Cliff Lake, Binocular bounce

I spent a great afternoon in mid May at Cliff lake doing the Binocular bounce tour.  The basic idea is simple: traverse out to Binocular peak, then bounce back, skiing as many North facing bowls as possible.  There is enough skiing right around Cliff lake to keep one busy, but this tour is a great way to see a lot of country, and the route finding is just tricky enough to make it an engaging outing.

Looking out from the low pass at the beginning of the day.
Binocular peak is in the far background.  

I started off by climbing to the low saddle directly below Cliff eagle peak and schussed down the ramp to the next peak east.  From there I got on the Stateline and followed it out to Binocular peak.  It was a bit of a slog, but I was poised on Binocular soon enough, ready to bounce back.  Binocular, unnamed bowl above Hidden lake, unnamed bowl behind Eagle cliff, and the Diamond chute to return home.  Each run had good snow and skied well.  I took short breaks and pushed at a solid moderate pace, and each run took about 45 minutes.  Soon enough, I was working through tricky thin snow at the bottom of the Diamond chute.

Binocular peak.

Looking back at the Binocular peak run.  This time I skied the obvious run right off the high point.

Unnamed peak above Hidden lake.

Looking back at the Hidden lake run.

Fun skiing at the top of the Diamond chute.

One of the nice aspects of skiing at Cliff lake is the delightfully quick egress, and sure enough I was back in flip flops about ten minutes after starting the dry land egress from Diamond lake.  Somewhere a little north of 5,000 vert, done in just under 5 hours car to car.

Approximate route.

Running races, 2018

An ongoing summary of summer running races.  All the standard race disclamers apply.  Going into running season, I am honestly a little burned out with racing.  Not in a bad way, more that I am not super fired up to work hard to produce top level performances, and am trying to give myself a little psychological break and just train for fun.  I have had a few minor tweeks going into the running season (foot and groin), so I would rather get on a better injury trajectory than worry too much about fitness.

Missoula Turkey Trot 8k  I ran the 5-mile course on Thanksgiving.  I ran as fast as I could, and ended up spending the last third of the race sandwiched in between the women's winner and a hungry pack of about five of Hellgate's finest female runners.  With a bit of grit, I was able to hold them off for a 29.30 finish, averaging 5.55 miles.  I had hoped to hold on to 5.45 miles, but my fitness is not that good.  I did a cool down lap on Sentinel post race, then enjoyed Thanksgiving festivities with our family. 

Elk Ramble 15k  I didn't put too much mental energy into the run, or really taper well, but I did finally get a good three weeks of training going into the Elk ramble after a very frustrating September of sickness and generally poor bodily absorption of training.  The run itself went really well.  I started out hard, probably right around anerobic threshold, but still only managed to top out on Jumbo saddle in about 20th place.  It seemed like I was able to make up time on the downhills, and passed a few guys.  I was able to grind it out to the top of the last climb only getting passed once.  On the last downhill, I passed about five people, and ended up finishing well inside the top ten in about 1.06.  I felt good about the race, and was able to maintain a reasonable sup-marathon pace 6.50 miles over the slightly hilly course.  It has been a consistent trend, but it felt good to have a solid race after a frustrating summer of cramping at longer races.

The Rut 28k  After a poor Beaverhead race, I was honestly not very excited to run the Rut.  My race plan revolved around cramp management rather than pushing to fatigue, so I started conservatively.  I didn't even feel all that good in the first half, and arrived at Swiftcurrent behind schedule and surprisingly tired.  The second half was faster.  I had some inner leg twinges, but was able to run through them, and was able to move up about 30 places by holding the conservative early pace.  I had a great time running down Lone peak, and was grateful to be moving smoothly if not fast over this beautiful course.  I finished just over five hours, my slowest time.  I wasn't as tired as I would have liked, but pushed the cramp threshold about as far as possible. Leah and Kyle both had great races.  The real hilight of the weekend was pacing Sam in the runt run and seeing family.  See Beaverhead race for adductor frustrations.  They remain unresolved.  While my fitness is currently below average, I think that a 4.30 to 4.40 time is quite realistic without the cramping issue.  I will probably not race steep mountain races next summer if I can not find a robust solution to the issue.

Beaverhead Endurance Runs 55k  I was excited to run an ultra after a two year hiatus.  I showed up well rested and reasonably fit, hoping for a fun race.  The first half of the race is very runnable, and I slowly moved up from about 30th place to about 10th.  I was working pretty hard with heart rates consistently in the mid-150s, but it seemed conceivable that I could hold the pace for the remainder of the race.  About half way between the Cutout and Janke lake aid stations, my nemesis adductor cramps set in, and I had to stop about five times to let them subside.  Although it was not the way I wanted my race to go, I remained committed to finishing, and decided to slow way down until the cramping resolved.  I was enjoying the back and forth with Andrew, and it was unfortunate to watch him run off, but so it goes.

