Giant Day in the Great Bear

Spring generally brings better weather in Northwest Montana. High pressure systems come through more often and we actually see the sunshine. There haven't been many blue-bird days this year, with the up-side being clouds have been dumping a bunch of snow! But there is a saying I'm partial to: "Make hay while the sun is shining." In other words: when you have visibility and good weather, you better get after it because you don't know when you might get it again.

We skied the route shown by the dotted red line. It's dubbed the "Z-Couloir" by Brandon and
friends for the shape made by the optional exit off the initial ramp shown by the blue arrow.

Taking this to heart, my vertical-ski shredding buddy Brandon and I made our way into the Middle Fork area we've skied a lot this year on April 13th. New snow was glopping pretty good on my skins on the way in, but I eventually got it fixed and we jumped on a familiar ridge hoping to drop off to the west into a drainage via a gnarly line Brandon had seen from across the valley the week before. We dropped in, tested the snow, felt good about the conditions (more stability-wise, it was kind of crusty for skiing). After entering from the ridge we hooked left under some cliffs and proceeded across a strip of snow in a "no-fall" zone above some cliffs. We made it to the exit and blew down some fairly good snow to the valley floor. This is the most committing line that I have ever skied, and I have to admit I was feeling a little over my head. But skiing something like that definitely boosts one's confidence and I'd be happy to tackle something like it again, with a little better idea of what's expected.

Brando looking for the entrance. Sub-Penrose to the right
of his head and Great Bear the next peak over.

View back up the ramp. It was aesthetic, but not conducive to
good turns.

We then toured up the valley heading for the summit of Great Bear mountain. Gaining the summit, I saw terrain that I had never seen before both to the North and the South. I love Montana: so much untouched and protected land in which to explore and have fun.  We didn't have an exorbitant amount of turns off of Great Bear but the snow was soft and fast. While skinning up the valley, around a sub-peak of Penrose, we had seen a cool trough coming off the shoulder of Mt. Penrose. We headed for this next and skied a phenomenal fall-line run down to the tarn at the head of the drainage and then out to the car, completing a huge 8400' day that included some steep technical skiing, the summit of a named peak, and good powder turns. Mark it down as a Top-3 Ski Day of the season, for sure.

Summit photo on Great Bear.

Brandon shredding the trough with our earlier
ramp-route above him.

We were amazed at how good the last run was: perfect
snow and lots-o-vert. The trough is the highest non-rocky
strip of snow in the light directly above my finger.