Como Peaks link up

Middle and West Como from East Como, with El Capitan lurking
in the background. I skied the sunlight south faces.

I have wanted to ski all of the Como peaks in a day for a long time. Scrambling across their summit ridges in sumer, and skiing the South face of east and North ramp of Middle a few years back has only increased the draw. I succumbed to the draw and drove out Friday evening to the trailhead with dreams of effortlessly linking all three peaks and tacking on the 4,000 vertical foot Tin Cup chute at the end of the day because, why not?

Unfortunately, the execution phase was not as lucrative as I had hoped. The comedy of errors got rolling early when I got lost. On the wrong side of the creek. In the dark. Fortunately only 15 minutes and a few expletives were all it took to find the trail, but I was promptly dealt another low blow in the form of falling off a slippery log and into the creek. In the dark. Completely soaking my boots. Soldering on, I still made it to the base of the peaks in reasonable time. The approach from the trail to the mid-slope bench is complex, and I went about  half mile too far on the trail before giving up and attacking 1,500 vertical feet of steep brushy/rocky/icy terrain. I made it to the bench surprisingly tired and took a long break to wring out my socks and boot liners, re fuel, and reevaluate the day.

From the bench I skinned, then booted firm ice up the Southwest face of West Como before skiing the face, which was icy but otherwise spectacular. This was my first time skiing the west peak, and it is possible that this was also a first ski descent of the peak.  About an hour behind schedule, I stopped on the first bench about 1,000 vertical feet below the summit. This is where I noticed a faint trickle along the base of my spine and down the back of my pants. After further investigation, it became clear that a can of Pepsi had exploded in my pack, soaking my clothes and leaving sticky residue all over my back and legs.  Nice. So I took another short break to wring things out and rest my already fatigued quads.

Looking down an icy but otherwise perfect West Como peak.

Looking back at the fine Southeast face of West Como.

Refreshed, I booted then skinned up to the summit of Middle Como, and had an absolutely perfect 2,800 vertical foot corn run down the moderate Southeast face. Energized by the perfect conditions, I transitioned quickly and skinned easily all the way up the summit of East Como. From the craggy summit, I skied the south gully and south face, which served up another 3,000 feet of perfect corn. The remainder of the decent down to Tin Cup creek trended more toward the survival side of things, with tricky route finding, isothermal muck, brush, and dirt walking for a few hundred vertical feet. Fortunately, I enjoy the adventure associated with adverse conditions.

Skis harvesting corn in front of the Tin Cup chutes.

Looking back down from the summit of East Como peak at my stashed skis
and the 4,500 vertical foot South face.

Brush on the return to Tin Cup creek. I love this stuff.

After a water stop at the creek, I started up the Tin Cup chutes. The entire slide path had massively avalanched in the past few weeks, so I worked my way around debris and eventually up endless icy bed surfaces to a point about half way up the chute. For some reason, my legs were just not in it today, the snow was rapidly re-freezing, and I still had well over an hour of technical skinning to go before topping out. My older and wiser side won out over my motivated side, and I pulled the plug. Reaping the benefits of an early reatreat, I was able to catch the bottom half of the chute while it was still reasonably soft, so the skiing was enjoyable. The exit was also enjoyable, and since my boots were already completely water logged, I just waded the stream crossings with a big satisfied grin on my face, having enjoyed a beautiful, challinging day of skiing in the wild Bitterroot mountains.

The Tin Cup chutes in poor condition.

Aliens out for a swim in the creek.

Thoughts:
By the numbers, this was an 11,700 vertical feet tour, and done in 13.5 hours. The peaks themselves are spectacular, and link up logically, and this would be an all time classic Bitterroot tour if it were not for the long drive from Missoula and the problematic approach and egress from the bench below the peaks. As it stands, a single Como peak tour is a fantastic outing as long as coverage is adequate, and the full link up it is still very much worth doing for a strong party. Adding on the Tin Cup chutes is not at all necessary, but if you still have energy to burn at the end of the day, why not?

I was unable to determine the best approach to the bench below the peaks, but if I go back, I will probably head up the drainage just past the Tin Cup chutes, as John Lehrman recommends, or head up the talus opening another 2,000 feet up the trail.

On a gear related note, this is the first day I have used the Plum 165 race heel pieces. I want to add some rise to the heel elevators, but they otherwise appear to be exceptionally sold and functional bindings.

And in other news, I want to give a quick shout out to Blake, who recently made the fifth descent of the East face of El Capitan. Nice job Blake! He patiently waited for good conditions, and his execution was flawless, both of which speak well to his emerging status as an accomplished backcountry skier well beyond his years. So if you see him around town, give him a big congrats. And tell him to stay safe!

El Capitan's East face, the day before Blake's ski descent.

