Disappointment shoulder and Glen Lake peak to creeks

Ned skiing on the South shoulder of Disappointment peak.

Ned was game to endulge my rabid peak to creek tendencies, so we rallied at 5 am for a day in Big Creek, exploring new-to-me runs.  With all the snow, we had to park way, way out, but still were able to make the road and trail approach to St. Mary creek in about 2.5 hours.  I had never been up St. Mary creek before, and it looked incised and character building on the map, but I figured with all the snow, this would be as good a time as any to check it out.  Sure enough, the climbing to access the upper basin was pretty steep and slow, and new snow in the upper basin was a lot of work.  We slowly plowed our way to the South shoulder of Disappointment peak, with Ned taking a heroic last pull to get us to the top.  As we nosed our way into the main gully, I was pleasantly surprised to find the snow supportable, with a touch of fresh on top.  It was going to be a much better run than expected.  I was fearful of shedding, and we leapfrogged quickly down the excellent skiing in the upper gully, then worked our way through reasonable skiing in the lower half.  There were two small steps, but they were user friendly with all of the snow, and in no time we were back at the trail.  I was pretty dang excited to have caught this ski line in condition.

Great snow, laborious traibreaking.  At the top of our first climb.

Great skiing in the upper half of our first run.
Our second run is the tree chute across the way just looker's right of the largest avalanche path.

Ned skiing lower in the first gully.

We bumped up the trail a few minutes, then crossed the creek, taking water break, collectively drinking about a liter and a half.  Then, the slog to the North shoulder of Glen lake peak commenced.  Once again, trailbreaking was a bear the whole way.  I got us through a lot of interesting bushwack skinning, and Ned once again took a heroic trailbreaking pull up a slow and soul crushing gully to get us into the upper basin. From there we just ground our way to the top.  I was a little whopped when we topped out, but I slammed a big portion of left over chicken pot pie, and everything was once again good in the world. The ensuing run was the best of the year (to date).  Steep and long with excellent powder top to bottom.  There was a ice step in the lower third, but Ned did a great job scouting it on the way up, and we were able to dodge it with some Bridger Bowl style shenanigans in a separate gully on skier's right.

I think the best run of the year can be found that way!

Soon enough we were back on the trail, and it was time to slog out the exit  My feet were blistered painful on the way out, but we made it out  just a few minutes after turning our headlamps on, so I couldn't complain.  A big thanks to Ned for everything that made this day the memorable one it was.  It was kind of a grinding day, and our stats weren't impressive.  Around 8k vert, done in about 13 hours car to car.  However, it was pretty awesome to catch two new and very long peak to creek runs in mint condition.

Our first run was the obvious gully.
The prominent peak in the background is the Heavenly Twins.