J.Spin
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A link to more photos is available at the bottom of the report.
I tried to let some of Sunday?s photos speak for themselves, but it seems as though my thoughts and text ran on as usual. It was actually my first solo ski day of the season, and although it was a bit of a bummer to head off without E and the boys, I knew I had a good chance of getting a lengthy ski session. Lost Trail had reported a couple inches of snow accumulation from Saturday, and then another few overnight, so I decided to start out and see what the groomed terrain was like with a coating of powder. I grabbed my Pilots off the rack and headed up Chair 1. The carving on Meadow Run and Southern Comfort was awesome, but there was only about an inch of new snow since the last grooming, so it skied mostly like packed powder. I then decided to check out Chair 5, and actually found a lot of Saturday?s untracked snow still remaining on the skier?s right of Lynx. Man, what a difference it was to ski the same powder on 165 cm Salomon Pilot Hots instead of the 180 cm CMH fats. I sunk a lot deeper in the snow, and went a LOT slower. While I might not have noticed as big a difference on steeper terrain, it was a totally different experience on moderate blue terrain. Anyway, after that run, I?d satisfied myself that I had a feel for the on-trail offerings of the day. While the skiing was great, and the sun was out, most of the trails had that ?day after? feeling of not being quite as prime as they were the day before. I scooted across the Boomer area, past a still silent Chair 3, and out to the parking lot to grab my CMH fats off the rack. It was time for the feature presentation of the day, which would come in the form of a Chair 4 sidecountry excursion.
I made my way to the bottom of the mellower branch of Lower Oreo, hiked for a couple minutes up to the first flat area, and put on my skins. Approaching the Bear Claw Ridge, it appeared as if the upper part of Oreo might not be groomed, but it turned out to be an illusion. I was very thankful because even though there isn?t much elevation gain from the Bear Claw Ridge (~7,600?) to the top of Chair 4 (8,200?), a mile or so of skinning on groomed terrain is many-fold easier than doing it in a couple feet of powder. I took a few photos on the ridge, and noted that Elk Basin had no tracks as of yet. The fact that Chair 3 wasn?t running made everything beyond the ridge much less accessible, so I wasn?t too surprised. In fact, I wasn?t sure how I was going to approach my hike (or skin) out of the basin without Chair 3. The drop into the basin looked tempting, but a little more work would let me drop in from the north side, for a LOT more vertical and steeper lines. I headed on my way, and in about 20 minutes or so, I found myself at the top of the Chair 4 terrain, without a single track in sight.
Since I was alone, and hadn?t even checked the recent avalanche report, I considered the center of Hollywood Bowl off limits. Although I would have been extremely surprised if it slid, I didn?t need to risk going in since I could get basically the same turns in much safer terrain. While it?s always neat to head right down the open terrain in the middle of the bowl, there was no reason to flirt with Mother Nature on this one. I decided to ski The Ripper, and since it probably gets as steep as 30 degrees or so, I would play it extra safe and ski the ridge along the south side. This line would set me up nicely for the rest of my planned route, which was to traverse around a small rise of land I call ?The Crusty Knob? (although I think it has another name) and hit the steep trees along the skier?s right of Hollywood Bowl.
I dropped into The Ripper and whoa baby was it sweet. I did touch down once or twice in my first few turns where the terrain gets the most wind scoured, but it was basically one to two feet of bottomless Montana powder all the way. Although I was alone as usual and could only get pictures of my tracks, I think the photos will help me avoid the need for more superlatives.
I started rounding the Crusty Knob, and saw two other skiers appear at the top of The Ripper. They skied down the center of the face, and I took the opportunity to grab of few photos of them in process. At least in terms of photo aesthetics, I was glad I had made my run when I did. They followed my traverse, and we exchanged greetings as they headed into the bowl area. I navigated my own way around the Crusty Knob, encountering some of the nasty, jagged Bitterroot rocks that lurk in this wind scoured area almost all the time. I had a couple of nasty touch downs below the light powder, and a later examination would reveal that while I only had one bad scratch on my ski bases, it was a core shot. ?Damn you, Crusty Knob!? (J.Spin shakes fist in direction of The Crusty Knob). Next time, The Crusty Knob gets an even wider berth. The rocks behind me, I then enjoyed awesome turns in the sparse trees along the edge of the bowl. With the sun shining, and the temperature moderate, it was hard to think of better conditions.