Mill 2 to Mill 3 tour

High on Mill 2

With good coverage, adequate stability, and great snow quality, skiing in the Bitterroot is about as good as it gets right now. Jeffrey and I headed out for a long day with the twin objectives of finding good snow and having a good adventure. We found both in abundance. Some friends had skied the East face of Mill 2 the previous day, so we just followed their track all the way from the trailhead to the summit. Even with the track, the upper traverse and climb on the West face was a good technical excercise, and we surmounted it with technical skinning, ski cramponing, booting, rock scrambling, and a little bit of tree climbing.

Jeffrey getting after it on Mill 2.

On the summit, the sun broke through the clouds as I replaced the prayer flags for Chris.

 

The East face is steep and engaging, but it felt relatively casual since the snow was excellent. We had a fabulous run on this little Bitterroot steep skiing test piece.  From the base, we climbed to the edge of the south gully on Mill 2. We opted out of the long traverse back to the summit, and instead skied straight down to Blodgett Creek.  3,000 feet of excellent skiing later, we were down in the canyon.

Jeffrey in the powder in Mill 2.

More skiing on Mill 2.

Skiing down to Blodgett.

I was less than excited about wind slabs on the west side of Mill 2, so I suggested we tour up canyon about a mile and climb the south side of Mill 3. We had a major false start trying to find the way, but soon enough we were back on track, slowly making our way up the 4,000 vertical foot climb. We used ski crampons again on the climb, and they saved us big time. I'm not afraid to throw a little Spanish in with my German, so Viva la harcheisen!  We were both ready to see the top, and I was excited for a new summit. We skied the low angle northeast face of the multi-named Mill 3/Hauf peak/Printz Ridge HP before nosing our way down into the Mill 2/3 basin and skiing out to Mill creek. Of note, the south facing peak to creek run off Mill 3 that we climbed is moderate, open, not too far back in the canyon, and needs to be skied soon. Our noses were sound, and we found the passage through the cliffs on this otherwise mellow run first try. The exit to the creek had plenty of snow for good skiing all the way down. With beautiful light, we make a triumphant exit out Mill creek. It was a great day, but did't want to leave. 9,300 vertical feet.

Jeffrey on the last climb, with upper Blodgett creek in the background.

Jeffrey on the home stretch.

Back on the trail, about to point it home in Mill creek.

Castle crag via Nipple Knob

Leah and Natalie nearing the summit.

I had another fantastic day in the Bitterroot, skiing the north face of Nipple knob, touring up Sheafman Creek, then skiing the South face of Castle Crag and exiting Mill creek. The weather was great, the company was as good as it gets, and the tour flowed smoothly and had plenty of spice to keep us engaged. There was a healthy dose of canyon slogging time, but it was filled with interesting conversation on a variety of topics, as expected from a party of four with advanced degrees.

We did have to get a little creative to avoid northeast facing wind slabs, but were able piece the tour together without doing anything too slow or dangerous. This was my fifth time on top of the crag, and I was able to re-confirm my opinion that the summit view is one of the best in the range. Both runs were quality, and we were able to score grabby but good conditions from top to bottom on the 3,000 vertical foot south face of Castle Crag. With all the snow, the egress was quick and almost painless. Tacking Nipple knob on to the front part of the day bumped the quality of this tour somewhere just shy of classic status.

Approaching Nipple knob. Photo: Ben Irey

Mill 1 and 2 from Nipple knob. Photo: Ben Irey

Safety meeting (seriously) before engaging the slopes above Knack lake. Photo: Ben Irey

The ladies, skinning all the way to the summit.

Leah cruising on Castle Crag. Photo: Ben Irey

Leah near the bottom of Castle Crag. Photo: Ben Irey

Dressed for spring during the exit.

Back in the Bitterroot - Glen to Sweathouse to Big Creek tour

Jeff and Jeffrey climbing in front of the Mystery chutes.

I took advantage of a rare break in the weather to rally a strong group of Missoula skiers for a day of exploration in the Bitterroot. The firehose of precipitation has finally abated a bit, so we were all excited to get out into some more interesting terrain. As it turns out, avalanche danger was still on the spicy side, but we were still able to ski some new-to-us terrain. We started out by climibing to Glen Lakes at sunrise. This was a new approach for all of us except Jeff, and I relished in discovering a new and surprisingly spectacular little cirque tucked just out of view of the valley.  From the top of the unnamed 8,400 peak west of Glen Lake, we spent about 20 minutes debating the merits of dropping in to Sweathouse peak via the most prominent south facing gully. We decided to go for it, skirting slabs where possible, and were rewarded an icy but stable run all the way down to Sweathouse.

Basking in sunrise on the approach to Glen Lakes.

Jeff at the top of the first run. The entire Gash
complex and the Mystery chutes are visible behind him. 

