Caroline Gleich

Caroline Gleich

Athlete's website. 

Published

For the past five years, I’ve been working on a personal project to ski all 90 lines listed in Andrew McLean’s The Chuting Gallery, a skiing-climbing guidebook for Utah’s Wasatch Range. To my knowledge, I am the fourth person and first woman to complete the project. The routes described demand a wide range of skills: endurance for long vertical approaches, trad climbing, top-level ice climbing techniques, and the ability to make controlled ski turns in steep terrain. A project of this magnitude was possible only because it’s in my backyard. Many of the Wasatch peaks are visible from the Salt Lake Valley and provide a true sufferfest minutes from a major metropolitan center. This season, I decided to focus my efforts on ticking off every last line in the book. I love the challenge the book provided, and I’m grateful for all the partners who shared these experiences with me. Here, a look back at some of my favorite lines during the project. Getting ready to drop into the Devil’s Castle Couloir at Alta. Surprisingly, this was one of the tricker lines in the book to ski, despite its relatively easy access. It’s very steep, and for how high and north facing it is, the snow doesn’t stay soft for long. It took me several tries to successfully ski this one.

Pro Mountaineer Caroline Gleich Conquers Utah’s Wasatch Range

For the past five years, I’ve been working on a personal project to ski all 90 lines listed in Andrew McLean’s The Chuting Gallery, a skiing-climbing guidebook for Utah’s Wasatch Range. To my knowledge, I am the fourth person and first woman to complete the project.

Caroline Gleich
Apr 28, 2017