Climbing and Skiing Solitude's Fantasy Ridge
It seems I’ve found a new favorite place on the planet (for now). I’ve spent last two winters teaching skiing at Solitude Mountain Resort in Utah to build funds for our travels. While at Solitude, I’d heard tales of the legendary Fantasy Ridge and the serious nature of the skiing that lay within its chutes and rock-laden ridges. It wasn’t until I chose to venture up the Ridge myself that I realized the brevity of this wintry world which overlooked Solitude’s resort boundaries.
The hike up Fantasy Ridge can be equally as challenging and unnerving as the ski down. Given its treacherous nature, skiers must strap their skis to a pack before ascending the ridge. For some frame of reference, I’d say the hike is a snowy alpine version of the last pitch of Angel’s Landing at Zion National Park. This short 20 minute trek is a boot-pack trail which often features sheer drops on either side, some rock scrambling, and ascending cables which are fixed into the mountain help climbers safely make it to the peak.
As you rise over the ridge to the first summit, it becomes quite clear that a plethora of steep and technical descent options lay below. It’s a whole different world up there. One that many of the “on-resort general skiing public” could not even fathom as possibility. For those with the gumption to brave this gnarly face, it’s a playground of epic scale. I hope you enjoy my film from a few of my expeditions on Fantasy Ridge this past winter.
While I am someone who wanders the world as a vagabond, this is one place I can call “home”.
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