Lolo Pass

-12 this morning at the Lolo Pass visitor center.  Found hoar frost on various aspects where not knocked down by wind.  Not as much coverage as I would think, lots of small trees still exposed in the clearcuts, no rocks though.  Up to a foot of powder on crust on most runs.  Wind blew the best snow to the bowl west of Crystal Amphitheater, or lookers left of the attached photo.  Climbers ridge run before the amphitheater skied okay with 4" powder on crust.

Downing Mountain Classic Tour

The arctic air mass moved in and it was below zero in the mountains today, making for a day with short stops, cold feet, and puffy jackets.  John was nice enough to invite Kevin, Dan, Nick, and I to use his road to access Downing Mountain today.  Downing Mountain Lodge located at ~5400' lends access to some amazing terrain from open bowls, to pillow lines, 3000' avalanche chutes, and perfectly spaced glades.  And with last years Sawtooth fire a whole new batch of ski runs opened up.  Two plus feet of snow fell on top of the 20" base last week, making for great skiing on all aspects.  We made a great day touring all of the most popular runs at downing today. . .

Hitting the trail at 930 am we first made the 3000' skin along the north ridge to the bottom of "The Crown" noticing fresh debris fields from natural avalanches during the storm.  We cautiously skied our first  800' run on the skiers left of the crown and eventually made a second lap right down the face.  Threading through the large rocks the crown skied great, and I only tapped one rock.  Its going to be a good season if the rocky crown is already filled in!

After refueling on food and warm tea around noon, we made our way back east from the crown bumping up to "The Wave".  The wave is north facing and usually stacked with powder.  The steep chutes, cliff drops and pillows of the wave could probably use another storm but we were happy to ski some steep and deep glades off the west shoulder.  We skied north and continued carving deep powder turns through the mellow Ninas glades about 1500' where the trees thickened.  Down in the shade of this draw it must have been 5 below, Daniel's nose was turning white and I still felt cold breaking trail in the shin deep snow with two down puffies on.  I cant get enough of this cold and hope it will stick around all month at least!

Finally we broke trail all to the way to the top of the main east facing avalanche chute seen from town. We topped out around 345pm and were all eager to ski this stunning 3000' run under the setting sun.  None of us had wax set for the 5 below temperatures so the frozen snow felt sticky, adding to the leg burn of the long run.  What a great way to end a day at Downing Mountain. . . skiing a 3000' run right to the lodge where a crackling fire, cold beer, and hot tub await.  

Its hard to find a spot on Downing Mountain where you don't just want to stop, soak in the view, and take pictures but here are a few from the day mostly taken by John.  The mountain sits slightly farther east than others in the Bitterroots, making for unique views to the north and south. 

The Crown bowl from near the wave

Coming up from  Ninas glades 

As usual a great day at downing mountain... here is a link to a trail map with the runs at downing http://downingmountainlodge.com/images/Downing_Mountainski%20map.jpg

On a side note. . . 

Snowflakes are awesome!!

snowflake pictures from here

Deep

Most of todays skin track conversation consisted of Kevin, Conner, and Soup poking fun at my new hobby, blogging.  

The real funny thing is how they all struggled to keep up with me, even when the 23"+ of heavy snow trail breaking slowed me down. . .  who's laughing now!  

New snow failing on facets (ECT 20), could fit my fist in the facet layer...  keep the avalanche eyes open this week!

DEEEEEEPPPPP!

 The new skis were feeling fast with awesome hot box wax job and tune from LB Snow!

Thanksgiving

Waiting for the storm, broke out ye old mountain bike for a couple 'o days

Ate a lot of butter to compensate for my out of season bike legs

NOAA predicts sub-zero temps and 2' in the 'root out of this system 

Back to the skis and hotsprings!

