Crescent to Pyramid for time

Up Crescent.

I think that the Crescent to Pyramid ski traverse in the Swans is one of the all time classic Missoula ski outings.  Aside from the major downside that winter access is poor without a sled, it is just awesome.  Logical line, aesthetic mountains, great ski runs, reliable snow, fairly safe avalanche conditions, and long enough to feel like an accomplishment.  As a speed test, it is also a good challenge because the best ski runs are the fastest way complete the link up (I think).  I gave it a go for time in early May.  The snow was so firm that I ended up booting almost all of the climbs with the exception of the end of the Crescent and the first half of the Pyramid.  I ended up seeing Ned Gall on Crescent, and probably lost two or three minutes chatting with him.  The skiing was incredible, with good to perfect corn on every run.  This is a solid time for me.  I wasn't feeling terribly fit, and I could have pushed harder, particularly on the first climb, but it would be hard to order up better conditions.

At the end of the short West Marshall summit plateau.

Closing in on Pyramid. Excited for a final corn run on the Southwest face.

For gear, I used my go-to Dynafit Nanga Parbat/PDG/race pole/BD cirque 30L set up and consumed about 150 cal/hour of Tailwind energy drink and a bar.  My final time was 4 hours, 5 minutes.

Route: Start and end at the Crescent lake trailhead.  Summit Crescent, West Marshall, and Pyramid.  I skied the Southwest aspect of each peak with as many short cuts as I can think of.

Splits for future reference:  Start trail traverse: 50; Crescent summit: 1.50; West Marshall: 2.35; Pyramid: 3.40

High 4, El Capitan and the Como peaks

Prologue Sometime in the middle of the winter, Ned mentioned the concept of skiing the High five in a day, ending with the East face of El Capitan.  It seemed way too long and technical, and I didn't really take him seriously.  As we were scheming later in the winter, I threw it out among a list of more manageable tours.

An excerpt from our correspondence:

Other ideas, less optimized for Sunday since they are either in familiar terrain, or could wait until later in the spring;  High four:  Ned and Frank's scheme.  Definitely skipping Lonesome Bachelor.  And ski the SE couloir on El Capitan, not the E. face.  I am not up for the E. face.

Much to my surprise, he latched on to the idea, and over the course of about 24 hours we planned out a route that seemed feasible in a day.

Ned with extra smiles on the summit of Middle Como, with
our excellent run on West Como behind.

The day Spoiler - this was a really, really, really good day.

With Justin Angle along, we launched from the trailhead at 5 am after a night of almost no sleep.  The trail approach is actually not that bad.  Something in my digestive track was not firing quite right, and I had to do more stops in the bushes than I care to remember, but it was otherwise a fine morning.  I did not take the optimal route climbing to the mid-slope bench in the dark, but got the job done.  We were soon on the bench, the sun was rising, and it was lining up to be a great day.

At this point, Ned kicked into gear and pulled us along the 3-hour bench traverse and up the rolling flanks of El Capitan.  It was clear that this was not my day physically, and I got pretty dang knackered trying to keep up.  We summited El Capitan on schedule with great conditions, in good spirits.  For style purists, we did not climb the final 20-foot craggy summit block.

Climbing El Capitan.

We took a fine rolling run down the Southwest ridge and face of El Capitan.  It is a big enough mountain that you have to just stop skiing, and we ended our run with a big traverse to put us in the most efficient position to climb back over the Lonesome Bachelor shoulder.  I was grateful for a decent break to eat some food and re-set for the 5,000 vertical feet of climbing still to go.

Justin skiing the Southwest face of El Capitan,

During the climb to West Como, it became clear to me that we were in for a special day.  I was already tired as a dog, but conditions were perfect, and I was really excited about how well the tour was starting to flow.  The climb up West Como was smooth, with me taking a decent early pull, then Justin and Ned taking the blue collar booting pull to the summit.  From the top, we decided to have a look at the steep Southeast face.  It was perfect. Safe, but with just enough snow to be really fun.  We were soon all down in the tarn on our way to Middle Como.

Looking out to our ascent route up the obvious snow face to West Como.

Justin and Ned nearing the summit of West Como.

"This definitely goes, I think".  Dropping into the intimidating
Southeast face of West Como.  Photo: Ned Gall

That was great! West Como in the bag and zipping along to Middle Como.

The climb up Middle Como takes a nice sneak gully to the upper Southeast face. Ned took the reigns and put the entire track in.  The Southeast face of Middle Como is nice and mellow.  It was mid afternoon, but the snow was still excellent, and we had a great time cruising.  At the base of the run, Justin was not feeling very good, so we made a plan to split up for East Como and regroup for the exit.  I appreciated the really great communication on Justin's part.  I was actually feeling decent, and got a jump on setting the track to East Como. Ned soon caught up, and we traded trailbreaking pulls to the summit.  To our pleasant surprise, Justin rallied and ended up catching up with us, so we all topped out together.  Justin and I transitioned at the base of the final 20 foot summit block, and Ned climbed the final craggy pitch to the exact summit.