Once I finished the bowl and got down into the lower terrain of Elk Basin, I began to plan my Chair 3-less exit strategy. I actually got to ski all the terrain with good pitch in the basin, bringing me down to the base of the unfinished trails near Chair 5. I debated skinning up to Chair 5 through the deep powder, but decided that even if I had to travel five times as far, it would still be easier if I went down to meet up with the groomed terrain of Chair 3. I continued a little further down, keeping my eyes open for the quickest way to the groomed terrain. At my first option, I noticed a fresh track made by someone that had skated and side-stepped up to a nearby rise. I couldn?t see what happened above the rise, but it felt like a nice quick route to the groomed terrain. I crossed my fingers and hoped that whoever made the track knew their way around the ski area. It wasn?t worth reattaching my skins, so I skated, side-stepped, and herring-boned my way up for about 5-10 minutes. As I approached the rise, I heard the sound of an engine, and in another few moments, I realized that I had just reached the bottom of Chair 5. Sweet! I guess that person that set down the track ahead of me DID know exactly where they were going. Thanks, whoever you are.
My altimeter indicated that my run had been 1,400? vertical feet, and since almost all of it was fairly steep terrain filled with Montana?s finest, it seemed like a pretty good trade-off for a little skinning and stepping. My Chair 5 ride provided me with another powdery run through the Lynx woods, but after that I just headed right to the car and home for lunch. There was no sense in trying to top my Chair 4 run, which should keep me smiling for at least a few days.
Weather-wise, we picked up an inch of new snow Monday night at our house in Hamilton, and it looks like the mountain picked up several inches as well. We?re about to get invaded by an artic air mass, and we?re going to have lows well below zero and highs in the single digits for a few days. There aren?t really any storm systems on the immediate horizon, but the snow should be well preserved, and we should warm up a bit for next weekend?s skiing, especially in the mountains if we get a bit of an inversion.
More photos from the day can be found at:
http://jandeproductions.com/2005/04DEC05.html
J.Spin
I tried to let some of Sunday?s photos speak for themselves, but it seems as though my thoughts and text ran on as usual. It was actually my first solo ski day of the season, and although it was a bit of a bummer to head off without E and the boys, I knew I had a good chance of getting a lengthy ski session. Lost Trail had reported a couple inches of snow accumulation from Saturday, and then another few overnight, so I decided to start out and see what the groomed terrain was like with a coating of powder. I grabbed my Pilots off the rack and headed up Chair 1. The carving on Meadow Run and Southern Comfort was awesome, but there was only about an inch of new snow since the last grooming, so it skied mostly like packed powder. I then decided to check out Chair 5, and actually found a lot of Saturday?s untracked snow still remaining on the skier?s right of Lynx. Man, what a difference it was to ski the same powder on 165 cm Salomon Pilot Hots instead of the 180 cm CMH fats. I sunk a lot deeper in the snow, and went a LOT slower. While I might not have noticed as big a difference on steeper terrain, it was a totally different experience on moderate blue terrain. Anyway, after that run, I?d satisfied myself that I had a feel for the on-trail offerings of the day. While the skiing was great, and the sun was out, most of the trails had that ?day after? feeling of not being quite as prime as they were the day before. I scooted across the Boomer area, past a still silent Chair 3, and out to the parking lot to grab my CMH fats off the rack. It was time for the feature presentation of the day, which would come in the form of a Chair 4 sidecountry excursion.
I made my way to the bottom of the mellower branch of Lower Oreo, hiked for a couple minutes up to the first flat area, and put on my skins. Approaching the Bear Claw Ridge, it appeared as if the upper part of Oreo might not be groomed, but it turned out to be an illusion. I was very thankful because even though there isn?t much elevation gain from the Bear Claw Ridge (~7,600?) to the top of Chair 4 (8,200?), a mile or so of skinning on groomed terrain is many-fold easier than doing it in a couple feet of powder. I took a few photos on the ridge, and noted that Elk Basin had no tracks as of yet. The fact that Chair 3 wasn?t running made everything beyond the ridge much less accessible, so I wasn?t too surprised. In fact, I wasn?t sure how I was going to approach my hike (or skin) out of the basin without Chair 3. The drop into the basin looked tempting, but a little more work would let me drop in from the north side, for a LOT more vertical and steeper lines. I headed on my way, and in about 20 minutes or so, I found myself at the top of the Chair 4 terrain, without a single track in sight.
