Classic round up - Glen Lake Loop, Sky Pilot North face variation

I made a repeat go at a couple of classic tours in an effort to iron some wrinkles out and explore new terrain.  Perhaps my observations might pique some interest.  

Hidden Glen Loop 3/29/25

I think this loop deserves a bit more attention than the zero attention it gets because it strings together excellent skiing on striking features, and avoids canyon slogging.  

Up Hidden lake peak.

Basic Tour: Approach Glen lake , then Glen Lake peak (8,600).  Ski the South gully to Sweathouse creek (safer variation is to ski South on less exposed terrain west of the summit), then climb Hidden lake peak via the South face, wrapping around the west side and stopping on the North ridge a hundred feet or so from the summit where it gets craggy.  Ski something on the Northeast face to Hidden Lake.  The Northeast face is complicated, so plan a route ahead of time.  The most conservative line skis the North ridge, then traverses way skier's left until all the lower slope cliffs are bypassed skier's left.  Climb back to Glen Lake peak.  Exit via your favorite Glen lake egress.  My favorite is to ski the long East ridge of Glen lake peak to the terminus around 6,400 feet, then climb back to the approach track and follow it out.  The historic avalanche path North to Big creek and out on the Big Creek trail is another option, but I am coming around to the opinion that the historic path is so rarely in condition due to needing a ton of low elevation snow, and the massive avalanche potential, that it is more of a variation/extension and should only be considered in rare circumstances.

Trip report: The day itself was fun.  The South run on Sweathouse was great, although it involved some creative debris management to avoid the aftermath of the huge "first warm up of the year" avalanche cycle the range had received the previous week.  I spun a nice corn lap on the south side of Hidden lake peak to get to 10k, then re-climbed my track to Hidden lake peak.  

Lower in the South Sweathouse run.

I skied a fun new-to me run directly down the upper Northeast face to a gully on the skier's right edge of the face, which was a secondary highlight.  I rolled the dice (snow coverage dice, not avalanche dice) and exited by the historic path.  The skiing was really good until the snow ran out about a thousand feet above the trail.  From there out it was really quite bad.  Downhill bushwack, scary deep water creek crossing, miles and miles of intermittent snow.  Good character building.  Great day, even if I felt a bit foolish miscalculating the skiability of the historic path so severely.

Powder skiing down to Hidden Lake.

The first 40 feet of a 4,000' adventure run into Big Creek.

Sky Pilot, North face 4/21/25

I skied Sky Pilot on a somber spring day.  I used the normal approach.  The North face skied great.  It was cool to see a few old tracks.  I stopped at the tarn below the North face and climbed the Southeast facing chutes that one passes under on the way to Sky Pilot, and skied one of the chutes all the way to Bear lake.  

Near the top of the Sweathouse chutes, looking down to Bear lake.

Then on the return, I threw in a quality hairy curve ball by climbing to the saddle between Sweathouse Peak 8,839 and Gash proper and skiing an excellent North facing run into the headwaters of Sweathouse before climbing the Northwest face of Gash proper and exiting via the normal route.  

At the bottom of the excellent Sweathouse North run.

Up the Northwest face back to Gash.

Thoughts: Aside from having to nail the exact line (most of the Sweathouse/Gash ridgline is guarded by cliffs or massive cornices that would be death defying to scout from the top), the extra run is a great addition to the tour.  I think that one of the major downsides of Sky Pilot is that a lot of the day is wasted with a throw away traverse run off of Gash, and an annoying, long return slog.  This variation makes it so that the return climbs are more direct, and the additional run is excellent.  

More Blodgett Dayz

I was able to get out and ski some new terrain in Blodgett with excellent conditions during the brief window where we had excellent low elevation snow coverage and good snow quality this winter.  I still think good skiing in Blodgett is a bit of an anomaly, but with enough snow, sometimes it's fun to go all in on the Bitterroot experience.

Sears couloir to Sears Point 

Enjoying the sun with Caesar's Palace in the background.

Cold hardy Ned was not deterred by the cold snap, and suggested a big ski day with an early start.  Reluctantly, I obliged, and we were walking in sub zero temperatures before first light.  Soon enough, we were up into the sun, and despite poor route selection on my part, we topped out on the Sears lake couloir slightly surprised by how much new snow was present, but excited to ski.  We hemmed and hawed about dropping into the couloir, but couldn't find any indicators of instability other than the higher volume of new snow, so we went for it.  

Savoring the powder near the terminus of the Sears Lake couloir.

The Sears lake couloir was most excellent.  It's rare I feel confident skiing couloirs with deeper powder snow.  We took it all the way to the lake.  Another good long climb put is at the top of skiable snow just shy of Sears point 8587, and we had another excellent 3,000 foot run.  Some roller ball debris and a bit of a schwack back to the trail kept it real.  Best day of the year to date. 

The upper pitch of Sears Point south to Blodgett.

Blue Ice bowl East and West

I was back a week later for more.  This time, I climbed the Blue Ice bowl, with intentions on skiing Southwest off the top and heading farther up drainage.  On the way up, the bowl itself looked great, so I decided to ski it.  The ensuing run was fantastic, aside from getting a little bit stuck on thin snow over rock slabs pinched against thin snow over ice at the top of the bowl.  

Blue Ice bowl.

From the bottom, I re-climbed my track and skied Southwest.  Once again, I got stuck on thin slabs on a short little step at the top of the gully and bailed up and out, tenuously, on thin snow over slabs and ice.  Once above the slab section, I found an alternate entrance (a hidden gully skier's left of the primary entrance).  The rest of the run was great.  I stopped in the forest a couple hundred vertical feet above the trail where ski quality had deteriorated to something more resembling bushwacking.  I rounded out the day by skiing the skier's right fork of the gully, which was also excellent.  Another long exit was a small price to pay for the privilege of skiing three new to me long runs with great snow.

3,000 feet top to bottom.  Peak to creek dreams alive and well.

Learning note:  This was a really good day, but I did a poor job assessing risk around rock slabs.  After a few months of reflection, my primary lesson learned is just re-learning the same lesson again:  lots of terrain in the Bitterroot has steep smooth rock slabs.  They can often be skied safely, but between glide avalanches and often weird snowpack, there are usually safer and better options.  

Below the innocuous looking slab at the top of the Blue Ice South West run.