Ski Week in Review

Last week was pretty remarkable: three days of slackcountry and powder schralping at Big Mountain and a weekend warrior dash in the backcountry of the Middle Fork corridor.

Two stoked friends and one happy dog on top of a third lap of perfect snow.

With new snow all week long, skiing at the resort was fantastic. Monday saw several new inches of fresh, creamy snow. The visibility was not very good and skiing the upper mountain was often like skiing in a ping pong ball. But no one was up there and the you could find places to absolutely charge in between the layers of fog. I spent some time in the beacon park as well, rooting around in the snow trying to find buried transceivers. There is so much snow on top of them that I was unable to find the boxes with my probe pole, just get as close as possible with my locator beacon. It makes me that much more aware of the danger of avalanches and the difficulty of finding someone who is buried.

Thursday dawned clear and sunny, and the mountain was spectacular. I got to the mountain and ripped off a couple of technical laps riding the chair. My first line was down East Rim and I nailed my favorite line, airing a small drop, and linked the apron below into the trees. The biggest thing that I’m working on recently is skiing technical lines from top to bottom with pausing or hesitating. Needless to say, my fists were pumping the sky when I hit Momentum at the bottom.

A couple more loops in bounds and I started ducking the rope. First on the agenda was the rapidly warming (due to sun exposure) face of Hellroaring Peak. I hustled up the boot-pack trail up to the summit and skied down into steeper terrain. I then dug a pit, which was a ton of work due to all the wind blasted/compacted layers. Strength tests were fairly good, but I still stuck close to the trees as I worked my way down the ridge. Great snow, and almost spring-like conditions near the bottom. Eating lunch on the lift was inevitable on such a gorgeous day and I found myself at top of the resort again with hunger satiated and thirst quenched.

So I dove into the Canyon, a region descriptively named due to in part to the corridor that is drops into and also because the drainage funnels into Canyon Creek. At the bottom there is a Forest Service road that is groomed for snowmobiles in the winter. This makes for an easy hike back to the resort’s lift service and can even mean a tow out of the Canyon with either a rope or your poles on the back of a sled (snowmobile). The snow was incredible! So much so that I had to jump in again; unfortunately I forgot my snorkel both times… To finish the day I rode the chair until closing time, running through the terrain park several times since I was in the area, and then waited for the rest of my team for the race league that evening.

Drop that knee! Amazing snow!

While running around the “slack country” of Big Mountain, alone and among my scheming thoughts, I began to surmise a challenge for myself. Very often on Sunday afternoons, Dad and I get out of church and head up to the Mountain. The last several times we have done this we’ve taken two laps in the Canyon and then went home. According to my calculations, one could conceivably do 3 laps in the Canyon and then a climb and ski of Hellroaring Peak before all the lifts were closed. It would be pushing it, with no room for chit-chat or dawdling, but totally doable. I’m dubbing it the Sunday Slackcountry Scramble, and I’d like to do it before the end of the season.

At the end of the week, my buddy Caleb and I toured into the backcountry of the Middle Fork of the Flathead. Leaving town fairly early we arrived to see the parking lot full of vehicles and jammed with people. This is slightly an exaggeration, but 6 other skiers were all gunning to find freshies in the same area that day. Fortunately for us they headed in the opposite direction we did and we never saw them until we came back to our rig. Think about that: six other skiers and we never saw sign of other people nor heard voices the whole day. Amazing! I love getting into the backcountry! We gained the ridge without too much trouble, skied down the slope a ways, and dug a snow pit. Finding the conditions super stable and with ski penetration into “Four Finger” (a measure of resistance to penetration) all the way to 40-50 cm down we went nuts.

Self-portrait trying out my new tripod on the top a high point on the ridge we hung out on all day. The sun had just come out making the views incredible and my altimeter just topped out at 7000 feet.

According to our calculations we skied up and down about 7000 feet that day over the course of three climbs. My legs were tired but definitely in very good shape; I felt strong and was able to ski hard. At the top of the second climb, Caleb expressed doubts that he could do another one, both with time and energy concerned. What did I do? I pulled out my Bag-O-Commitment and shared some fig newtons. Among quotations of a beloved comedian, we decided to push for another 2000 feet or so of skiing on the next lap. Needless to say, the level of stoke was high due to great snow, good visibility, and good companionship. Thanks for the awesome day Caleb!