Gash Laps

Short steps, high cadence.  Head down, focus, breath. . .  ski more vertical.  Cookies, Hammer gels, and sausage.  Mellow skin track, quick transitions, and fast laps.  Felt on it today training at Gash South.  Early season is when to get the vertical in, dosnt matter where... just getting ready for those 10,000' plus peak to creek days.

No failures on on the ECT. 

Snow Report 12/11

Some moving snow today.  Wind was the main factor in snow quality at Gash Point and Sweathouse Canyon.  Most north and east aspects were heavily wind loaded.  We were able to kick off some wind slabs up to 6" deep, most did not run far.

Other snow we found ranged from bullet proof crust to powder, chalky wind packed powder, and some terriable isothermal snow.  Under 7000' we were skiing and breaking trail in baseless heavy snow up to our knees.   The last storm came in with cold powder followed by rapid warming, on the way out a sun crust was already forming on top of this down low.  Still a lot of great skiing to be had with plenty of good coverage above 6500.

A great tour, found best snow today in the popular Gash South bowl.  Nearly 8000' of vertical linking Gash Proper, Sweathouse Canyon, and the popular Gash South.  All trail breaking.  Making me too tired to write a trip report.  This is one of my favorite tours long tours, look forward to a detailed report when I can give it the time it deserves.  

P.S.  

Although there was hoar frost at Lolo Pass, I did not see any hoar frost before this storm at Camas, and have reports from other spots in the bitterroot with no hoar.

Note crown at knee level

Did not run far 

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)