Since I was alone, and hadn?t even checked the recent avalanche report, I considered the center of Hollywood Bowl off limits. Although I would have been extremely surprised if it slid, I didn?t need to risk going in since I could get basically the same turns in much safer terrain. While it?s always neat to head right down the open terrain in the middle of the bowl, there was no reason to flirt with Mother Nature on this one. I decided to ski The Ripper, and since it probably gets as steep as 30 degrees or so, I would play it extra safe and ski the ridge along the south side. This line would set me up nicely for the rest of my planned route, which was to traverse around a small rise of land I call ?The Crusty Knob? (although I think it has another name) and hit the steep trees along the skier?s right of Hollywood Bowl.
I dropped into The Ripper and whoa baby was it sweet. I did touch down once or twice in my first few turns where the terrain gets the most wind scoured, but it was basically one to two feet of bottomless Montana powder all the way. Although I was alone as usual and could only get pictures of my tracks, I think the photos will help me avoid the need for more superlatives.
I started rounding the Crusty Knob, and saw two other skiers appear at the top of The Ripper. They skied down the center of the face, and I took the opportunity to grab of few photos of them in process. At least in terms of photo aesthetics, I was glad I had made my run when I did. They followed my traverse, and we exchanged greetings as they headed into the bowl area. I navigated my own way around the Crusty Knob, encountering some of the nasty, jagged Bitterroot rocks that lurk in this wind scoured area almost all the time. I had a couple of nasty touch downs below the light powder, and a later examination would reveal that while I only had one bad scratch on my ski bases, it was a core shot. ?Damn you, Crusty Knob!? (J.Spin shakes fist in direction of The Crusty Knob). Next time, The Crusty Knob gets an even wider berth. The rocks behind me, I then enjoyed awesome turns in the sparse trees along the edge of the bowl. With the sun shining, and the temperature moderate, it was hard to think of better conditions.
Once I finished the bowl and got down into the lower terrain of Elk Basin, I began to plan my Chair 3-less exit strategy. I actually got to ski all the terrain with good pitch in the basin, bringing me down to the base of the unfinished trails near Chair 5. I debated skinning up to Chair 5 through the deep powder, but decided that even if I had to travel five times as far, it would still be easier if I went down to meet up with the groomed terrain of Chair 3. I continued a little further down, keeping my eyes open for the quickest way to the groomed terrain. At my first option, I noticed a fresh track made by someone that had skated and side-stepped up to a nearby rise. I couldn?t see what happened above the rise, but it felt like a nice quick route to the groomed terrain. I crossed my fingers and hoped that whoever made the track knew their way around the ski area. It wasn?t worth reattaching my skins, so I skated, side-stepped, and herring-boned my way up for about 5-10 minutes. As I approached the rise, I heard the sound of an engine, and in another few moments, I realized that I had just reached the bottom of Chair 5. Sweet! I guess that person that set down the track ahead of me DID know exactly where they were going. Thanks, whoever you are.
My altimeter indicated that my run had been 1,400? vertical feet, and since almost all of it was fairly steep terrain filled with Montana?s finest, it seemed like a pretty good trade-off for a little skinning and stepping. My Chair 5 ride provided me with another powdery run through the Lynx woods, but after that I just headed right to the car and home for lunch. There was no sense in trying to top my Chair 4 run, which should keep me smiling for at least a few days. Weather-wise, we picked up an inch of new snow Monday night at our house in Hamilton, and it looks like the mountain picked up several inches as well. We?re about to get invaded by an artic air mass, and we?re going to have lows well below zero and highs in the single digits for a few days. There aren?t really any storm systems on the immediate horizon, but the snow should be well preserved, and we should warm up a bit for next weekend?s skiing, especially in the mountains if we get a bit of an inversion.
More photos from the day can be found at:
http://jandeproductions.com/2005/04DEC05.html
J.Spin
