It is almost 1 am as I walk in the door to my Missoula apartment, just back from Minnesota. In minutes, I am cramming my still-swollen foot and ankle into ski boots for the first time in over two weeks since my ankle was sprained. Racing boots are still painful, but the TLT5s feel a little better. Sleep comes easily, but I wake up concerned, re-set my bindings for the larger boots, and grab the thinnest sock I can find for the right foot. Despite all the doubts surrounding the state of my ankle, I have been working diligently with rehab, and know it is still strong and stable, just still a little swollen, and a big day on skis probably will not set the recovery back much if at all. I let Ben know I'm in for sure, and we are dropping a car near Pony a few hours later. We drive the shuttle to South Meadow creek, and are both are asleep by 9 pm.
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| Awaiting sunrise. Cold hands did not stop our forward momentum. |
Car to Bell lake
We left the car at 3 am under a full moon. I had slept well, and was fired up for a big day. We trudged up the road for a few hours, then continued across South Meadow Creek lake and climbed to the ridge top just north of Ramshorn mountain. The top was very icy, but we were able to get just enough boot purchase to make it through. As we topped out, the orange full moon was just setting in
the west, and the horizon was beginning to turn a pre-dawn grey. An icy wind kept us moving to a high point
north of Ramshorn, where we ripped skins and schussed a short traversing run to
the base of Belle point. I must have been
a little intimidated by the length of the day, and suggested we bypass the
north couloir on Belle in favor of moving quickly along the ridge. Ben was amenable, so we kept at it, skinning,
walking on bare ground, and skiing a few short pitches as the terrain
dictated. The ankle felt a touch
vulnerable on the descents, but it seemed to be holding up well, and a quick
stop to tape my left arch was sufficient to keep any foot blisters at bay.
Before long, we were dropping off the crest for a nice run down to the
headwaters of Mill creek. A long climb up
the beautiful cirque on the back side of Branham put us at the top of the
moderate Green Room gully. At this
point, Ben was crushing the climbs and transitions, and I was just holding on,
trying not to slow him down too much.
Not surprising though, that guy skis more and faster than about anyone
in Montana. The Green Room skied great.
Firm and smooth, and stable.
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| Skinning at sunrise. Photo: Ben VandenBos |
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Ben near the end of the southern portion, about to rip skins and drop off the ridge.
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Bell lake to Hollowtop
We found some open water at Bell lake, and I scarfed a
burrito as Ben filled water bottles. There
were a few tracks from yurt skiers, but I was surprised at how many of the
classic runs were untouched considering the excellent stability. We were ahead of schedule, so I suggested we
proceed with the Longs/Lonesome link up (it is possible to bypass both on the
west), and Ben was game. With that goal
in mind, we made the technical skin and bootpack to the top of Longs. I used
ski crampons on the icy ascent, which almost allowed me to keep up with
Ben. We poked our heads over the summit,
and were pleased to find adequate coverage on the north face. After a great run on the north face, I ski
cramponed, and Ben booted up the southeast face of Lonesome peak, and we were
treated to another long rolling run down the North face all the way to Granite
lake. Still on schedule, we pinned it up
Granite. We saw what looked like
wolverine?! tracks in the basin, and it was nice to think about them for a
while instead of wallowing in the mounting fatigue.
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| Ben jaunting on the final jaunt to Long peak. |
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| Ben midway down Lonesome. Granite peak looms in the background. |
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| Climbing Granite peak. Up, up, up! Photo: Ben VandenBos |
We topped out at 2 pm, with 10k of climbing
in our legs, tired but still in high spirits.
The run down Granite was great. We even found some good settled powder
in the trees below the peak. We followed
a snowmobile track down South Willow creek for a mile or so before stopping to slap skins
on and re-fuel for the last long climb of the day, which would take us almost
3,000 vertical feet up to Horse mountain, then across a broad plateau to
Hollowtop. I was incredibly grateful
that the ankle was still holding up perfectly, because the final push to the
car was gonna be a bruiser. After
topping off the tank with a burrito chased by gel, we skinned, booted,
scrambled, and talus swam our way up to Horse.
Our pace had slowed a bit, and it was nice to just move comfortably,
chatting at times, but otherwise grinding out the climb. The Horse – Hollowtop traverse was completely
snow free, so we clunked across as the sun slowly crept toward the western
horizon. On Hollowtop, at sunset, we
ripped skins for the last time and made the big descent to Mason lake. Hollowtop gets ravaged by wind, and we had to
take skis off a few times to connect snow patches.
