It was a magical but intimidating start to the day. I woke up around 6am to darkness and light snow. When I went into the gargage to run the coffee grinder (so as to not wake Olin and Kristie up) the snow was falling gently and there had been maybe half an inch overnight after a rainy start. The temp was cold though and by the time I was half way through my cereal at 6:30 it was REALLY stormy with borderline blizzard conditions. My posse called around 7 am to say they were leaving Missoula and would be in Victor in 45 minutes which I knew would more like an hour due to the weather. After almost bailing I decided to just pack up and head to Victor to just get a feel for the day. By the time I left around 7:40 there was maybe another 2 inches since I had been to the garage and it was really blowing snow from the north. I arrived in Victor just ahead of Colin Chisholm, Dave Morris, Hilary Wood and Brian Story. We drove up to the trailhead through maybe 6 inches of snow on the lower portions of the road but then drove through ~15 inches with deeper wind drifts above the lower trailhead. The last 3 switchbacks were the most challenging because Colin had a hard time seeing through the snow that was billowing over the car. The weather above the valley floor was actually more friendly - it was warmer (~20F) and there was very little wind and snow. We skinned (starting around 9:30) from the cars all the way to the ridge above the north bowl at ~8000ft where it was cold and windy from the northeast (5F with -10F'ish wind chill as predicted). Needless to say we warmed up after 2 laps. The skiing was very good although the snow in places was wind affected. It skied well though especially lower down in the trees. The base was good but you had to keep your eyes out for snags from fallen logs in places. All in all though an amazing first day out with friends. We made it back to the car by 2:15ish and then on up to the Downing Mountain Lodge for the open house by 4:00. Another great day in the Bitterroot!
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