In the heart of the stunning middle third of the course.  Shortly before cramping.
Photo: Andrew Mayer.

After taking in a bunch of fluids and sodium at the aid, I took it easy and walked the entire off trial section.  Fortunately, the terrain was slow enough that I wasn't really hemoraging too much time.  I was able to run once I got back on the trail, but I kept it nice and easy, coasting into the final aid station and once again taking in lost of fluids, sodium, and generally taking as much care of my body as possible.  I was able to run the last six miles, gradually speeding things up as I approached the finish line.  I crossed in 7.25, about forty minutes behind my time goal.

Three things I am happy about:  I had a great time.  Since I wasn't able to hammer the last half, I recovered really quickly, which was nice.  All of my medium and long term injuries and niggles are pretty much clear, and it is really nice to feel healthy and strong.  I am, however, super frustrated about the adductor cramping, since it is such a chronic race killer and seems to set in well before I have the chance to push to my body's potential.  I have a few new ideas to address the cramping, but none of them seem terribly robust, and to be honest, I'm a little stumped on how to get back to feeling like I can race to my potential for events over about three hours.

Governer's Cup Marathon  For a few disparate reasons, this race fit well into my schedule.  It is really early in the year to expect a great race, as I had only done two proper long runs prior to toeing the line.  On the flip side, ski season aerobic base is great, my body is accepting running quite well, and even later in the year I don't really want to put in the flat miles required to properly train for a road marathon.  So, I set of at 6 am on race day with a single goal of sub-3 hours.

The start.  I am half visible in the orange shirt behind Nico Composto, the uncontested winner.

The race went well, and I had a lot of fun.  The first few downhill miles were easy, but I was already distressingly taxed at the top of the biggest hill at mile 5.  From miles 5 to 16, I banked 10-15 seconds a mile on goal pace, and was running hard but not all out (HR in the mid 150's).  I kept the calories and water coming in, and to my delight I never bonked.  The field was quite thin, and I ran the first 25 miles a stubborn two minutes behind third place. There are a lot of hills in the second half of the course, and I was losing more time than I liked on each one, but I was already having light hamstring and calf cramps, so it seemed unwise to try to run any harder.  After reading about endless tales of getting crushed around mile 18, I rolled through 18, then 20, then 22, then 24 in mild terror, but nothing bad happened.  Coming out of the last hill around mile 24 I was about a minute behind goal pace, and although it was unrealistic to gain that time back, I at least tried.  My effort was enough to pass the 3rd place runner, but it was not enough to get under the 3 hour mark, and I crossed the line cramping and totally knackered in 3.00.40.

Although I missed my time goal, I am satisfied with race day execution, and don't really know where the 40 seconds could have come from without taking even more cramping risk.  The road running was much less monotonous and painful than I had feared, and recovery has been faster than expected.  With a larger running base, I think sub 3 is possible, but I'm not sure I want to try.

Riverbank 10k  I signed up just a few days prior and didn't really taper.  I had a great race for so early in the running season.  I settled behind much-faster Cory Soulliard, and just tried to hand on as he cranked out my goal pace 5.55ish miles.  It hurt a lot earlier in the race than I am used to, but I successfully hung on, running about as fast as realistically possible.  The last mile was a nightmare of pain.  36.35 or so.  Thanks to Leah and Sam for cheering on, and for joining me for a Snowbowl skin later in the day.

Missions, Cold Couloir

The Cold couloir in all its glory during our exit.

Jeffrey and I set out at a reasonable hour for a day of pleasant exploration in the Missions.  Admittedly, the words "pleasant" and "exploration" are rarely combined when describing trips into the Missions, but we prevailed with some Google earth research and a little luck.  The drive to the Terrace lake trailhead was scarier than I had hoped for.  The road is very narrow and rocky, and meeting an oncoming vehicle would be extremely unplesant.  Fortunately we didn't see anyone and were soon hiking up a new to us trail.  The trail up to snowline had a lot of downfall, but is well constructed and enjoyable.  From just above snowline we made the obligatory long traverse into Crow creek and popped up to Terrace lake.  Another short push put us at a col overlooking Cold peak and it's striking West couloir.  The day was heating up rapidly, so we made a beeline for the peak.  The couloir was terribly runneled, but we decided to have a look anyway.

Looking up to the approach col from Terrace lake.

Behold, a three step kick turn.  Avoiding punchy new snow wallowing at all costs.

Jeffrey climbing to the col on the approach.

