Pyramid Butte (x 2)

1/15: After a bit of a slow early season, Jeffrey and I finally felt like conditions were set for a bigger tour.  After making most of the normal Pinball approach, we skied a gully on the eastern edge of the Big Saint Joe northeast cirque, which I remembered being pretty good.  To our surprise, the snow was really thin and weak, and we struggled to find even descent, rock free skiing.  We also bungled the section above the South Fork of Sweeney creek by attempting to traverse too high.  But we kept plugging and were below Pyramid Butte by late morning.  Climbing conditions in the lower couloir were quite good, so we motored up.  

Up Pyramid Butte.

We dug a second pit on the upper face and found a slightly concerning layer mid-pack.  Test results were non-propogating, however, so we continued to the top.  The gully was really good, with a solid base and skiable-enough snow quality.  The whole line is great, and the lower couloir is quite striking. 

Down Pyramid Butte.

The big climb to Big Saint Joe kind of got me.  Despite fuelling adequately, I ran out of gas.  But the only way out was up, so we kept plugging away.  To our shock and awe, we stumbled into some friends on the summit, and after exchanging pleasantries, descended the normal Southeast ramp.  Technically, conditions were just kind of average, but I was pretty excited to feel like ski season was finally really in good form.  We made it back to the car just before dark.  Excellent day.

Heading down Big Saint Joe. Home bound.

5/10: I went back to Pyramid Butte on May 10th, rolling out of the trailhead on a bike at 5 am.  From the Wilderness boundary, I fought intermittent snow on the trail before climbing up out of snow in running shoes.  I put ski boots on around 7,000 feet, then skinned quickly to the summit.  To my amazement, there was about 3" of nice smooth powder on the summit, and the clouds broke just as I topped out.  The North face run was about as good as it gets - 3,000 feet of great skiing.  What a treat! 

Powder turns on the mighty North face of Big Saint Joe.

I climbed the Southwest gully of Pyramid Butte, and with clouds providing just enough shade, skied it with good snow top to bottom.  Another treat!  

Just soft enough for quick skinning up Pyramid Butte.

Instead of traversing down canyon, I went up over the Big/Stormy Joe saddle to return, climbing a bit up the West shoulder of Big Saint Joe to get to 10k of climbing.  Once again, the ski run was good all the way to the trail.  The trail out was a bit of a grind with lots and lots of intermittent snow, but that was expected.  The bike egress was blistering fast, and I returned to the car by mid afternoon in mild disbelief with how good the day turned out to be.  

On the way to the Big/Stormy Saddle.  I skied the visible gully
which gets a little patchy at the bottom.

Ingress/egress strategy to the Wilderness Boundary.

Thoughts:  With the right conditions, this is a really great tour.  There is no way around the fact that it is a big day, getting in early enough for good corn in the spring is nearly impossible, and that the section between Little Saint Joe and the base of Pyramid Buttes is pretty rough around the edges, but Pyramid Buttes are remote, the ski lines are all very good and big, and there is no flat approaching.  There are a lot of ways to get in and out.  As crazy as it sounds, I kind of think that approaching over Big Saint Joe is almost as easy as the Little Saint Joe approach.  Then Pinball or Big/Stormy Joe saddle to exit.

East Saint Mary to Greywolf scramble

Looking along the ridge from High Park to Greywolf.

 I took advantage of mid-September snow free conditions to scramble around the head of the Dry Lake Creek and link up East Saint Mary, Lowary, High Park peak, and Greywolf.  I parked at the Riddell lake trailhead, ran roads to the East Saint Mary trail, and spent the morning in familiar terrain ascending ESM and bumping over to Lowary.  I descended to Freeman Pass, and then made the easy scramble to High Park Peak.  From there, I covered new to me terrain along the interconnecting ridge to Greywolf.  I tried to say true to the ridge, but ended up detouring to the East in several places, notably around a significant tower/notch just shy of the peak.  

Surprisingly nice fall glissading to Freeman Pass.

I made a valiant attempt to stay true to Greywolf's Northwest ridge, however I encountered several sections where I couldn't find a solution that was less than mid 5th class.  So there was a lot of bumbling around and down climbing.  I think that the most expedient and fun route is to climb near the Northwest ridge on the lower third of the face to gain access to the upper face, then follow natural weaknesses trending East across the upper North face.  I found the descent along the conventional East ridge route to be surprisingly tricky and slow.  Soon enough I was back at the car, full of gratitude for a new adventure in a familiar place.  I think that this loop is not as high quality as some of the other link ups from East Saint Mary because of the inefficiencies associated with getting off of Greywolf.  However, it is logical, logistically simple, and very much worth checking out.  

North face of Greywolf peak.

Looking back to High Park peak and the Mission mountains from high on Greywolf peak.

