Early May weather was consistently unsettled, which precluded exploring bigger ski objectives, but it was also consistently awesome in the Southern Swans, and I spent several days in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, expanding my knowledge of the area.
Morrell Northwest gullies: I rallied into the mist over the Crescent/Marshall divide with loose plans to explore gullies into Morrell creek. I traversed out to lower Crescent lake, then made a surprisingly easy climb to the ridge. I dropped into a cliff-lined Northwest facing gully. To my delight, the upper section was super clean and skied well, and the line connected with good skiing all the way to the creek. Really good ski run.
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| Looking back up the first gully. |
I climbed back up my descent gully for a bit before splitting off into a parallel avalanche path. From the crest, skied part way down along my track, then re-climbed my track to point directly West of Crescent lake. The final run took an angling ramp into the next path down valley. A cliff band at the bottom was passed skier's left with some devious sideslipping, and I emerged at Morrell creek in disbelief at finding three excellent, new-to-me ski lines and 2,500+ foot peak to creek runs in May. All just a stone throw away from the popular ski terrain on Crescent. The exit out Morrell creek to the falls, then out the Morrell falls trail was surprisingly smooth. Great day.
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| Second run. |
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| Ready for the last run. |
Crescent - Around the compass tour: An early start resulted in topping out on Crescent for the first time around 8:30 am with a plan to ski the longest possible runs on all aspects. I started with an enjoyable, steep romp down the East face to the upper lake, then skied the West gully down to snow line.
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| Lower in the West gully. |
A long grinding climb had me back on the summit for a jaunt down the popular South face all the way down to snow line. It had been icy all morning, and the snow finally softened to nice corn in the bottom half of the run. Then back up to the summit. In deteriorating weather, I nosed my way down the North face, descending a gully system just East of the peak. The run was engaging, with good skiing for 3,200 vertical feet(!) to the creek. The jaunt out Morrell was even smoother than the previous week, as trail crews had cleared hundreds of down trees from the Morrell creek trail. This is a great tour with the caveat that all North runs into Morrell are steep and complex.
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| Nosing down the North face of Crescent. |
Count and Otis: I went on a bit of a vision quest, skating, schussing, and skinning way out to the Otis lake basin for a day of exploration. With fast, firm conditions, I made it to the summit of Count peak about 4 hours after leaving the car. The South face of Count was really nice. Consistently good top to bottom.
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| Looking across at the Count peak run. |
I had scouted a few gullies on peak 8,401, directly across from Count, and the two longest ones off of the summit caught my eye. I set a track East of the peak and skied an incredibly great run in the looker's right gully. Steep, clean, aesthetic, and the snow was pretty good. The skiing was so good I decided to stay out later, downed some calories, jammed back up my track, and skied the next gully looker's left. It was even better! Unbelievable!
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| I skied the two looker's right of the trio of parallel chutes. |
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Looking down Otis right.
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Aided by nice firm late day conditions, I was able to navigate back to the car in under 3 hours from the base of the Otis runs. A wildly successful day of exploration deep in the Bob Marshall Wildnerness.
Leota: Inspired by the Count ski day, I returned a week later to Leota. This time, I climbed Pyramid, then used the Northeast face run as a springboard to get back to Leota.
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| Lower North gully on Leota. |
From the summit, I found a way down the complex East face down to Crimson lake. The run was more interesting than anticipated, requiring hacking a keyway into the cornice to access the face, negotiating heavy wet snow, and finding a way through a pinch in the lower gully. In retrospect, I could have found better ski terrain. I had hoped to investigate a steep gully on the North face, but I didn't like how heavy the poorly refrozen snow was, so I opted for a safer run on skier's right edge of the face. The line offered good skiing with a really nice aesthetic exit couloir. On the climb out, I spotted a big clean Northwest facing gully that might be the best summit ski run on Leota - good motivation to come back. On the exit, a minor detour over Pyramid allowed for an excellent final run.
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| Pyramid exit. |
Thoughts: There is a lot more to explore beyond the Pyramid/Crescent group. It seems to be reasonable to get out and back in a day, especially by local approach standards. I think the most realistic objectives include terrain above Crescent lakes, Marshall proper, Leota, and exits to Morrell creek (when in condition). Next on the list include another line or two into Morrell creek above the falls, Marshall NE and other lines along the Marshall ridge line, and the Crimson area.
