Skiing Trapper Peak

EGGS!

Easter was a blast. Olin managed to get in 3 easter egg hunts. The first was what seems to be becoming a typical Missoula fiasco. Like the University of Montana 2008 egg hunt, adults were pretty much pushing kids out of the way to get the eggs and Olin was for the second Easter in a row disappointed with humanity (for another opinion see: http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2009/04/17/letters/fri/fri98.txt). Fortunately, the adults at our house and at Chris And Mary Dombrowski's house were better behaved so Olin managed to experience the joy of finding those colorful little eggs stuffed with tasty little treats.

Ben Gordon is the MAN!

We caretook at the Ben Gordon Cabin the last Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning of march. It had been storming big time at Lost Trail and Chief Josseph Passes. So much that we couldn't get into the trailhead parking lot because it hadn't been plowed. After driving down to the LT ski area parking lot braving that unplowed parking lot I managed to get cell phone coverage on the front deck of the ski lodge. The Bitterroot Nordic Ski Club guy was surprised the lot hadn't been plowed. He said that had never happened before. He suggested parking on the side of the road but thought my suggestion of pulling a bit into the western exit side might work better. So that's what we did. The ski in was stormy. Olin was bundled in the Chariot and both Kristie and I had massive packs. Olin really enjoyed the cabin and the storminess tapered to snow showers by the time we had dinner shortly after arriving. We had a great ski in the morning on Panorama loop and we made it out to find the parking lot completely plowed with our car sitting perfectly in the middle of the exit road adjacent to the highway with no digging required until I high centered the car on the 8 inches of plowder left in front of the car. Made it to work by 2:00.

Did I mention Utah?

Before spring gets underway, I want to set Thursday February 18th, 2009 as the second best day of skiing I've had at Alta. Fantastic powder was had off the Baldy Shoulder and the castle Apron hiing ALL the way out as some locals advised. It was the first full on bluebird day after a series of storms. The Baldy Shoulder and the Apron held knee to thigh deep powder and my timing couldn't have been better. I had intended on taking more pics over the course of the day but the skiing was just so good I never was able to stop myself for long enough! After draggin myself back to the car at the end of the day I snapped this shot. There were a couple tracks off Mt. Superior which were impressive.

Utah!

Pics from the Utah trip. Alta, Snowbird, Snowbasin, heli-skiing, YES HELI-SKIING!, Powder Mountain. Steve Leahy has won cousin of my life for sponsoring the trip! Thanks Steve! I owe you one.

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!).