Heavenly Twins, complete North ridge

 I devoted one of the many dog days of summer 2022 to make an attempt at climbing the North ridge of Heavenly Twins from Kootenai creek.  The line is intriguing, climbing 4,000 feet from the banks of Kootenai creek.  A moderate amount of internet sleuthing and inquiring among friends didn't really disclose any good beta, so I went into it without much knowledge of route or difficulty.  Fortunately, giving it a blind go didn't feel reckless since bailing is possible for the entirety of the route.

I dropped a bike at the Saint Mary trailhead the previous evening, and and rolled up the Kootenai trail at first light.  The trail run was nice and cool and fun.  After a big water refill, I crossed the creek and attacked the bushwack.  It ended up being fairly stout but not too long, and I was soon meandering up slabs low on the ridge.  

Looking up the lowest bit of the ridge.  I climbed the most open visible slabs.

Still a long way to go.

The ridge soon became more defined and easier, and it was nice to grind up toward the alpine.  The middle third of the ridge has quite a few characteristically slow Bitterroot gendarmes, and I deviated from the crest several times when it became too slow or technical.  The steep upper mountain ended up being easy (easy 4th class) and quite enjoyable.  I arrived on the summit about 5.5 hours after leaving the creek and took a lunch break to enjoy the position. 

Final bits.

I traversed to Saint Mary peak via the normal high route.  The only two unusual aspects of the return were that I was low on energy, and it was absolutely scorching!  The bike ride down the Saint Mary road and back to Kootenai was smooth and fun.  With the return bike shuttle, it ended up being a solid 12+ hour day.  I think that descending straight to Kootenai creek would be faster than setting up the shuttle and traversing to Saint Mary as I did, but it was certainly more enjoyable to stay up high on a hot summer day and only bushwack once.

Classic view back to the Heavenly Twins from Saint Mary peak. 
I climbed the low angle skyline ridge.

This was a great day.  The ridge route was long enough to provide a good challenge, and the climbing was pretty good.  It was cool to see a new side of this iconic mountain.  I think that it could appeal both to climbers looking for a long, technically easy moderate alpine route and mountain runners with a climbing background. It does have epic/disaster potential for sure since bailing would necessitate a long and unpleasant bushwack back to Kootenai, followed by a long walk out to the car.    

Taylor-Hilgard High traverse

Traversing the Taylor-Hilgard unit along the crest has been on my mind for several years now.  It is the highest group of mountains in Montana outside of the Beartooth, and the more map research I did, the more it felt like a quality, logical route.  When a good window of opportunity opened up, I left a very hot Missoula after a busy work week and arrived in a blissfuly cool Madison valley, fired up for an adventure.  

Imp sunrise, looking back at the Echo/Hilgard group.

Day 1:  I started the 29-mile bike shuttle by headlamp, with intentions of completing it in the early morning with minimal highway traffic.  Aside from a biting headwind, the plan worked perfectly and I was only passed by 19 cars in two hours.  I paced it nice and easy, and was at my pack at the Earthquake visitor center and ready to start walking at 8 am.  

The first climb is 3,000+ vertical feet off trail, straight up to the crest.  I was grateful to get it done in the cool shade.  Once on the crest, I spent the morning working through the beautiful terrain South of Hilgard.  This Southern section was not terribly alpine, but it was interesting and not too technical.  

Views from the beginning of the traverse.
Hilgard in the far distance.

Mid morning cruising.

Looking back at some of the nice terrain on day 1.

I arrived in the Lake Eglise basin by mid-afternoon, and was on top of Hilgard around 4 pm.  I wasn't quite feeling like taking on the Northeast couloir descent or technical looking North ridge, so I dropped way off the ride West of the peak into the headwaters of Papoose creek.  Fortunately, the west side bypass is gorgeous, and it also allowed for a good water refill.  I boosted back up to Dutchman, then nosed my way near the ridge crest to Echo. My Dutchman to Echo route descended the first few hundred feet of the Northeast couloir, crossed a loose ledge to the crest, where I spotted three mountain goats.  I followed them to Echo.  They sure have the most efficient route dialed!  

Approaching Hilgard.

Looking back to Hilgard from Dutchman.

I had originally planned to camp in Expedition basin, but made a game day decision to burn a few psychological matches and push into the night to Alp lakes.  The evening jaunt through the clean high basins North of Echo was an absolute treat.  I encountered surprisingly slow and slightly distressing, chossy terrain at sunset closing in on peak 10,844, but I just worked through it, and the descent to Alp lakes in the dark was pretty easy. I never really felt great this first day, but it went smoothly and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I went to sleep fairly confident that finishing the following day was realistic as long as my body recovered from the altitude overnight.  I slept very well.  

