10 x 10k ski days, 2021

Since I couldn't ski in February or March due to a foot injury, it was a mad  scramble to get to ten 10k ski days this year, but I managed.  The 10 x 10k goal has been a fun multi year challenge, pushing for earlier starts, farther reaches, and an expansive mindset in planning and executing outings.  I think that my watch might have been a little bit off on the Sweeney loop tour, but as a fitness replacement, I did do a mid-February 10k day on the bike, so I'm sticking to my claim of pulling off a 10 x 10k ski season.

Blackmore:  Fun day lapping the most popular Northeast shoulder with Kyle.  Great snow, and the 10k goal made for an engaging day.

Whitefish Mountain resort:  Two early laps and three afternoon laps with family lift skiing in between.

Gash North bowl:   We didn't take a turn with good snow all day, but...  Really nice to get out with Ned, get to know the North bowl of Gash proper a little better, continue to find evidence of good deep stability, and appreciate 2,500 foot long runs in early January.

Ned climbing back out of the North face of Gash proper.

Snowbowl and Point 6:  Mid day Martin Luther King day family obligations necessitated a wicked early start, but motivation was high, so I rallied from L2 around 4:30 am.  To my shock, I ended up crossing Justin Angleman and Seth Swanson's headlamps after the first lap, and we took a couple of short runs at their blistering pace.  Once the ski resort opened, I headed out to Jenny bowl, put a skin track in, and hammered out runs in perfect boot top powder.

Good skiing in Jenny bowl.

Eagle Pass:  On a forecast hot April day, I was sufficiently motivated to rally proper early to beat the forecast warm up.  The goal was to ski the big South facing avalanche path off of point 8,623 near Eagle pass.  The logistics of accessing the path and climbing out out are a bit weird, but I am pretty confident the Eagle pass approach is superior to the bushwack from Post creek.  I lucked out, catching the first run with perfect firm corn, and the second with good, slightly over ripe corn.  Really glad to finally ski this run and catch good conditions.  

OK, this is going to be fun.

Climbing out under the watchful eye of McDonald.

Note:  It appears that public access to the Eagle Pass trailhead has been cut off from the Eagle Pass road.  However, it is still possible for the public to access the trailhead from the Mollman pass road by taking the west canal road all the way South to the normal trailhead.  

Calowachan:  It seemed a little bit crazy to go for 10k with a not-crack-of-anything 1030 am start, so I headed out from the Eagle pass trailhead with a plan to just see what happened.  

Panorama of the view down the Southeast face of Calowachan out to the
South Calowachan summit, Summit Lake, McDonald, etc.

To my surprise, temps were cold all day, and the skiing was delightful.  I summited the South peak four hours from leaving the car, and jumped right into an excellent run down the steep upper Southeast face and down through a long couloir directly to Summit lake.  From which it was quick to bop over to the rolling South face of the primary North summit.  I skied the South face from below the craggy summit block.  Another great run!  On the climb out to Eagle pass, there may have been a short throw away lap to get to 10k, but then it was on to the fast ski and slow Mission-lite bushwacking walk out to the car by late evening.  With cold temps and great skiing, this was a really really good day.

Great conditions in a hidden Missions gem of a ski line.

Sweeney: After deciding that the suspect forecast for the Missions might not allow for good skiing (plan A), Jeffrey and I set out early from Missoula with plans to ski in Bass creek (plan B), but to our surprise, the trailhead was closed for prescribed burning.  So we resorted to plan C and back tracked to Sweeney.  I have wanted to do a circumnavigation tour for a while, and it seemed like the day to do it, regardless of the plan letter.

Jeffrey starting a fine long corn run on the South side of Sweeney.

We were on the summit less than three hours from leaving the car.  A bit of routefinding and icy down climbing put us on top of the Northwest gullies, which we skied on firm but edgeable ice.  Then, we climbed out of One horse creek to the top of the big Southeast bowl just past the main Sweeney summit.  The ensuing corn run was perfect - long, fun, with great snow top to bottom.  Definitely the run of the day and honestly one of the corn runs of the year.  We climbed back to the summit, then took a normal run on the Northeast face before exiting.  Nice day and fun to finally get out with Jeffrey again.

Complete Mystery tour: I had some other ski ideas, but Ned and made a compelling case to ski all of the Mystery chutes at Gash, and I'm glad he did.  The day was forecast to be warm and wet, but we headed out extra early anyway with Jeffrey with hopes that the weather would work out by luck. Sure enough, we found ourselves skiing directly off of Gash proper at 8 am with good enough weather and a reasonable re freeze. 

Gash proper from the top.

We made great time climbing to the top of the Mystery chutes, and skied the central chute first.  I put a steep but efficient (if I do say so myself) track back up the chute, and we climbed all the way back to the top and picked our way into the West chute.  Ned had to ski cut heavy snow, and we had to scrap around an ice step, but it was still a fun run.  We took one last jaunt up our skin track, climbing only to the top of  the East chute.  None of us had skied the East chute, and we were delighted to find a relaxing tree lined run.  

Jeffrey in the West Mystery chute.

Ned in the mellow but excellent East Mystery chute.

We took a pretty good break in light rain before rallying up the scrappy rock lined shorter chute on the East edge of the face. Most of the climb was scrappy, but we got it done efficiently, and the skiing was also scrappy but  fun.  The climb out to Gash got a bit long.  We were way over 10k feet, it was snowing and gloppy, and I think that everyone kind of hit a low energy patch at some point.  But we persevered, and were soon making our way out to the car.  This ended up being the biggest elevation day of the year for me - something north of 12k vert I think.  

