Holland Peak, West Face

Holland Peak, West Face, with ski tracks.  I skied the left of the two gullies.

With the family out of town, I took a day off work to ski.  Conditions were far from perfect, with high freezing temperatures, but I made the best of it.  The primary goal for the day was to position myself well to safely ski one of the ramps on the West face of Holland peak, and the secondary goal was to ski a lot and fulfill an informal goal to ski ten 10k days this season.

I slept at the trailhead and was walking by 6 am, with hopes of catching the narrow corn window on solar aspects before engaging the West face of Holland peak.  I tried a low approach in to Rumble Creek and ended up just bungling around.  Even with the failed recon mission, I arrived at upper Rumble lake with time to spare.  Since the upper flanks of Holland peak had undergone a reasonable freeze, it seemed prudent to attempt one of the steep Northeast ramps.  An hour of cramponing up punchy ice on the West side of the peak put me on top of the ramp.  The skiing was pretty good, with supportable corn up high and manageable mush for the lower half.  It a was fun to catch this fairly exposed line in safe condition.  The climb back out to the North exit notch was mushy, so I slathered on extra sunscreen and just got it done.  It was through the notch by 12:30 and on to the West face.

Looking down one of the Northeast ramps on Holland peak.

Tracks below the Northeast ramps. 

Steep slush skinning with the vast Bob Marshall wilderness behind.

There are two prominent ramps on the West face.  The more striking right ramp was out of condition and way over my head.  The left ramp had some moderate runelling and two exposed pinches, but looked doable, so I headed up.  The line is a sustained 45 to 50 degrees, and there was a lot of junk slop snow, but nothing was sufficiently difficult or hazardous to merit turning around, so I slogged my way to the top.  I did not summit, instead skiing from the top of the line, about 300 vertical feet below the summit.  The skiing was fine.  The upper gully was actually quite good.  The short traverse into the steep middle third was fairly rotten and exposed, but I punched across it without incident.  As expected, skis provided adequate flotation, and with care, I was able to stay on top of the rotten snow through the middle third.  Getting off the ramp took some doing, but I was able to ski cut and kick enough of the heavy mush off the crux sections to navigate them with an adequate margin of safety.  From there, it was smooth sailing to Upper Rumble lake.  I grabbed my stashed ski gear, skinned up to the small rise east of the lake, and took a long break to unwind and admire the line.

Looking up the left gully.

Ready to ski!

At this point in the day, snow everywhere was quite mushy, but I had time and energy to spare.  Next up was a climb to the low point West of Holland for a go at one of the two steep Northeast couloirs.  The thin snow was variable and rotten, but it was a fun line.  Quite steep at the top.  I was not feeling great about wet slide potential, and took another long break at the base of the run, mulling through options.  Eventually I decided to keep it mellow and ski two runs in the valley bottom between the two peaks.  It was a fun to drop my pack and enjoy grinding up and down low angle mush.

Having explored on the approach, I decided to explore on the exit, following old ski tracks down the drainage instead of climbing to the climber's trail.  Although the ski tracks kept going along the creek, I wasn't very happy about sketchy snow bridges, so I climbed out of the drainage and fought across tick infested dry ground to the mouth of the drainage.  Once out of the incised creek valley, I skied a bit then walked easily down to the main trail and out. I don't know if it was faster to exit this way, but the entire exit took less than 90 minutes, so it was in the same time ballpark as the normal exit, with a little more skiing. The rest of the evening was spent camped out, cooking a lazy dinner and reading about baby brain development. 10,400 vertical feet, done in twelve hours and two minutes car to car.

I skied the middle couloir and it was fun.

Nice ski lines, but too much recent debris to gamble with.

Thoughts The West face was a good objective, and it was fun to get my single biennial steep ski descent out of the way.  The two West gullies are aesthetic and visually define Holland peak from many peaks in the Missions and Bitterroot.  The skiing is good, at least in the gully I skied. My line is fairly steep and hangs over cliffs, and in marginal condition, dished up about as much risk as I was willing to accept.  The right gully is a step up, both in terms of difficulty and aesthetics (it is longer, and might be skiable from the exact summit).  I will not be skiing the right gully anytime soon, but for those eager to throw down, go check it out when it is in condition.  At a minimum, expect some difficult thin snow and easy mixed climbing at the bottom of the gully.  I speculate a savvy party could rig an anchor somewhere and bypass the lower cliffy exit with a 60m rappel.  Both lines were on their way out, and are probably already out of condition for the year.

Also, it was nice to get my tenth 10k day in.  At the risk of sounding elitist, I was able to consistently hit the 10k mark this year.  Only two of the days were yo-yo vert days, and many of the days had long approaches, difficult trailbreaking, bad weather, heavier gear, logistics, etc., and were not ideal for racking up vertical.  It takes a combination of an early alarm, reasonably light gear, smart pacing and efficient skinning, continuous movement, good trip planning, a stealthy routefinding nose, and awesome partners, but I really feel that the 10k mark is doable as a normal long day for fit parties. Thanks to my supportive family for allowing me the opportunity to get out for so many long and challenging outings this winter.