Crystal Theatre - January 31st, 2009

Crystal Theatre was the first backcountry destination of the year. Geoff Gilbert was the motivator. He was excited to test out his new skis: ~year 2000 K2 tele Stinx. They were old but newer and ~5 mm wider than the 1996 K2 4's he was upgrading from. Plus, as Geoff pointed out, they said 'Telemark' on them. Sweet!

I wasn't so sure how the conditions would be as yesterday was warm but Lost Trail reported 16 inches since Monday and it was supposed to snow today. On the drive up the front range mountains of the Bitterroots were shrouded in a low level cloud bank and there was a strong and gusty westerly wind which had been blowing all night. Unfortunately there was no snow in the air all the way up to the Trailhead. The snow appeared to have warmed on all aspects up until the lower Crystal Theatre trailhead. We set out around noon from the middle trailhead to decent snow conditions. There was a little surface hoaryness to the surface and the snow had a consistency of having been warmed a bit but was still powdery. At the top of the clear cut the wind was gusting from the west southwest. We skied the clearcut first and were greeted to a solid windcrust. There was even downsloping wind. We noticed the northeast facing treed ridge to the skiers' left of the clearcut was the only area that had snow on the trees so we suspected we might find the most wind and sun unaffected snow there. We had two great runs throught the fairly steep glades which had boulders with numerous air options towards the bottom. Occasionally on the steeper aspects we touched a crust but otherwise everything was very fluffy. The trees in areas had an old growth spacing to them with a forest canopy far above making for some really enjoyable skiing. The line back to the car I thought I chose anew but I realized at the roadcut crossing it was the one I had previously used the first season I started skinning from the middle trailhead. Cheers to another great day in the root!

Lost Trail and Chief Joseph Pass - Sunday, Jan.18th

Olin and I decided to go up to the ski area to test out a new area I had been wanting to check out. We had never dropped in there before but I had been eyeing it for some time. Conditions set up perfectly so we opted to take advantage of the blue-bird weather and significant settling of the snow pack induced by the January thaw and drop in. Olin opted for no poles and his 65 cm Karhu little puppy skis. I went with no poles and my 183 Atomic Kailas' rigged out with G3 Targa Ascents a cople of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a reindeer Pez dispenser in case things got dicey. We were fogged-out in the valley. By the time we got to Hannon Memorial the fog was gone and the temp rose from 16 to 29F. The day was beautiful and we wasted no time. By 11am we had nailed 7 laps on the rope tow. I made nice long back and forth wedge turns holding Olin with my arms keeping him between my. He liked to shuffle his skis back and forth as if to go faster! At the bottom he wanted to ski by himself through the line to the rope tow where I would pick him up and carried him in one arm with the other grabbing the rope back up for another run. We saw other friends: Thad and Emerson, Ben and Max, Aaron and his wife with Drew and Claire. It was a perfect place to be.

Olin was really tired so we checked out the snowmobiles and fueled up in the lodge before heading over to Chief Joseph Pass. After a few skates Olin was asleep in the Chariot. The XC trails were in the best shape I had seen them. The temps were in the mid thirties but there was a coolness to the air which kept the snow in good packed powdery form. We skied out past the warming hut to the Gold Medal Loop. Olin slept the whole way and was so tired he even fell back asleep for the car ride home after some soothing (thanks Pez dispenser!).

Lost Trail - Friday, January 16th

Pat Vermillion came out for a visit and I was happy to oblige him with a day of skiing at Lost Trail. His presentation on their Mongolia fly fishing operation to the Bitterroot Trout Unlimited chapter the night before was a success as far as I was concerned. For Pat the jury is still out because it all depends on bookings. He did get one guy who seemed more interested in their oyal Coachman Lodge. I judge it by wheter anyone falls asleep and I didn't notice although Olin did walk out about 5 minutes in to the presentation. Strange thing is he went right into the bar portion of the elks lodge. Should I be worried?

So back to skiing. The day was blue bird with a few lingering high clouds. The dreaded January thaw was in it's infancy as the high pressure was just moving in from the west. This thaw may not be so dreaded as the snowpack needs some warming to stabilize the deep faceted layer at the bottom. We proceeded up the pass and greeted with fog just at the top of the pass which was pouring in from the Salmon river valley which was encased in a strong inversion. By the time we got to our parking spaces we were above the fog although the surrounding trees were slightly rime ice covered. It was a beatiful blue-bird day of skiing although there was a very strong southerly wind which was swirling at the top of Chair 4. We skied Chair 4 most of the day enjoying the Sacajewea trees out the north gate. The temps stayed cool and except for the direct south facing areas the snow did not get at all warm.

