2019 Furlough ski diaries

An accounting of skiing goings on during the furlough.  Although I would have preferred to work, I skied every day I was in Montana, and ended up touring over 80,000 vertical feet.  Conditions were consistently excellent.  Coverage is good, but persistently high and tricky avalanche danger kept me from doing Bitterroot peak to creeks as much as I would have preferred.  I threw structured training out the window, just puttering along at a happy moderate pace for weeks on end.  Good aerobic base building, and it was nice to ski every day and not dig into a fatigue hole.

1/27 Marshall 1.5k

Sam skiing Marshall mountain.

Skinned to the top with Sam.  We took his skis, and he skied to the base from below the upper pitch with the harness.  It took longer to go down than up, but we both had an absolute blast.

1/26 Snowbowl rope tow 0k
Felt good to take a day off from exercise.  Nice morning.

1/25 Mill point, Southeast bowl 8.5k

Steep glade skiing on the first run in the Southeast bowl of Mill point.

The fun middle gully at the bottom of the Southeast bowl of Mill point.
The run continues down and around the corner.

Tour was up Mill point, two runs in the Southeast bowl, back to summit and out.  The Mill Southeast bowl is a great run.  See seperate post.   7 hours

1/24 Blue Point and Marshall + Rando Radness spectating 4.5k
After day care drop off, I headed up Marshall with hopes of repeating local guru Paul's tour on Blue point from the previous day.  I ran into Tim on top, and he tagged along for the remainder of the tour.  We continued out to Blue point, turning around below the high point.  We skied good snow down through the clear cuts behind the resort, and a mid-length climb put us back on the summit for a normal run down.  Finding good conditions is tricky, but I would still like to go back and do more on Blue point.

I skinned about a third of the way up with Sam in backpack and watched the uphill rando radness race in the evening.  3 hours

1/23 Marshall 1.5k
Quick one lap Marshall tour with Leah.  Felt surprisingly recovered from yesterday. Maybe I should have tried harder. Great skiing.

1/22 Big St. Joe, Fast 6k

Skipping my way up Big St. Joe just before the wind kicked in.

I made a speed run on Big St. Joe, using yesterday's skin track.  I am not very fired up to skimo race this year, but I am excited to try for some fast times on some of the local peaks and tours.  To my surprise, it was extremely windy up high, but otherwise it was a great outing, and I went fast for me.  The first half went really fast with race skis, and having a pre-broken skin track sped things up a ton, but up high I lost at least ten minutes to cold and wind and having to re-break about a thousand vertical of trail.  Fortunately I brought some extra warm clothes, so I was able to slowly grid it out to the summit.  The avalanche danger was Considerable, but it was safe enough with careful routefinding.  I would like to do this again and get my time down.  It is a really nice outing, has great skiing, demands a variety of skills to ski fast, and is pretty safe.  My splits were: First stream 18mins; Bass creek #1: 40; Leave trail 1.05;  Start up the SE face above the funk: 1.20;  Gain summit ridge 2.30;  Summit: 3.0;  Trail outbound 3.20;  Car 3.48.  It would not be easy, but I think 3.30 is possible for me.

1/21  Lower Big St. Joe 5.5k

Justin skiing excellent powder on Big St. Joe.

I was able to get out with Leah and Justin Angle.  It had snowed another few inches overnight, so the skin in was snowy and beautiful.  I tried approaching the lower Southeast bowl a little farther climber's right, which proved unsatisfactory, so we retreated and went up my new normal way about a hundred yards east of the drainage.  We skinned up the low angle Southeast bowl until it started to steepen, then took a run and a half on great boot top powder.  Thanks to Justin and Leah for the fun day out. 6 hours.

1/20 Lappi Lake 7k

Lappi powder skiing.

Long half day tour, starting by headlamp and returning by early afternoon.  I followed Leah and Ned's track from the previous day and skied a full lap on the main Lappi ski run (upper bowl and ramps down to below the lake).  The skiing was so fun that I took another half lap, then climbed back just far enough to get into the West bowl, which I took out.  The new snow was a little heavy, but it was great skiing.  6 hours.