With 8" of fresh and rapidly warming snow, I made a hard push up the couloir to minimize exposure time.  This also meant we did not have time to go to the exact summit.  The ski line is striking, but the snow quality was awful.  We took our time to ski it safely, and were soon at the base of the run, admiring our tracks and eating lunch.

Up.

And down.

But not down in the runnel!

In deference to the rapidly warming conditions and to preserve the pleasant mantra for the day, we shelved plans to add on another run and started reversing our approach route.  The ski run back down from the col to Terrace lake was great fun, as was the schuss down Crow creek.  The traverse to get back to the trailhead ridge was kind of hot and long, but it didn't matter.  Below snowline, I was content to walk it out, but Jeffrey wanted to run, so we pounded out to the car.  After many long ski days, it was nice to return to the car by mid afternoon not too tired.  I think the day was between 7 and 8k of vertical, and we were out for 8 hours.

Jeffrey exiting.

What a striking line and fun bouncing tour getting in.  While it must be possible to approach the couloir directly from Swartz, I think this high route from Terrace lake was better.  Although a surprising number of potential ski lines have weird cliffs and pinches, rendering them unsuitable, there is still a fair bit more skiing to do in the area.

Swans, Clearwater Lake Super Loop

Gorge lake and the Northeast wall of Ptarmigan point.

The day after skiing on Holland I rolled out at 5 am, refreshed by a relaxed evening of camping.  With high freezing temperatures, I had grand ambitions to catch the first run of the day in good corn.  The entire 5-mile road approach was on intermittent snow, and I lost count of how many times the skis went on and off.  I think the quickest way up Ptarmigan peak is to ascend the avalanche path just North of the peak, and the bottom of the path was fairly snow free and full of little whipper willows and alder.  Fortunately everything changed once I got into the avalanche path itself and I was soon cruising up firm, fast snow.  The 3,000 foot climb to Ptarmigan peak went by quickly, and I was poised on the summit a few minutes after 9 am.  I skied the East ridge, but instead of turning North down the Lick Lake couloir, turned South and skied down to Gorge Lake.  The top half of the run did indeed have good corn snow, and the mush was manageable below freezing line.  After a quick skate across the lake. I took a good sun and food break and enjoyed the ambience of a cirque that few humans every see.

Lots of little whippers to deal with before getting to continuous snow on the climb up Ptarmigan.

On Ptarmigan.  Excited to ski!

Looking down the good ski line to Gorge lake.

My primary goal for the day was to ski off the summit of Ptarmigan point, so I made the arduous traverse around to Doctor lake, then ground up 3,000 vertical feet of Montana's finest overbaked mush snow to the summit.  It was hot, and my legs were tired, and I loved every minute of it.  Although I should return some day to ski Sunday and Matt Mountains, this was the last of the major Swans summits in the Clearwater group that I had not previously skied.  The snow was pretty over warmed on the Southeast face, which detracted from the otherwise good run. Oh well.

Mushy mush on the climb up Ptarmigan point. 

Looking back on the Ptarmigan run during my exit stage skier's right.

I exited skier's right at the bottom of the peak and made an easy climb back to the crest.  I returned to the valley via the spectacular West facing avalanche path two paths South of the main Ptarmigan point path.  It also skied well off the top, but soon deteriorated to mush.  I had to be careful to manage avalanche danger, but with care, the skiing was safe.  The lower reaches of the gully were full of debris, and I had to ski over, around and through almost a quarter mile of 10 to 30 foot high debris.  It was pretty impressive.  And challenging.  Debris skiing is tricky.  I was pleasantly surprised to ski all the way to the trail, and to find a perfect stream of clean snowmelt water to refill my water bottle and knock back the thirst from two days of warm skiing.

Looking down my exit run.

Debris.  Interesting skiing.  There was a lot more than I could capture in one photo.

I made my way around the rest of the Clearwater loop road, and it was once again on intermittent snow most of the way.  My legs were pretty shot after 8k of vertical, and 19,000 feet of climbing in two days, so I enjoyed relaxing and just enjoying the slow process of exiting.  Having mistakenly not brought approach shoes, I skipped innumerable snow patches, and eventually just clunked out the last two miles in boots to my stashed approach shoes at the highway.  It is less than a mile along the two access points on the highway, and the jog back to the car in a light rain provided a nice little cool down to the day. About 10.5 hours, car to approach shoes at the highway.

Thoughts  It was kind of fun to do an outing like this that goes all the way around the Clearwater loop. Unfortunately, the West facing avalanche paths are melting rapidly, and are more or less out of condition for the year.  On the exit, I did note a fairly striking West facing couloir system on Sunday Mountain, and a return to ski around on Sunday and Matt mountains has been added to the list...

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.