Trip Report: Skiing under the June Supermoon

The fullest moon of the year was scheduled for the night of June 22nd, with the peak of fullness at six in the morning on the 23rd or so. I pitched the idea of getting some June turns in under the supermoon from Mount Superior to my room mates and another ski buddy, and we decided to have an evening of barking at the moon like wild wolves. Due to prior arrangements, we decided that Friday night (the 21st) would suffice instead of the night of the true supermoon.

Left to right: Riley, myself, Blake, Eric and Justin[/caption] We packed our bags up with food, sleeping bags and skis. The gang consisted of Blake, Eric, Justin, Riley and myself. Our plan was to ski in Cardiac Bowl on the north face of Mt. Superior, because I had seen a boatload of snow in that area a few days prior while hiking up Mt. Kessler. Our route of ascent began in Little Cottonwood, taking the trail up to Telephone Pole Pass, following the ridge up to an appropriate spot, and dropping down the other side. We were on our way a little after 6pm from the parking lot.

Taking a left at the pass to follow the ridge to our destination[/caption] Having a trail the whole way was quite nice. Up to Telephone Pole Pass, it was pretty standard, but once we started following the ridge, the trail felt quite exposed and a little bit treacherous at times with skis on our backpacks. Everything went smoothly and we were at the snow just before 9:00. Blake and Riley were ready first and zipped down to the end of the snow. Eric and I had to climb up a small spire before skiing, and Justin took pictures. We joined Blake and Riley shortly thereafter. The moon was making it’s appearance, and it was glorious.

Eric on top of a rocky point just before skiing down to camp After a snack of cheese, bread and salami, we decided that the moon was perfect for skiing under. The snow actually refroze, which was suprising for June, but it didn’t matter. We were skiing under the moon in June. Skiing under a full moon in any month is a surreal experience. Seeing the supermoon from Mount Superior was something I will never, ever forget. It was so bright that we probably could have gotten away without using headlamps, but we did use our lights and the results were phenomenal.

Eric, Blake, Riley had a dead headlamp, and I made tracks down under the moon

The next morning, Justin left at about six so he could go buy a mountain bike, but Blake, Eric, Riley and I all stayed. We summited Superior and looked at some mountain goats hopping around doing their thing. We had about a thousand vertical feet of skiing to our camp, and we snacked again before taking another lap. The snow had warmed and softened, and we had some nice corn to play in. There was some skiing without KÜHL men's shirts as well.

After almost no sleep, Eric greets the day early with a smile. Blake and Riley are asleep in their bags next to him

Pole whacking for GNAR points

Blake slides around in the perfect corn

Riley soaking up some sun[/caption]

Eric caught me having fun on the way down[/caption] After packing up camp, we began our return. We took a different route up and over the ridge than what we came on, which spiced things up a little bit The scree field we walked across had a tendency to slide away under our feet, but we all managed just fine.

The scree field got a little slidey after this From Telephone Pole Pass down, it was easy going. A bag of chips and a jar of salsa greeted us when we unloaded our packs into the car, and nothing but smiles were split across our faces as another great adventure had come to an end.