On our way back over to Chair 1 we poached the steep meadow above hideout accessed via the switchback on Oreo. I had never skied this before and was impressed by the steepness and the number of kickers the local kids have built. I was also impressed by the size of the crown from a huge avalanche which I noticed back on Jan. 2nd and noted in my 'Happy New Year!' post. The crown ran the whole length of the meadow as far as we could tell and propagated from the edge of the trees at the steep part of the convex roll. A couple feet of snow seemed to have fallen since with a thick layer of large beautiful surface hoar crystals gracing the surface. We skied own the edge of the trees and the hoar crystals jingled as we floated down. Our last run of the day was the chute I first skied last year off the North Face. The upper part was too skinny to drop the knee on but once through the skiing was great with perfect soft chute jump turn snow all the way down. Pat was more tired than I was by the end of the day so I think he had a good time.

Lolo Pass - Sunday, January 11th

Olin and I met up with Porter, Mindy, Eli, Gabe and Mike Wood for a little bit of cross-country skiing. It was lightly snowing while we were there but little snow had fallen. We made a loop on the short beginner loop. I had Olin in the Chariot and he seemed to like it as he fell asleep soon after we started skiing. We lunched in the visitor's center and then Porter and I geared up Olin and Eli with thier skis and we proceeded to run a few laps down the hill adjacent to the Visitor's Center. I held Olin between my legs as we schussed down the hill. Olin loved it! Mike said Olin had a huge smile on his face and when we got to the bottom Olin said, "More? More?" What more could a father ask for? We worked our way up to the steeper hill which amazingly was untracked (It usually gets hammered by sledders). Olin's skis got a little hung up as we bottomed out but Olin was even more game. The snow was very sticky as the temp was around 30-32 F. It was a great outing with great company and has inspired me to get Olin out to the bunny hill at the ski area...

Lost Trail - Saturday, January 10th

I went up to Lost Trail again with Christophe Tanvier and Jake Wood. We made it up early and enjoyed some great packed powder and powder/crud skiing. It had snowed 31 inches since Sunday night coming mostly earlier in the week so the Thursday and Friday powderheads had already enjoyed it. I met up with Kristie later and we had a great afternoon skiing Chair 4 where there was a lot of wind so we went back over to Chair 2 for the rest of the day. We ran into Dave Morris and Amy who were staing at Lost Trail Hot Springs. Apparently the springs are actually not hot but warm and the owners are rather gruff and unappreciative of their guests. Oh well Jackson Hot Springs isn't too much further away. Ended the day with a great round of brews at the Bitterroot Brewery.

Happy New Year!

2008 ended and 2009 started as any skier would dream. Several feet of snow accumulated by January 7th. I skied Lost Trail on New Year's day and the 2nd joining up with Matt Dillon. We scoured out tree runs in the Moose Creek area on both days. New Year's day was very stormy with the area picking up 5 inches of snow over the course of the day with the intensity picking up in the afternoon especially. The snow-line rose to ~5600 feet overnight as the moisture laidened southwestern flow dominated.

The next day another 11 inches had fallen. While it started out a little warm at first a cold front came through mid-morning lowering temps and bringing some pretty long lived snow squals. In a span of about 15 minutes around noon the area experienced a series of crises which led to closing most of the area and all of the chairs except Chair 1. Around that time the area was blasted by a round of wind and snow which may have contributed to a Chair 4 problem involving a wheel on one of the towers locking up and a tree falling on a tower along Chair 3. In addition some skiers reported a loud crack somewhere in the North Face area above femur ridge as if the snow had settled and a kid was hanging for dear life from Chair 1. After sorting it all out (one employee noted that ski patrol was short-staffed and one patroller's voice sounded as if he was beginning to panic) Chair 2 was opened again. Like the day before Chair 4 remained closed all day. Both days were really great soft snow powder ski days with a few face shots obtained along the way.

New Years day skied best because it was classic storm skiing where you could ski the same line in Moose Creek on consecutivce runs and have a hard time noticing your tracks from the previous run. On the 2nd the snow was deeper but it was a little denser and not quite that sort of alive and breathing storm snow. On the way own the pass on the 2nd the clouds had lifted enough to see a couple of huge crowns to the skier's right of Hollywood Bowl not to mention the dudes trying to bring Chair 4 back to life.