Day 2:  I woke up excited.  To my delight, my camp at 9,600 feet and five hours of sleep allowed for some recovery from the altitude, and I felt surprisingly not bad going up Imp.  Sunrise was incredible. The morning was spent traversing the ridgeline North of Imp.  It was all quite enjoyable, except getting over the shoulder of Tunnel ridge.  That was loose and generally a mess, and I ended up deciding not to summit any of the Tunnel ridge high points. I worked through it slowly (would recommend future parties descend West into the headwaters of Indian creek just South of Tunnel ridge, bypass Tunnel ridge, then boost back up to the crest at the southern end of the No Man ridge section).  

Grinding slowly up Imp at Sunrise.

Looking North from Imp at the ridge line ahead.

At the beginning of the Tunnel ridge section. 

I had a bit of a low energy patch at the base of Tunnel ridge, so I stopped for water and sat down and ate a bunch before making the long climb to the No Man ridge.  The No Man ridge section is really nice and clean, but my energy flagged terribly. I was fueling and drinking well, so I didn't need to stop much, but my pace was way, way below anything resembling spritely.  I ground it out though, arriving at the last summit tired but happy, and made the long descent to the valley.  

Looking out to No Man ridge.

Looking back at the No Man ridge from the final peak.

It felt great to finish.  My body was pretty shot, and it felt so good to sit down and simply relax.  

Statistics:  20,700 vertical feet, done in 36 hours and 25 minutes.  

Route thoughts:  I made an effort for time, but this could go a lot faster for the right person with the right mind set, and I am very happy to share beta and suggest what I consider to be time saving simplifications to the route if anyone is interested.  The over all route quality is quite high, and I really think that this is one of Montana's finer mountain traverses.  It is high, iconic, and engaging but the terrain is also a joy to move through.  The Hilgard to Echo section is certainly a highlight, but the before and after terrain is also quite nice.  It is also very wild. I only walked a few steps on maintained trail, and the only people I saw for the duration were a party of two from a distance on Hilgard peak.  For style purists, I bypassed several sections of the crest where I felt that the ridge top was excessively technical and slow, so there is opportunity to improve on style. There are also a lot of ways to do shorter and slower versions of this outing that would be very rewarding.

Performance thoughts:  I felt pretty good about my performance.  My time is OK, I got through the outing without any terrible physical or mental low points, and my energy was even enough.  The elevation definitely slowed me down a lot on the second day, but I have had much worse experiences with altitude, so I felt that it went OK given my body's relatively poor reaction to altitude.  I have a fairly established light overnight kit, and all of my gear, food, water strategy, etc. worked pretty well.  I was happy with my mental state, staying focused on the details (safety, navigation, caring for my body, time, etc), while also leaving some headspace to soak the experience up.  

I am excited for someone to lower my time.

10k ski days 2022

Winter 2022 skiing was so good.  As with any other year, there were some weird parts, but once it got going, there were so many good ski days to be had!  Many of my very best days this year were shorter.  Mid week rando radness beat downs, dusk patrols in the Bitterroot, skate skis at the golf course, powder days with Leah, one and done ski days in the Missions, quirky bike to ski adventures, and a ton of just plain excellent backcountry ski days.  And every second shared with my son.  The longer days were good too..

12/24 Snowbowl skinning: This was my first day on skis, so it was a fairly intense reintroduction. Good skiing though. 10,050 about 8 hours.  

Happy to be back at it on skis.

1/1 Lolo Pass: I rallied early enough and spent the day skiing powder in the Crystal Ampitheater.  It took over ten runs to get to 10k, but the skiing was very good, and by the end of the day I knew the terrain a lot better than at the beginning. About 9.5 hours.

1/23 Lost Horse peak to creeks: I used skate skis to approach peak to creek runs in Lost Horse about half way from the North fork and Tenmile creek.  The skate skiing worked remarkably well, and I knocked the approach out in about an hour and a half.  With an early start, I did not encounter any snowmobiles on the approach.  To my surprise, my planned first gully had a big cliff in it, so I ended up having to monkey around a bit before gaining the upper gully.  From the ridge top, I skied about 2,000 feet to where skiing quality deteriorated, then re-climbed the track and skied an adjacent gully all the way to Lost Horse creek.  South facing snow quality was pretty marginal, but it was more than offset by the good, new to me terrain.  I crossed the creek, then spent the afternoon skiing good snow in one shorter North facing run, then another peak to creek run from an unnamed point.  The skate out was quite an enjoyable endeavor.  Classic Bitterroot day, and so good. 

First run.

 

2/5 Lappi:  Ned, Duncan and I had a good old fashioned day of bouncing around at Lappi.  We had hoped to ski some steeper terrain, but there was a lot more new snow and wind than we had anticipated, and we had surprising propagation in our pit, so over the course of the approach, our ambitions dialed way back to just skiing around and staying safe.  We ended up skiing the Southeast bowl, a couple of normal Northeast runs, a North run along the west edge of the cirque, then the normal exit.  Trailbreaking was a lot of work, and I was pretty shellacked by the end of the day.  Skiing was just OK too, and this could very well have been a better day to call it a bit early. I think that it took us almost 12 hours to get to 10k.

