evidence of instability) and some contemplation, my new thought process was to blast through the traverse as fast as possible and avoid the warming, transitioning snowpack. However, my artistic notions tempted me to blast down right from the Hawks Head notch and enjoy the powder descent while it was good. It looked great and still quite cold. Likely dry fluff. Then I thought I might get the same thing at the end of the traverse. So I was off. This foto is looking back towards the Hawks Head Notch after a 3 turn descent and a 100 foot traverse SE.

Then a 200 foot boottrack up to the Blacksmith Glacier.


The Cleaver and the Cleaver notch in the middle. This was a fast traverse over to the Cleaver notch by maintaining a highline.


I was at the notch in less than a minute and then slideslipped up the remainder of the notch to avoid a transition.....fun to cover so much ground quickly with no effort:


Looking down the Cleaver Notch:


Looking ESE from the Cleaver Notch. The objective for me was to end up just SW of the Horse Creek Tower seen across the Sawtooh Glacier and then ski down into the Matterhorn Glacier.


Looking back, Northwest, towards the Cleaver Notch:


The Col de Doodad and the Doodad (the rock on the flat ridge right of the Col)


Great view of the Matterhorn at 9:30. It is just getting warm, the snow getting heavy, and I'm glad to be getting down.


A cool chute with some water ice in the middle that was too tempting to pass up:


Twin Lakes ice melting; these slopes were still quite firm (no powder as up higher) with just a bit of corn snow forming at 10AM

The visible sections of the route from 395 are marked in red.


This was the Sawtooth Traverse described in Moyniers first edition. The second edition Sawtooth Traverse goes over Eocene Peak and then Glacier Col to join this route. There are so many cool variations to be done on this traverse. It has a mountaineering style to it with lots of short ups and down in a definitive alpine setting. I omitted the fotos of the powder skiing tracks down Matterhorn Glacier for some brevity but it was great run! In fact, this morning's trip was some of the best 4 hours I've spent in the Sierra this season
[img]yeah i know but i was too lazy to look for it. i'm confused as to which line is the s face. do you mean the n face of s morrison??? if so, then yeah its got a couple lines that look to go but dan's line from his book does not look to be in as the exit traverse doesnt connect.

wednesday we skied the east face of n morrison from the top, then back up to the col to ski the east facing falline beneath the col which was perfect corn and then back up to the col again to ski the n side down to the lake. pretty much perfect conditions as the mtn was totally socked in until we reached the col when it majestically popped bluebird so it didnt overheat from the morning sun.

yesterday we had the intention of skiing something on laurel and then back up minipinner to the bloody/laurel col and then skiing bloody to a car we left on sherwin creek rd. but it was waayyyyy too hot and sketchy to safely climb back up the east facing exposure to get to the bloody col so 2 of us skied the pinner and one skied the mendenhall and we called it a day. both lines skied well and were mostly clean except for some debris towards the bottom. mostly snow and minimal ice in the mendenhall choke.

this coming monday and tuesday look to be ideal conditions down there w/ hard freezes and sunny days. git sum!!!

Yeeaaaaa!

That's an awesome TR, Tucker. Great pictures and narrative on your route. You must've been tempted many times to just succumb to gravity and drain it down the fall line to the bottom of those canyons.

We slogged around in some unconsolidated springy snow on a sub peak to Mt. Walt on Saturday. Glad to see that little system delivered a refreshener over the rest of the weekend.

Those chutes next to Incredible Hulk in your Eocene TR...they look good, yes?!?

Okay, that's it. How can I move to Bridgeport? Always the wrong question of course....how can I work less?

Thanks for the pics Tucker! I've never seen Ecocene and Cleaver area up close.

Mike Schwartz
www.thebackcountry.net
mike@thebackcountry.net

SLTJoe,
Oh man do those chutes lining the INcredible Hulk do look good. Ive been looking at those since last summer. Ill post some beta on conditions if I get back there to check them out.

We did a traverse along the Sawtooth Ridge on May 4, 2006 in excellent conditions. We booted the ascents the entire route and never used our skins. We had firm snow to corn for descents depending on the time of day. No powder this time. The corn was starting to be good on the East slopes around 830 and was lasting until at least noon when we were back at the car.
This general route has many fun variations and is a great way to get intimate with the Sawtooth Ridge. There is an overview cartoon map of the Sawtooth Ridge in Secors second Edition of The High Sierra on page 434 for anyone interested in the beta. This is one of my favorite one day traverses in the Sierra.

We climbed up to Eocene Peak via the Blacksmith Canyon (Little Slide Canyon is a good chioce as well). We ascended the red line on the right and then descended from the summit on the left line down to the col east of Eocene.





Devin enjoying the morning views 2 hours from the car en route to Eocene Peak.



Here is another view of the route looking back from the Hawks Head Notch.


Nearing the top of Eocene Peak to greet the morning. The refrozen snow was still firm at 0800 but just starting to form into corn again.



We then traversed the South side of the ridge over firm snow (fast) to the notch just west of Blacksmith Peak. Skiing down the little chute here was firm in the morning (thats not cold smoke powder flying from my skis unfortunately). This chute was directly North facing.





Here is a view of the route with the chute we descended on the right and then a traverse over to the Hawks Head Notch.


Devin enjoying some early corn down the Hawks Head Notch


ON the Blacksmith Glacier getting ready to go through the Cleaver Notch and then drop onto the perfect corn on the Sawtooth Glacier

Looking up at the Col de Doodad (on the right) and Polemonium Pass (the left). Plans to go up and over these was going to wait for another time as the corn alarm had started.

We finished by skiing between the Dragtooth and the Horse Creek Tower (pictured here) and then down to the trailhead on corn snow. There was some patchy snow from 8500 feet and down.

Revisited the Sawtooth Ridge Traverse today on Mar.21, 2010. This is an excellent way to get in a full-value Sierra day in a short amount of time.....big views, couloirs , cols and passes, big snowfield traverses, and a way to use your full bag of tricks......skinning, booting, downclimbing, route finding, scrambling, and lots of quick transitions. Today we added in being out in the wind and some breakable crust gorilla-technique skiing.

Molly pushing the pace up Blacksmith Creek Cyn


Booting up some breakable to Hawks Head Notch. Molly chose her big boards for today conditions.



Looking NW over from the Hawks Head Notch towards Mt.Walt and the top of the Hulk Couloir Left.....looks like it goes and looks to be at a good aspect to form early corn


Another view looking from the East side of Hawk Head Notch towards the Hulk across Blacksmith Canyon



Going over towards the Cleaver Notch, there was some nice wind-deposited pow that would have made for nice descent down to Avalanche Lake.



Not as much snow on the SE side of the Cleaver Notch this day. This is a bit steeper than it looks and made for a funway to mix it up with some down climbing. Moly mentioned airing it out, but with the breakable crust and her anorexic skis, I made a request for downclimbing.