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!
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