What could possibly go wrong?

2/14 Super Bowl bounce:  One of the finest days of the season. See separate post

2/20  Rattlesnake: Jeffrey and I bounced around behind Murphy on a stormy February day.  We found less new snow than expected, and that coupled with two confidence inspiring pits had us comfortable in steeper terrain.  The main highlight of the day was catching up with Jeffrey, but a close second was a pair of North runs toward Finley lakes.  There is a hard-to-describe-the-location-of gully which I consider one of the tucked away gems of the range, and it was really fun!  We also booted up a steep rock lined gully just East of the previous run, which was more technical but great fun too.  We kind of bounced our way back through the classic Rattlesnake terrain on the return.  

In Finley creek, going up...

... and down.

3/13 Mill Creek.  I planned a big day of bouncing around in Mill creek with Jeffrey.  I started the day out with a terrible ski partner mistake, not accounting for daylight saving time and leaving Jeffrey waiting for an hour at the trailhead.  He countered with a generous ski partner grace of "it happens".  Once on the move, we made our way up the trail and into a narrow cirque just West of the prominent toothlike pinnacle just up drainage from Mill 3.  On the climb, we got slapped in the face with multiple red flags indicating stability was less than what we expected.  As a result, I suggested scrapping our modestly ambitious tour plans and staying entirely out of avalanche terrain.  We ended up skiing a run in the first path, then found a safe way into the Hauff lake basin, yo-yo skied to get to 10k, the slogged the exit out.  This was one of the worst days of the season.  The ingress and egress weren't super fun, the skiing was not good, and every step felt like a grind.  But we stayed safe, and I always appreciate Jeffrey's open communication around avalanche risk.

4/2 Mill 3 to 1 bounce: A surprisingly incredibly good day.  See separate post.

4/10 Rattlesnake traverse:  I had a flawless go at the Rattlesnake traverse on Snowbowl closing day.  I took the normal Stuart to Snowbowl route, but I skied a bunch of new to me runs in the first half.  For those familiar with the area, I skied a hidden and good Southeast bowl on Stuart, a shallow gully on the North face of Stuart to lower Twin lake, and an East couloir parallel to Eagle chute.  I also skied the excellent gully on Mosquito's North face gully that takes off just West of the summit (new to me, old hat to many others).  The back half of the tour was all on familiar terrain.  The skiing was so fun.  I got tired. It was an awesome day.   I made it to the Snowbowl bar in time to catch pizza with family and friends, and a car shuttle back to Ravine. The day ended up checking in at 11,400 vertical feet.  I still think that the Rattlesnake traverse is one of the very best longer tours in the area.

Not bad, backyard, not bad.

5/1 Swans - Woodward: I spent a misty spring day exploring Woodward peak (8,450) in the Swans.  I started out by climbing to the lookout and taking an efficient traversing run down to one of the Necklace lakes.  From there, I had originally planned to ski the Southeast face of Woodward, but the snow was surprisingly slushy and dangerous, so I skipped it and skied a fine, engaging run down the East ridge Woodward lake.  I joined my uptrack and cruised back to the summit.  I worked through a short steep pitch, then skied excellent snow for 2,200 feet on the Southwest face, stopping at the end of reliable snow.  I climbed back to the summit, then exited by skiing the West avalanche path.  To my delight, snow extended very close to the Foothills trail, and a long but easy walk had me back at the car.  Around 10,050 feet.

Looking Southwest from Woodward.

5/14 Crescent around the compass:  A fine tour that maybe should get done more often?  See separate post.

5/17 Mission Traverse:  Despite tackling a difficult West gully on Holland just two days prior (a significant local steep skiing achievement, in my opinion) Ned was all in for the Mission traverse.  We rallied from town at 3 am with plans to have a nice, smooth go at what I consider the streamlined skier's route.  The tour was such a treat.  We skied ESM, the Northwest run near Mountaineer, Sunrise glacier, and the sneak to Icefloe lake.  Everything went smoothly.  On the climb up McDonald, Ned suggested extending to Sheepshead, and since we had time and energy, we modified our plans and took a short run on the Northwest face before climbing to Sheepshead.  The exit was just fine.  This is such a great tour!  I throw superlatives around too easily, but this has got to be my all time favorite local tour.  It ended up. being over 12k vertical feet, and we were out for about 12.5 hours.

Grizzly tracks (!!!) on the Mission crest.

Ned looking small on the climb up McDonald.

5/21 Count and Otis (Swans):  Great day.  See separate post.