1/19 Marshall 1.5k
Quick one lap Sam backpack tour.  The snow was soft, and we had fun hitting jumps on the ski down.

1/18 Mill Point,  South gullies. 6.5k

Looking down the Flathead gully.

Great snow at the top of the Kootenai gully.

Another late start.  The tour was: Up Shoshone climbing approach, up and down gully west of there.  Back up to the summit of Mill point, down Kootenai gully, walk out to trail, fly out to car on skis.  Details in separate post. 7 hours.

1/17 Rando Radness 3k
I raced hard.  Worked my way up on the first climb, topping out in the lead.  Jeffrey passed in transitions and crushed me for the rest of the race.  I did the next few laps about a minute ahead of Jesse Carnes and Doug Melzer.  Felt good, especially for not doing any quality workouts in a few weeks since I was either traveling or skiing every day. Did an extra lap afterward.

1/16 Marshall 1k

Car radio install was the main task for the day.
I took longer than I should have, but it was successful!

Leah and I skinned most of Marshall on a gorgeous evening before beelining it to pick Sam up. Brought race skis and practiced transitions. 45 mins

1/15 Missions, Sheepshead, Southwest face 6k
See separate post.  Such a fun day. I had such a great time!  7.5h

1/14 Big St. Joe, South face 7k

Jeffrey heading for the South gullies above the inversion.

We did the big climb to big St. Joe in t-shirt weather and summited in warm, calm conditions a rarity on this behemoth. We skied the center gully, which required some down walking to get to snow.  I had miscalculated, and the snow was too warm.  We survival skied it anyway. It was nice to finally do this one from the summit. Since the skiing was bad, we just did another short run in the lower fan before flying out on the trail.  7 hours

1/13 Marshall 2k
Did the big climb and skied the upper pitch twice with Sam in the back pack.

1/12 Snowbowl rope tow 0k
With Sam and Leah. Nice morning.

1/11 Gash, Sky Pilot attempt 10k

Looking down the chute on my second run and across at Sky Pilot.

2,000 feet of stable corn made me happy.

Retreating back to Gash shortly before sunset.

I didn't leave the car until 10, but still had a great day skiing and scheming ideas for the rest of the dry spell.  My first main run was the eastern chute to Bear lake, and it was very good and safe.  I climbed to Sky Pilot but turned around by mixed pit results at the base of the face.  I skied another short run, then made a high traverse and long exit climb to Gash.  Made it out right at dark. 8 hours

1/10 Bike ride and Randonee radness  0.6k
I ended up just doing a 2.5 hour road bike ride.  Lower Miller creek, Trails End, Miller Creek, South hills.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon, and it felt great to bike.  I skinned one lap at Randonee radness with Sam to spectate the race

1/9 Snowbowl backcountry ~5.5k
I rallied a reasonably early morning Snowbowl.  Far East, up East Bowl to Point six, Taint, two Totality laps from the last road cut, Jenny Bowl, Lower Paradise.  I dug a quick pit on Totality and had failures at ECT22P at about 50 cm on thin facets on a wind slab.  There was a lot more snow than before we left for Mexico, and the skiing was all pretty good.  4 hours.

1/8  Lolo Pass, Crystal Amphitheater ~4k

Looking back at my second run.

After a late night return from our family Oaxaca vacation, I slept in, ran a few errands, then headed out to explore at Lolo.  I am essentially a Lolo novice, and accordingly parked in the wrong lot and bumbled my way in to the cirque.  There was over a foot of new, light snow, and aside from thin early season coverage, I think that conditions were about as good as they get.  I bumbled around all day, but took two runs off the North shoulder of the cirque, then worked my way to tracks farther in on the finger ridge with the main Crystal crags and had a great run, following tracks.  Every run had great, almost face shot deep powder.  A short climb and tree schwack put me back at the highway with time to spare for day care pick up.  I really liked this zone and want to go back.  4 hours.

Gash point. Mileage day

Up, up and more up.

