Living in SLC has led to lots of visitors. This winter I had a few friends visit and they were interested in doing a ski mountaineering objective. The idea to do Heart of Darkness came from researching lines that might be in the realm of possibilities given the conditions and would give us a fun and challenging day in the backcountry. We just happened to get lucky with the avalanche conditions and the weather, it was a pretty last-minute plan overall.
To give some context the “Heart of Darkness” line is outlined in a book called the Chuting Gallery by Andrew McLean. He describes the line as “Not really great skiing, but first-class ambiance!”, a statement that came into focus later on. The line is located on the Monte Cristo Ridge towards Big cottonwood. It requires a rappel from some fixed gear and is probably around 20 m in length dropping into a narrow corridor with towering rock walls on either side. It’s quite the place to be. The corridor is a few hundred feet long and about wide enough to fit your skis lengthwise, this does not change for the entirety of the run but finally ends in a nice apron runout area. The run is technical and demanding but a worthwhile mountaineering objective.
The day started at around 5:30 am. I gathered my normal backcountry supplies but this time I would be including a rope, harness, and some backup climbing gear to build an anchor. I had heard there may be fixed gear but wasn’t 100% sure.
We started at the Cardiff pass trailhead and took the west ridge up to superior. After taking in the sights at the summit we continue along the ridge towards Monte Cristo where we took a right to head to heart of darkness. This is where it started to get tricky. We transitioned to skis and headed down the ridge one at a time. The traverse across the ridge wasn’t horrible but did have some risk if you were to fall with some cliffs towards the bottom. We reached the entrance to heart of darkness but there were two parties before us so we had to wait until they were through. While this was happening, we took in the surroundings again and watched some other backcountry riders across the valley. That morning we had read the avalanche report and it had rated the day at moderate to low with some wind pockets with warming throughout the day that would lead to wet avalanches. This warning came into perspective as we witnessed an avalanche trigger on the opposite side of the valley carrying a rider. This was the first time I’ve actually seen an avalanche carry someone so we kept an eye on him and luckily, he stayed on top of the snow. We witnessed him get up and start booting back up to his partner at which point we knew he was alright. A reminder that the backcountry is a wild place.
The rappel had already been set up with our 30m rope, although I would recommend something a little longer because we had some down climbing to do at the end of the rope. With one of my friends already down there we descended to join him. He had already dug out a rather large shelf to stand on when we arrived, so we transitioned to skis for a second time and took it one at a time down the line. The “ambiance” of the chute came into view while we were in the center of it. The huge towering walls on either side of us set the stage for an epic location. It was barely wide enough to fit our skis, as stated in the book, so it was less skiing and more side slipping until we got to the apron where you could open it up. That is unless your one of your friends decides to straight line the bottom third of it. Crazy person. We had all made it down the heart of darkness.
After a short break with some snacks it started to get warm and we were seeing evidence of wet avalanches so we got a move on around the ridge and back toward Cardiac ridge where we saw the avalanche. We got to the debris and it was clear that it was a wind slab. We decided to go straight up the debris since it had already avalanched we determined that it was the safest route to take. We got to the top of cardiac ridge overlooking an untouched powder field. The slope was west facing so it had not yet been fully touched by the sun. I took first stab at it and it was amazing, 1500 vertical feet of blank canvas. Probably one of the best runs that I had the entire season. Pure Bliss. After my friends followed me down we had a quick discussion on our exit plan and headed back towards Cardiff Pass.
This route is one of the more technical lines that I’ve ever completed. It was well within my abilities when it comes to rope work but was nice to put them into practice. It was really important to have a good crew that was willing to do this as well and we definitely had that. All in all a great day in the backcountry.
I’ve linked my strava route as well because I had trouble finding information on the exact location including gpx during my research. See below!
TrailRunnerSean 