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| Dropping off the summit of Granite. |
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| Looking back from Horse mountain. We started at the skyline peak on the far left of the photo. |
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| Ben plateau cruising and closing in on Hollowtop. |
Hollowtop peak to car
At the lake, we had our one hiccup of the day, when I was unable
to find the road. Ben advocated for
descending directly to Cataract lake, but I obstinately refused. I think his strategy would have been faster,
but mine at least guaranteed that we would not get lost in the dark. We
eventually found the road shortly before clicking headlamps on. We started hitting intermittent bare patches
about 2 miles from the trailhead, so the exit was longer than anticipated. Ben is a fearless intermittent snow skiing
champ, and I was skiing conservatively to protect the cankle, so eventually he tired
of waiting, and cruised out to the car while I clumped down the road in the
dark. Soon enough, we were back at the
car, ski boots off, and super excited to have pulled off a great traverse. I was totally beat! I did not even come close
to making the drive home before getting sleepy.
No worries though – the sleeping bag was still all set up, and I had a
great night of sleep near Fairmont hot springs before polishing the drive off
the next morning.
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| Ben contemplating the lack of snow for out last run on Hollowtop. |
Thoughts:
Skiers have been traversing the Tobacco Root range for
decades, and it was pretty cool to join their ranks. I suspect we may be the first party to push
all the way out to Hollowtop, but if so, that is a very minor style improvement
over previous traverses. It was great to
finally get out with Ben. Having that
guy along is like having a secret weapon blazing the way, as he is super
strong, positive, and makes consistently excellent route decisions on the
fly. Our route was a good one. Logical
with quite a bit of good skiing and options in the second half to make it
shorter. It also does not engage any
unnecessarily hazardous terrain, and for the most part, stays out of big
avalanche starting zones.
There are many variations which could make it better, or at least different. For one, travel would be smoother later in the spring when there is more snow on the plateaus. The trek all the way out to Hollowtop was a grind for not a lot of good skiing. In fact, the highlight of that portion was the plateau walk (which is actually quite nice). It would certainly be easier to end at Granite, exiting down Willow or South Boulder creeks. Also, it would be nice to take at least one ski run in the southern portion of the range, and top out on a peak or two. We didn’t due to time constraints. An excellent and logistically simple traverse would be to run from Branham (or Bradley) to Granite/little Granite (either direction), skiing Longs and Lonesome along the way. There would be no shuttle required, and everything would link up logically. That said, the traverse is highly recommended for those with a strong set of legs and lungs looking for an adventure.
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| The route. Kind of rough, but if you know the range, you get the idea. |
Statistics
Approximate total elevation gain 13,200 feet
Length: ~30 miles done in 16 hours, 20 minutes
Accomplices: Ben Vandenbos
Put in: Private land boundary on South Meadow creek
Take out: base of Mason lake road near PonyFuel: Burritos, bars, gel, perpetum. Averaged a little over 100 cal/hr.
Equipment: Dynafit Nanga Parbat skis, TLT5 boots (to protect the ankle), thin sock on right foot for ankle, ski crampons, one whippet. Extra regular sock and two different insoles in case the ankle flared up. Headlamp with extra batteries.
Number of ski runs: 7
Approximate total elevation gain 13,200 feet
Length: ~30 miles done in 16 hours, 20 minutes
Accomplices: Ben Vandenbos
Put in: Private land boundary on South Meadow creek
Take out: base of Mason lake road near PonyFuel: Burritos, bars, gel, perpetum. Averaged a little over 100 cal/hr.
Equipment: Dynafit Nanga Parbat skis, TLT5 boots (to protect the ankle), thin sock on right foot for ankle, ski crampons, one whippet. Extra regular sock and two different insoles in case the ankle flared up. Headlamp with extra batteries.
Number of ski runs: 7
Number of good ski runs: 5
Fatigue factor (1-10): 9
(note, 9 is virtually impossible to
exceed in a no-race setting)
Stoke factor (1-10): 9 + stoke that my ankle held up.
Memories to suppress: Lack of snow on the plateaus. Painful left shin and 6th toe pain.
Stoke factor (1-10): 9 + stoke that my ankle held up.
Memories to suppress: Lack of snow on the plateaus. Painful left shin and 6th toe pain.
Yes!!
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