Motivated but still waiting for a real snowpack, I put in a big-for-me day of powder lap skiing at Gash.  I left the car at 6:15 and headlamped my way in. I just did laps in the main bowl, so the day itself was pretty simple.  I cashed my pack about a third of the way up the skin track, and the routine was to take a lap, transition before I got too cold, then climb to my pack for a snack.  I started by skiing six runs on the east shoulder of the main bowl.  The skiing was really good, and I had a great time exploring all the possible ways to ski the main bowl.  I skied the last five runs in the middle of the main bowl, stopping just below the final headwall due to avalanche danger.  I had hoped to ski a few laps on the West shoulder, but decided to avoid even moderate avalanche exposure after triggering a large collapse at the base of the headwall.  Fortunately, I spent all day on terrain that was not steep enough to slide.

The biggest mistake of the day was using a running pack to hold an extra set of clothes.
I forgot how the straps don't work with skins.  Fortunately there was no one around to heckle.

Great skiing!

 Even with my even and conservative pacing, I got tired, and the last few laps were a bit of a grind.  But soon enough I was on the last climb, topping out just past my 16,000 foot goal.  Even with my moderate weight setup, the day went quickly, and this was the second most elevation I have skied in a day. The exit was a little sparky and brushy, but it was still fast enough to make a 30-minute exit and return to the car just before headlamp time.

Almost out of food on the last climb.  Time to head home.

For stats, a little north of 16k, done in a little under 12 hours at a moderate pace.  10k day number three for the year.  I felt good and efficient all day, if not a little slow.  I also had to eat about 150 calories per hour, which is more than I like.  As a training day, this was a good confidence boost.  I have been training a little differently this fall, and don't think my upper end fitness is very good right now, but I do think my all day fitness is right where it usually is, which is great.

Early Season Grey Wolf West couloir

Grey Wolf Peak, West face.

I was able to take advantage of a surprise day off to honor the death of our 41st president and ski.  The early season has been kind of weird, so I headed to the Missions with enough gear for steep skiing, but without a real agenda.  The trail is a lot of work right now, and it took about 30 minutes longer than normal to top out on the the south shoulder of ESM.  To my delight, the West couloir of Grey Wolf looked good, so I headed that way.  I embarrassingly got cliffed out on the ski down to No Fish lake, and had to skin back up and find a better passage.  But I persevered. I was at the base of the West in time for a cold lunch stop.  The couloir looked great, so I headed up.

Excited to have a peak.

Great skiing off the shoulder of ESM.

The climb was about average.  Booting was pretty wallowey, but the snow was forgiving enough that I was also able to put skis on and skin for short bits.  There were a few shallow slabs and one easy little rock/ice step at 2/3 height, but nothing too concerning.  After about an hour and a half dozen booting to skiing transitions, I was at the top.  The ski down was predictably great.  In fact, conditions were some of the best I have seen in the couloir.  I was soon back at the lake, giddy and ready for a short second lunch break.

Grey Wolf West couloir in good condition.

I spent the rest of the day just cruising around on mellower terrain.  I skinned back out to the South shoulder and took a good run south into the bowl adjacent to the approach ridge, yo-yoed a short lap on the climb back out, then climbed to the South shoulder one last time before the egress.  The South shoulder runs were a lot of fun, with surprisingly good snow.  The egress was slower than normal since skiing stops pretty high, but the trail is snowy and slippery most of the way back to the valley bottom.  Running shoes and micro spikes were helpful.

At the bottom of the South shoulder bowl run.

About 10,300 vertical feet, done in 9 hours, 15 minutes at a reasonable pace with stops to giggle in sheer delight at how much I enjoy skiing.

10k day #2  

... and so it begins, 2019

I have been out a whopping three days this year, mainly just working the cobwebs out at Snowbowl.  From social media, it appears that the normal early season haunts are just starting to fill in, and I can't wait for some real coverage.  So far, the best day was a sunny Sunday afternoon where I eked out the first 10,000 foot day of the year by skiing eight Lavelle laps.  As a test, I pushed at a pretty bright pace and did it in just under 5 hours, which is the fastest I have ever amassed that kind of vertical.

