To my surprise, Jeff, Jeffrey and Kyle were all keen for a half day exploratory adventure, so we rolled out of the Bass creek trailhead at first light on President's day.
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We skied the gully in the center of the photo.
Little St. Joe summit is visible.
The Pinball Wizard gully is just out of view to looker's left. |
Kyle set a perfect, steady pace all the way to the top - he broke trail the entire way and didn't stop once during the almost 3 hour climb to our high point. Damn Kyle.
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| The days of skiing from the car on snow are over for the year. |
From the top (we stopped about ten minutes from the exact summit), we nosed our way into the gully, with one stop to check the map to ensure we were going the correct way. I had scoped the gully during the Crags outing a three days prior, but I was not sure that it went cleanly. At this point we were at least committed to having a look. After a few turns in the nondescript upper reaches, the gull formed. The snow in the gully itself was a bit chunky, but the ambience and terrain were both striking. There were two tricky spots which were, to our relief, filled in, and we were soon at the bottom.
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| Kyle skiing, as the gully begins to form. |
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| Jeff skiing low in the gully. |
From the bottom, I crossed the creek and took the conventional skier exit, while Kyle led everyone else on a bit of an adventure on the north side of the creek. Needless to say, my way was faster, but no-one cared, and we were soon reunited and on our way out to the car and civilization. I had a wonderful time exploring, and couldn't have asked for a better morning.
Thoughts: I am curious if this run has ever been skied, and would love to hear about others skiing it. (
2023 update: this gully had definitely been skied prior to our outing) It takes quite a bit of snow to fill in the mid-gully rock slabs and low elevation exit, but should be skiable during average to big snow years. And it just seems wrong that a 3,400 vertical foot ski line with good skiing that can be discovered in a casual 4 hour outing should fly under the radar for so long. So I would encourage folks to consider doing a bit of research and giving it a go sometime, probably soon this year before it melts out.
