Sundial Falls WI3 - Big Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

Went out last Sunday to climb an obscure ice route in the Wasatch, above Lake Blanche and just right of Sundial Peak in Big Cottonwood Canyon. A friend was up there the week before and with lower snowpack was able to get in and out pretty quick. Unfortunately with the new snow from Friday and Saturday our visit was not so easy…

It's a little over 3 1/2 miles to the lake from the trailhead (according to GPS. The FS signs have it much less). We were the first ones out so had to break trail. To the lake was easy with 2-4" of new snow. Once we got to the lake it was a different story. 1-2' of snow greeted us. As my partner showed up with a pack only big enough to carry his personal gear and left me with the rope, draws and screws, I made him break trail. Getting to the spot with the ice should take less than 1/2 hour in normal conditions (The ice line can be seen by following the Sundial arete to the right then across in the rocks about 300m. ) but the snow kept getting deeper and deeper.  

Almost to the ice I took over and was wallowing through chest deep snow, fighting just to move a few feet. In some spots the only think keeping me from sinking past my armpits was my backpack. By the time we reached our belay it had taken us more time to go the 1 mile to the ice than the 3 1/2 miles from the car to the lake. Looking up, I thought this climb was going to take 5 min to lead, but I was so exhausted from the hike, I could barely lift my arms to swing my axes. 200' and 30 min of WI3 later I was belaying Ryan up.

The return hike was much easier, following our tracks back out but we had already been out for over 6 hours and were dragging. We finally reached the lake and picked up the pace significantly until we were stopped by a large bull moose 10' off the trail. We slowly crept closer and closer as he stared us down, then returned to grazing. Once we decided to go for it and pass he whipped around, facing us and pawed at the ground, not happy at our intrusion. Luckily he decided not to charge and we were able to make it back to the car just before dark, 9 hours after starting what should have been a 5 hour day. 9.3 miles roundtrip. Not bad for an early season backyard adventure.