This was my first ascent of a peak in snow. This was an LVMC trip to Brian Head Ski area. I did some snowshoeing on Friday and skied on Saturday. I was going to ski again on Sunday but no one else was going to and some wanted to hike up to Brian Head Peak so I decided to save the cost of the lift ticket and join them.

We drove up to the Cedar Breaks parking area. The starting elevation was about 10,420 feet. Two people in our group snowshoed their way to the summit. I and another hiker hiked to the summit. We crossed the highway and followed the road (covered in snow) down to where the road turned to go up to the summit. This road is used by cross-country skiers and snowmobiles in the winter. It was about a half a mile to this point.

Ascending the ridgeline

Next we followed the road up along the SW side of the peak, and then up to the south ridge, where we left the road. The snow was mostly packed, but there were about half a dozen spots where I sunk knee-deep in the snow. Once we got close to the summit, it got very cold and windy. The windchill had to be below 0ºF. I went over and took some pictures of the Brian Head summit sign, and some of the views. I would have set up my tripod to get more photos but it was too cold. It was about a mile and a half to the summit.

Sacha with the peak in the background

On the route down I got some more photos. Once I got down past the second ridge I noticed a lot of smooth snow down to the road. I decided to slide down the mountain. I slid down about 100 yards or so. It was very fun. After we got back to the parking area, we waited for the other people in our group that went snowshoeing to return, and then we headed back to Las Vegas after an enjoyable weekend.