The zone as seen from Gash. Our first run was the sun/shade gully.
Our second run was the sunlight face off the obvious peak on the left skyline.
It is possible to ski both of these objectives from Gash in a full day.

I had planned on moving on to north facing terrain, but wind slabs seemed too touchy, so I suggested we point up drainage for a look at Hidden Peak. On that subject, it seems like it has been unusually windy, and avalanche danger has been uncharacteristically high this year. Or maybe I am just getting soft, or old and wise? Anyway, everyone was on board, and after a good hard push we were soon ripping skins at our high point. The run was good, if not a touch generic.

At the base of the Hidden peak run.

Aftere a long break at the bottom, we made another push back to 8,400. I must not have eaten enough, because I had a real low energy patch on the last climb. With a squall blowing in, we decided to start the involved exit process. We ended up skiing a long (almost 4,000 vertical feet!) and interesting peak to creek run, which which was difficult to find, and harbored persistent, unsettling wind slabs at the top, even in the trees. We worked our way down slowly, and soon the scary slabby snow changed to safe but challenging powder over chunky avalanche debris in the main gully. The gully was a grand adventure with a few powder turns, a lot of chunky avalanche debris, and a lot of sideslipping around obstacles of all kinds including brush and waterfalls. And there was a healthy sampling of not-too-bad skiing through alder, thin snow navigating in the forest, and a all-hand-on deck search for a safe crossing across Big Creek. It was a great adventure, and I enjoyed every minute of it, aside from the slabby snow at the top.

In the thick of it during the exit to Big Creek.

The ski out Big Creek was fairly long but enjoyable, and we were soon back at the car lounging in lawn chairs (thanks Blake), and consuming massive amounts of beer and potato chips in full Montana style.

Random Snippets:

This is a pretty good zone, but it is limited by the extra long approach compared to similar areas (Gash, nipple knob, Camas, Mill point, etc). Also, a deep low elevation snowpack is required to ski easily down into Big Creek. Still, I will be back o ski the mellower terrain directly above and below the lakes, and to explore more of the north facing terrain toward Big Creek. I really enjoyed the crew today - thanks guys! Of note, everyone has been out skiing a lot this year, and was on light gear, which translated to a strong and fluid day, where about 9,700 vertical feet of touring flew by fairly casually. It was my first day on a new pair of G3 C3 Zen Oxide skis, and aside from grabby tips and tails (to be addressed with ski tuning in the near future), I was pretty impressed. Certainly not the flashiest ski out there, but light enough, nimble enough, floaty enough, and totally solid. I’ll check back in with more details. 

Jack 'n Jill Race report

I was not surprised to hear that the Jack 'n Jill randonee race was postponed by a week due to the blizzard, but I was surprised that no fewer than four other Missoulians were game to make the drive over to the Rocky Mountain front to have a go at the re-scheduled course. I have heard good things about this ski hill, and was excited to check it out. Teton Pass ski resort has a cool vibe and impressive sidecountry touring terrain when conditions are stable. And they did a great job hosting the race.

Post-race mug shot. Thanks for the battle Ben.
Photo: Teton Pass

After a warm up and brief pre-race meeting, the gun went off. A Le mans start gave an appropriate, old-school flare to the race.  Blake made it first off the line, with Ben and me in hot pursuit. Within a few minutes, Ben had taken the lead, and I was sandwiched betwen him and Blake. To my surprise, Ben was unable to open a gap, and I was able to get out ahead of him, but was not able to open a gap to the top of the first climb. Ben got out of the transition first, and we both skied hard to the bottom of the run. Ben had another good transition, and started up about 30 seconds ahead of me. I took in some fluid and calories at the bottom, then just rallied with all my might to the top. I was only able to close the gap by about 10 seconds during the short climb, and Ben held on to his lead at the transition, and through the descent. We finished within 25 seconds of each other. Blake came through a few minutes back, then Leah cruised over the line in first for women, and 4th overall.  The rest of the Missoula crew was not far behind. In terms of excecution, I felt good going into the race, and was able to push hard without any real bobbles. Any day where I can stay within striking distance of Ben is about as good as I can ask for. The rest of the Missoula crew had strong races - Blake and Natalie are going to be deadly if they are able to scrape together full race setups, and Janine completed her first ski race of any kind in good style.

Coming into the finish line. No helmet, no problem. That's how we do it
 in Montana (and Europe, I suppose). Photo: Teton Pass

Team Missoula all back at the finish line. Photo: Teton Pass

We spent the remainder of the day hiking to the top of the mountain and riding lifts. The awards were fun, with plenty of prizes to go around. Good times, and a big thanks to everyone at the resort for putting on a great event. Results are here.

Checking out the big explosive triggered crown from the night before
during our sidecountry excursion to the summit. Photo: Blake Votilla

Still waiting with baited breath for stability to improve in the Bitterroot...