New Years post

Sitting here in Pennsylvania rather idle for the first time in a while I started going through photos to kill time.  Had a great year tapping into many zones for the first time including Glacier National Park, Great Bear, Yaak, Tetons, Wasatch, Moab Desert, Sawtooth, Lost River, Boulder/ White Cloud, Missions, Big Hole, Pintlers, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Rainier to name a few.  With the relitavly stable snowpack last year here in the local mountains there was no shortage of near perfect days, roaming around I always looked forward to returning home to the Bitterroots, Missoula, and Hamilton to see familiar mountains and faces.

Thank you to all of my great friends coming up with awesome trip ideas, inviting me on trips, giving me a place to crash in between adventures, teaching, training, pushing, cheering, supporting, lending gear, giving beta, and putting up with me not being able to sit still at times...  only one out of state ski trip was made alone this year, and most of these trips would not have happened alone. 

Hopefully next year will top this one.  Excited to explore Alaska, Cook City, NW Washington in the next few weeks and who knows what will happen after that.  Lots on my want-to-ski list as well as a bike tour, climbing and traveling, maybe too much for one year... or maybe not!  . . . hopefully gas prices stay low.  Cheers to adventure.

 A few photos here mostly pulled from Facebook and the iPhone

Goddess - Jane Chute day in Boulder Canyon, Bitterroots

Backcountry Club 30 skiers

Mt. Superior, Wasatch

One of many trips up Bass

Camas Summit

N. Canyon Peak

9000' Ski run, Mt. Rainier

Hot day at Vantange, WA

Touring the Yaak

Bike Packing the Whiteclouds, ID

Steep skiing, SE face South Teaton

The Spoon Coulior, Tetons

Party in the Coulior

St. Joe to Lappi Peak day

South face Canyon Peak, Bitterroots

Peering down the freezer, Sugarloaf Peak Bitterroots

Portal Trail

Lost River, Idaho

On top of Idaho... mountains beyond mountains

Greywolf South

Biking Blodgett

Birthday on Trapper

Rainier after Rainier

Sunset at 10000'

Homer Young, Bighole MT

Homer Young North

Getting steep in Glacier

Rainier from summit of Adams

Jackson summit, GNP.  Thanks Matt for helping schlep my skis around and chasing that grizzly!

Badass Logger!

October powder?

Sheep Mountain

Boman Lake

-20 skin in down

Breakable crust to isothermal mush to finish this fall.  

Might have been the worst snow I have ever experienced.  Horrid.  Traumatizing.  Fighting, just to get down the mountain.   Can be confusing when I remember far superior skiing conditions in August.

Its fitting that the first day of winter came with a blanket of fresh snow, and must be a good thing Im not only in this sport for the downhill skiing aspect.  Forgetting the bad things helps too.

Off to Alaska next week, and Pennsylvania tomorrow.  Excited to return to snowy Bitterroots in a month.

Amazing how conditions can change in a day.

Back on the race skis, thanks John.  Ready for some long canyon-peak-canyon-creek days.

Middle Fork Flathead skiing. Elk, Shields, and Marion Lake.

Its been warm and sunny in the valleys all week, but still winter up here in the mountains.  With reports of great snow in the Middle Fork of the Flathead area,  Kevin and I headed north for some skiing.  We left  Missoula well before the crack of dawn on Tuesday met Stewart in Columbia falls and headed east on highway 2 towards Marias Pass.  40 degrees in the canyon with a foot of dirty pine and grime covered snow along side the road made this feel like a spring corn day.
We were greeted by gusty winds as we strapped our boots on at the Elk Mountain trailhead.  We followed the trail north crossed the railroad and made our way through the isothermal slush eventually gaining the ridge of Shields.  Above 5500' the snow was much more winter-like.  Making good time to the sub-summit of Mt. Shields we relaxed on top and decided on our next run.  There are many options from here.  One could ski south west into the many aesthetic avalanche chutes and exit shields creek, ski west to Shields proper bowls, or continue west and south bowl bouncing  the running rabbit traverse.  We decided to go for the double-summit skiing the east chute towards Elk Mountain.
After eating cookies in the canyon we ascended the east ridge of Elk Mountain.  We decided on skiing the 3000' back strap run rather than the steep exposed east face of Elk due to wind-loading.  What a beautiful ski run in the setting sun back to cold beer and warm weather at the truck.
Both of these mountains offer stunning views of the many ski runs on the south end of Glacier Park, Mt. St. Nick, and east to  the rolling plains of the rocky mountain front.

Day two more snow and dropping temperatures were on the way.  After a relaxing night in our wood heated West Glacier cabin we made a big breakfast and headed for Marian Lake.  Marian Lake trailhead is accessed via the groomed ski trails at the Izaak Walton Inn.  Once at Marian lake there are many options for all ability levels, conditions, and aspects making this a local favorite spot.  We enjoyed a few powder glade runs to the north of the lake.  By the end of the day 6" of light snow had fell in the mountains.  Snow picked up as the evening went on, near whiteout conditions on the drive out of middlefork.  Whitefish picked up at least 3" before we headed south back home and by Kailspell, nothing but rain.  Felt good to find winter amiss this spring like December weather.

Kevin drops off Sub-Shields with a broken rib, Mt St Nick in the background.

Stew skiing with style to Elk Mtn across canyon

East chute of Shields across canyon.

Marian Lake.  ECT 28 Q1 at the facet layer.