Ned and Jeffrey pretending there is enough snow to ski on the lower flanks of Lolo peak.

Nearing sunset with two Lavelle climbs to go to meet my 10k elevation goal.
Building a fitness base for longer days to come.

I haven't outlined my goals for the season quite yet, but it is about time to dust off the list of local areas to explore, kick some speedyish projects around, and start scheming bigger tours.  It is feels good to be going into ski season fit and ready. Here's to a safe winter of skiing.

Northern Bitterroot, Big old day of biking and running

St. Mary peak view at sunrise.

I tend to get a little lazy in the fall.  Today was not one of those days.  With a cooperative knee for biking, I concocted a plan to bike and run St. Mary, Little Saint Joseph, and Sweeney from the forest boundary.  With 16,000 feet of climbing, I was honestly a little too intimidated to try, but Jeffrey's confident enthusiasm provided much needed motivation to give it a go.  Sure enough, less than 48 hours later, we started biking up the St. Mary road by headlamp.

Jeffrey was burning it a little too hot for me right out of the gate, so I settled in to my reasonable full day biking pace as his headlamp faded into the dark.  We made it to the trailhead after a little over ninety minutes of biking.  I hope I didn't make him wait too long.  The walk up to St. Mary was fun, and sunrise was predictably inspiring.  There was a lot less snow up high than we had feared, which bode well for actually completing the daunting link up.  The run and bike back to the car went quickly, and we were able to easily dodge the road hunters looking for elk on opening day.  I had some semi-cramping twinges on the descent, which made me nervous, but just ignored them and hoped things would get better later in the day.  St. Mary peak done!

Jeffrey, closing in on St. Mary peak.

We were walking up the steep off trail pitch to Little St. Joe from the summer trailhead before 10:30.  We made good time on the long walk directly up the Southeast ridge to the Little St. Joe trailhead, then up the summer trail.  Jeffrey was still setting a pretty aggressive pace, but we were moving well, so I just continued to try to keep up.  We finally climbed into deep snow above the upper small saddle, and the last long push to the summit was slow.  But we perservered.  We took it slow enough to not hammer our legs too much on the 5,000 vertical foot run down to the valley.  Little St. Joe and over 10k of climbing done!  Back at the car, we took a much needed break to refuel and psyche up for the last peak of the day.

Jeffrey closing in on Little St. Joe, with St. Mary in the background.

The forest boundary for Sweeney is a few miles up the road, and we took full advantage of driving a few hundred vertical feet above the valley floor.  I didn't realize just how steep this road is, and most of the biking to the trailhead was a grind, especially for the member of our party on a gravel bike without a suitable granny gear for steep grades.  We eventually gave up on biking one switchback from the top and transitioned to running shoes.  It felt a little cavalier to head out from the trailhead already quite fatigued as the sun began to dip toward the horizon, but I tried not to think about it too much.  Sweeney actually went pretty smoothly.  I was too tired to do much running on the trail, and I also found routefinding much trickier than it used to be before the fire.  But we were still moving well, and summited a few minutes before sunset.  After snapping a few photos, we immediately got to work on getting through the tricky off trail routefinding before dark.  Once again, things went smoothly, and we were soon running recklessly fast, chasing dark on the trail.  We made it to the bikes right at dark and coasted it back to the car by headlamp.  For stats, right around 16,000 vertical feet done in a hair under fourteen hours.

Jeffrey closing in on Sweeney, with Little St. Joe in the background.

On Sweeney, relieved to have the days climbing in the bag.

Thoughts  What a way to spend a perfect fall day.  I had a lot more fun than anticipated.  The day was broken up enough that it was not too monotonous, and by pacing reasonably, I made it through tired but not demoralized.  I have always enjoyed mixing biking and running, and today was certainly no exception.  A huge thanks to Jeffrey for lighting a fire under me to finally get this one done.  And for executing a flawless day.

If I do something like this again, I think I will just do two peaks, parking once and doing everything under human power.  Two peaks would still be a long and challenging 10,000 plus vertical foot day of valley bottom to peak top awesomeness.