After the first turn, I realized it was the best corn I’d ever skied. Corn is weird, it’s hard to explain. It’s like a groomer, but better. It’s somewhere between a groomer and powder. Fast and consistent like a groomer, soft like powder.

We started skinning from the Aspen Grove parking lot at around 9 am and made fairly good time up primrose cirque and into the Emerald Lake Basin. I dropped John fairly early on, and so I continued up to do a lap on Roberts Horn before he got there. The skinner went too close to the edge for my comfort and so I dropped down around 10 feet below it.

The skinning was slippery and it wasn’t somewhere I wanted to fall, and so about halfway up the ridge to the summit of Roberts Horn I transitioned and skied down. And W O W. It was amazing! I throughly loved the spring skiing with no gloves and a t-shirt. I made probably a hundred fast and easy turns before it flattened out at the bottom and I met up with John again.

We went up for round two, and this time we were going to make it to the true summit. We tried skinning even lower down, but it wasn’t very comfortable with all of the sliding, so we transitioned and started booting up the face. Once we hit the ridge we kept booting, which was really good for the most part, but every few steps you would sink to your knee, or hip, which wasn’t fun. Once we were just a hundred feet from the summit the snow firmed up a bit and it was easy booting to finish it off.

Roberts Horn is one of the most beautiful peaks I’ve stood on top of this year. It’s so central to the backside of the Mount Timpanogos ridge line, and no matter which way you look it’s breathtaking. To your West you see the entire backside of time in all it’s majesty and beauty. To the North you see Lone Peak, Big Horn, and the whole LCC ridge line. To the East you see Deer Creek and the incredibly green Heber Valley with the Uintah mountains behind. And to the South you see Elk Ridge, and the Cascade Ridgeline going all the way to Mount Nebo.

As I was hiking up today I was feeling really grateful for all of the amazing places two little sticks we call skis have taken me. Standing on peaks like Roberts Horn with blue skies, still air, and fantastic skiing, is something magical.

The second lap was maybe even better than the first, with the snow at it’s optimal condition for fast and easy skiing.

After Roberts Horn most of the primrose cirque was also decent. The final flat meadow wasn’t anything special, but not bad for an exit.

It was my first time skiing Roberts Horn, but I’m sure I’ll be back. It’s amazing.