This high pressures' been great

Plant, jump, dodge. . . p-tex
Snow on the way this weekend (hopefully)

Boulder Point

Running the University of Montana Backcountry Ski Club my inbox and voicemail is constantly filling with letters from students looking for beta, looking for a ski partner, or just wanting to become involved skiing.  I have been amazed with the overwhelming enthusiasm so many people show towards backcountry skiing lately, and this enthusiasm alone makes me motivated!  I felt privileged this weekend to be able to introduce a few members of the BC ski club to their first ski tour in this amazing mountain range that I call home.  Could not have asked for a better weekend to do it with high pressure, no wind, and warm sunshine.  To East Boulder Peak in the southern B-root we went.  A daunting 4000' ridge climb awaited us.

Some pictures, one day I will have a camera other than my fish-eyed go-pro....

Mary Chute, Ill be back.  Bitterroots tallest, Trapper Peak Lurking in the background.

Nick, Carter, and I all made it near the summit in perfect time to crack open a beer, throw on a few layers, and gaze into the blue ski, I mean sky slowly change to yellow, pink, and tangerine.  Feeling fine we all ripped skins and made turns in the alpine glow a few hundred feet down the south face as the orange ball sunk west into the vast Frank Church Wilderness.  Another great day with friends in the mountains.

                                                         

                                                       
                                                     Easy livin' here in Montana

                                      

Carlton to Lolo Peak Tour

It has been tougher than usual finding motivation to ski this fall.  I have been confused.  September brought loads of snow to the high mountains, followed by numerous other systems throughout October.  Typically I see powder and am ready to hike for miles, no matter how short or how rocky the ski run may be.  It took me a few weeks of thinking about this problem in my life before I came to the realization that I have had such a good summer filled with would class ski runs, some up to 9000' long ski runs that hiking five miles to ski 800' of Carlton Ridge glades just could not compare.

Surprisingly, I could not find any partners to commit to this mid-November weekday ski adventure.  Joshua was held back a 1pm commitment, John had work to do at Downing Mountain Lodge, and everyone else simply ignored my phone call.  Its okay though, traveling alone can be fast and efficient.

It was a crisp 12°F leaving Missoula that morning, I arrived at the Carlton Ridge trailhead at 9:05 and was on the trail shortly after.  Enjoying the ice cold air filling my lungs I topped out on Carlton Ridge in literally half the time it typically takes me.  From the ridge I ripped skins as if I were in a randonee race and skied south down to Carlton Lake.  After eating a quick snack I began my climb of Carlton Peak, taking the lookers right ridge that separates the north summit bowl from the lake run.  Shortly before 11:40 I found myself on top of Carlton Peak looking south for more.
 

Lolo Peak from Carlton

I wasn't planning on traveling so fast, or feeling so motivated as I did.  It was sunny and frigid on the summit, so I threw on my puffy and headed south along the ridge to the true summit of Lolo Peak.  Being alone it is a good idea to be extra conservative when it comes to skiing in avalanche terrain, so I did not expect to be able to ski this bowl.  After assessing the snowpack and kicking a cornice (or four) into the bowl, I decided stability was good and continued  to ski east off of the summit making for what would be a long day.  It was a great 1500'+ run down to Reed Lake (Video).  The sun was quickly warming the south and east aspects and I decided to cut a track climbing the south facing ridge that would bring me on the ridge just below Carlton Peak to avoid climbing the avalanche terrain I had skied.

Carlton Lake Carlton Peak in background

Not quite in shape for these longer days yet, I began to run out of energy on the skin out, "bonking" one might say.  Between the Hammer Gels and Perpetuem solids my energy levels were quickly back up and once again my legs could move as quickly as my mind!  I topped out and skied the carlton lake run back to Carlton Lake, and eventually back up to Carlton Ridge and down again to the trailhead.  Carlton, Carlton, Carlton.

Days like this remind me how lucky I am.  How lucky I am to be so healthy, uninjured, and motivated.  How lucky I am to live where I do.  So lucky just to have a body that works.  I try not to take it for granted that I am this lucky, taking full advantage of where I am.  I am truly at home in the mountains, here I feel normal running from peak to peak, drainage to drainage.  My legs can take me wherever my mind wonders, to whatever peak, ridge, or bowl my eyes can see.  Days like this I am free.

And once again motivated for the winter. . .  Hope this helps you get excited too!