WBSkiing Guide

Suicide Chute

Terrain	Steep Chute
Ascent Vertical	1,500'
Skiing Vertical	800'
Ascending Distance	0.6 miles
Location	40.5881° / -111.6613°
Online Map	View on wbskiing.com

Suicide Chute is an east-facing couloir on Mount Superior. When you are driving down from Alta, Suicide looks nearly-vertical. It's a classic Wasatch line that deserves to be skied.

Suicide Chute is most commonly skied in the spring when the avalanche hazard is low. It often requires an early start so you will be at the top when the snow softens. When the snow is hard, crampons and an ice axe (and the skills to use them) are helpful.

This video is a little sensational, but it has outstanding footage of Suicide Chute.

Getting to Suicide Chute

Park on the north (left) side of the Little Cottonwood Canyon road approximately 0.3 of a mile past Snowbird Entry #4 (aka the "Chickadee entrance"). Boot or skin to the base of the chute. Boot up the chute.

About the Name

Suicide Chute has two other names: Country Lane and Shane's Chute. Although now called Suicide Chute almost exclusively, the original name, and the name we all should be using, is Shane's Chute.

Jim Shane was a weekend ski patroller at Alta back in the late-1940s. Jim and his wife Elfriede envisioned a lodge at Alta, lobbied congress for permission, and built the Goldminer's Daughter Lodge which opened to the public in 1962. Jim was a badass skier who skied ~~Suicide~~ Shane's Chute wearing leather boots and wooden skis.

Jim Conway began calling Suicide Couloir "Country Lane" when he skied it with Doug Coombs in 1985. He said he did this "half in jest," because the run was so "simple mellow." Jim told me he was surprised the name had survived and that he agreed it should be called Shane's Chute. (The name Country Lane "survived," because Andrew McLean mentioned it in his book, The Chuting Gallery.)