Ned climbing the last couloir of the day.

Kakashe: Keeping with the spring theme of exploring some of the lesser (i.e. not McDonald, Grey Wolf, or East Saint Mary) Mission objectives, I had a really fun day exploring the Northwest chutes on Kakashe in early May, and when another perfect weather window appeared, I was back, this time with an early enough start for a 10k day.  The goal was basically to ski around the compass on Flattop before it got too warm.  There is enough downfall that getting to and from snow line took a long time and sucked some soul, but the time spent in the alpine was delightful.  I took the short entry run, then climbed to the top of Flattop.  

Up to the summit of Flattop.

I was able to scout a safe way through the pervasive ridge line cornice and skied a good run on the East face with OK warmed powder.  Hot sun motivated a quick transition, and climb back to the summit.  Next, I skied the long Northwest couloir from the summit.  The traverse into the couloir was really steep and very much heads up, no-fall with variable snow and some tricky ridges to ski over. I took it one slow sidestep at a time, and was soon on top of the main couloir.  To my surprise, there was about foot of settled spring powder in the main couloir, and the skiing was outrageously good - probably the run of the season.  I skied all the way out to the base, then kept descending until I reached a point where it was possible to weave up through scrappy Mission terrain back to the summit.  Then a great run down the big open West face visible from the valley.  Then a short North couloir to get to 10k.  The a short up, short scrappy ski, long bushwack exit had me back at the car.  Another really really good ski day in new to me terrain.

Ready to ski the East face.  What a back drop!

The traverse into the Northwest couloir.  Can you tell that I was intimidated?

Great skiing in the Northwest couloir.

Warren + biking. 

Mini down climb in the middle of the North face ski run on Warren peak.

Justin and Jeffrey were game to rally extra early for the many-th annual (I'm thinking 12th or 13th) Warren Wallow.  We had time to do a little bit of extra skiing, so we started the day off by climbing to the top of the East couloir, which was super fun, then headed back up for the customary North face run from the summit.  The exit was kind of a blur, but we were back to town by early dinner time.  We bumped into another party of long time friends and enjoyed seeing them off and on during the day.  For some reason, I was really dragging on this outing, so thanks to Justin and Jeffrey for driving, setting the bootpacks, and generally taking up my slack.  In order to get to 10k, I biked a few road/gravel Marshall canyon laps.  I had a pounding headache and was generally feeling terrible, but I got it done, and I'm glad I did because a dry spring followed by a very warm July resulted in an unusually early end to ski season 2021.

Sweeney peak, Central North gully

Sweeney is a justifiably popular local ski haunt, but tucked away on the lower North face are two interesting, albeit very condition dependent gullies that can be skied peak to creek from the summit.  In spring 2020, after a surprisingly enjoyable spin in the Western gully, I started climbing the central North gully, but bailed right away due to warming temperatures.  However, I was able to scope the icefall and file it away in the ski brain as an objective worth coming back for.  So with a nice cold forecast, good stability, and adequate low elevation coverage on shaded aspects, Leah and I headed out from the Sweeney trailhead at a casual 8:30.  We didn't know what to expect, and brought the full rappel kit of double ropes, all manner of climbing gear for an anchor, harnesses, and on and on.  

Adventure.

The climb to the summit was straightforward, and we were soon enjoying firm but excellent skiing in the upper North bowl.  We skied off the edge of the bowl and into the main chute, and were treated to a nice serving of perfect corn.  What a treat!  The nice corn deteriorated well above the rappel, but the snow was acceptable all the way down to the edge of the rap.  We are both way out of climbing shape, so the rappel took quite a long time.  I eventually found a confidence inspiring tree anchor and belayed Leah over.  After way too long scrapping around, we established a solid tree rap anchor and backup, and Leah was off.  In retrospect, we could have skated by with a single 60 m rope, but it would have been very close.  The skiing below the ice fall was a touch scrappy in a few places, but it was cold enough to hold OK snow all they way to the terminus of the avalanche about 200 vertical feet above One Horse creek.  I was pretty elated to have safely pulled off a challenging 2,800 vertical foot run with a healthy combination of excellent skiing and Bitterroot character.

Dropping in from the summit of Sweeney peak.

Perfect corn skiing in the upper reaches of the couloir.

Skiing below the rappel.

It took us the rest of the day to climb out to the Sweeney ridge and exit.  We decided to go down the drainage about a quarter mile before weaving an ascending line through steep thick trees and cliffs to the bottom of the Northeast bowl.  The going was pretty slow, but we eventually made it.  Once in the Northeast bowl, we climbed about half way out before a squall rolled through and dropped just enough snow to produce magnificent skin glopping.  Leah's skin may have fallen off, and I may have had to ski strap mine on, and there might have been a long grind of a bootpack to regain the approach ridge.  But we made it, and the normal exit was smooth and fast.  We were soon back at the car, excited to see another party of friends who had also had an enjoyable day of corn skiing on the South side of the peak.  

Glad to be done with the endless exit climb.

I think that this was a first descent.  If I do it again, I plan to bring ice tools and crampons and down climb the ice, with the possibility of retreating upward if the down climb proves too scary.  Great to get out with Leah.