April 9 and 10 Skiing some POW!

April 11, 2010 at 20:19 | Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Riddell Lakes Basin

East Face of Greywolf Peak

Checking the snowpack

Avalanches!

Consolation Bowl

April has been quite good to western Montana for snowfall, but likely too little too late to offset the regional drought. Jenny and I were up at Lost Trail Pass skiing on Friday and with the lifts closed and the parking lot empty it was a very enjoyable private powder party. We saw no other touring skiers and had the upper mountain to ourselves. The snow was good, cold, dry powder and we took a few runs in the burnt glades before heading home. Saturday I joined Colin for another trip to the Missions where the snowpack is much more favorable. We headed up to Greywolf Peak for an attempt on the east face. We arrived as the sun was starting to touch off the round of point release slides so we hung out at the head of the basin under a rock and watched the show. It settled down a bit around 1p.m. and we made one short attempt to gain another safety point before wisely calling off the big mountain attempt. We settled for some east facing skiing bowls above scenic lakes and took a couple runs there before heading out to the Riddell Lakes ridge descent. We were able to ski to 5000′! elevation which was remarkable on the south face. It was a beautiful couple days of blue sky powder skiing in the high country. I realize that my dreams of winter are to next year, but every chance the weather gives us is a good reason to head into the hills again.

Lost Trail Pass Burn

Powder!