South Swan traverse, Crescent to Divine

I have been chomping at the bit for spring skiing.  With with winter sticking around for a few more days, we headed out on a tour that I have wanted to to for several years, but also one with sneaks to avoid wind loaded starting zones and feasible bail options. More of an assertive bite than a chomp, but one that worked out well.

Mist skiers on West Marshall.

Leaving town at 5 am in a driving rain would have been demoralizing if not for Jeffrey and Conor's motivation.  In an unusual turn of good luck, the precipitation abated as we headed to Seeley, and it was dry by the time we were skiing.  The six mile flat road skin went by in a monotonous but quick two hours, and we were soon navigating up the Southwest ridge of Crescent.  Snow from the past few days made trailbreaking arduous, and I almost lost a skin (thanks Jeffrey for the day-saving ski strap). We still summited in good time.

Jeffrey approaching in the Rice Ridge fire area. Photo: Conor Phelan

High on Crescent. Photo: Conor Phelan

Starting down Crescent. "I think it goes" Photo: Conor Phelan

We skied off the summit of Crescent in a whiteout but somehow nailed the Southwest gully line, navigating by braille.  It was terribly ironic to not be able to see a thing while skiing a beautiful line on a visually stunning peak, but such is life at times.  Conor crushed the trailbreaking to West Marshall, and we just tried to keep up.  We topped out once again in a whiteout, but had more ease finding the gully, and also skied much better snow.  Avalanche danger was above low, and throughout the tour, we would ski a hundred feet of relatively wind scoured west aspects to bypass the starting zones before skiing the majority of the gullies with confidence. Once again, Conor crushed the first half of the climb up Pyramid, and I was able to take it to the summit.  To our surprise, we saw Dave and his friend Kurt descending as we climbed.  I used Dave's blog post extensively for trip planning, but in characteristic shyness did not thank him for the beta.  My bad, thanks Dave!  The clouds finally broke as we summited Pyramid.

Jeffrey near the bottom of the West Marshall run.

Conor on the last few steps to Pyramid.

Jeffrey enjoying the Pyramid run.

We were all tired, but there was sufficient time in the day to extend the tour and visibility was finally reasonable, so we took a truncated run of the South side of Pyramid, then made a short climb to an unnamed sub peak, which allowed us to ski a fun gully to the summer Pyramid Pass trail.  I was knackered from tough trailbreaking at a bright pace, and the last climb to Divine was a grind.  But we made it.  Most of the South gully was great fun, and with careful ski cutting and good communication, everything was manageable enough to be safe below saturated mush line.  It is a haul to get out, but the sun was out and everyone held it together.  

Onward to Divine, the white peak in the background! Photo: Conor Phelan

Conor leading us to Divine.

Skiing on fried legs midway down the Divine run.

Exit.  Seven miles. Flat roads. Two hours.  Photo: Conor Phelan

Thoughts

Thanks to Conor and Jeffrey for the great tour.  For stats, 10,700 vertical feet, done in about 12 hours car to car.  Conor's watch read 26.1 miles, but our feet were so sad by the end of the day, that we had no motivation to tack on the five hundred feet to make it a proper mountain marathon.  

I think that a simplified Crescent/West Marshall/Pyramid traverse would be a Missoula area classic if there were more backcountry skiers, and one that can be done mid-winter with reasonable avalanche conditions.  By skiing the unnamed West Marshall, the whole day can flow in a tight, logical sequence. The ski runs are all fabulous, the peaks are striking, the lines links up elegantly, and the length is a manageable 8,000 vertical feet. The only real detractors are that the ingress and egress are long, ski quality is fickle with all the runs on solar aspects, and the low elevation climb up Crescent might be trying with a thin snowpack. This is one area where a snowmobile would safe considerable time and energy.