Starting up again  The route to middle Como goes up a hidden couloir in front of Justin.

Justin enjoying the good, mellow skiing on Middle Como.

Last pull to East Como.

We had another great run.  This one was the long one - 4000 feet down to Tin Cup creek.  The skiing on the peak was great fun, as was the moderate terrain on the bench.  Getting from the bench to Tin Cup creek is surprisingly tricky, and I led everyone down into the wrong gully.  Fortunately we realized our error high enough to be able to traverse to the correct exit gully with only minimal difficulties.  We finally encountered some challenging snow as we neared Tin Cup creek, but it could have been a lot worse, and we were soon on the trail. 

Starting down East Como.  Photo: Ned Gall.

Ned letting them run somewhere below East Como.

The ski out was long, but it was fairly straightforward.  Ned fell into the creek on the return crossing, but I was able to give him a hand getting out of the creek, and he took it in stride.  We had a difference of opinion on how much fun the last few miles to the trailhead were, but I thought they were just fine by Bitterroot standards, and we made it out right at dark.

We ended up making a dumb driving blunder and got the truck stuck at the trailhead, and ended up having to call a tow truck.  That was not fun at all.  But we made it out, and I am grateful both for Justin and Ned's good decision making and patience, and for the good folks at Wimp's towing who rallied out to get us.

Approximation of our route..

Epilogue

Such a great route.  Ned pulled us along all day with his trailbreaking and motivation.  Damn, Ned, a big high four for a day well executed.  A stand alone Como link up tour is a more normal length classic that I still need to do.

Route: See google earth images.

Approximate total elevation gain:  11,000 vertical feet
Duration: 15.5 hours 
Accomplices: Ned Gall, Justin Angle
Put in/Take out:  Main Tin Cup creek trailhead

Fuel: Egg Avacado sandwich, nuts, Tailwind and a passel of bars.  Averaged about 150 cal/hr.
Equipment:   Voile Ultra Vector skis with Plum Oazo bindings (didn't use lightest set up because skins weren't working reliably).  Normal boots.  One whippet, Alu crampons, in pack, basic emergency kit.

Equipment left in car to save weight: ski crampons, helmet, ice axe.   
Tricks of the day: Route familiarity, Ned's motivation.

Number of ski runs: 4

Number of excellent ski runs: 4

Fatigue factor (1-10): 9.5 (I was feeling it)
Stoke factor (1-10): 9.9
Memories to suppress: Getting stuck.  Not feeling awesome.  Little sleep the night before.

Romney ridge ski days

I spent a few days skiing various lines off Romney ridge over the course of the winter, and am more and more excited about the venue.  By using Canyon creek as a high elevation springboard, one can access a lot of the mid-canyon Blodgett creek terrain without having to climb through the almost universally bad lower reaches in Blodgett.  Also, the Canyon and Blodgett roads connect, so it is easy to shuttle between the two drainages.  I would like to keep exploring this general area more in the future.

Romney Ridge lemon day 2/1 I ended up drawing the short straw and skied on a truly sub-opitmal weather day. When I left the car around 6:30 am, it was already 53 degrees, and the winds up high were whipping.  Little did I know that it would be so windy that Snowbowl would have to close.  I didn't like the sheet of ice on the Canyon creek road. So I parked early, donned micro spikes, and trudged to the trailhead, then cruised up the surprisingly well filled in trail, then made my way up to Romney ridge high point 8,685.

A quick and reassuring pit on the steep Northeast face, followed later in the day by a pit in a thin Southeast facing snowpack helped lend further evidence to my contention that the Bitterroot is trending out of the deep slab instability problem.  I felt quite comfortable skiing the beautiful larch ramp down toward Blodgett.  The snow quality was truly terrible, but voila, West Arch bowl!

First ski run, with the Horsehead arch visible far below.

I had tentative ideas to ski steeper adjacent runs, but couldn't really get excited about rolling the dice with the deep structural instabilites so I climbed up to the West rim of the basin and took two fun runs down back down to the arch, then climbed back to Romney.  Physically, it felt nice to just grind away, get to 10, and get tired.  The peak to creek run back to the trail was not stellar, but it was still a good run.  It  would be quite enjoyable with better snow.  I benefitted mightily from the good coverage and sticky snow during the egress.  In fact, I never got the Canyon creek beat down, and with the screaming fast icy road, the egress took well under 2 hours from the summit to the car.

Mill 2 to Blue Ice bowl in Blodgett.  And my second run in the background.

Upper Blodgett.

I literally did not take a good turn all day, but I still returned to the car buzzing with excitement.  Skiing in the Bitterroot is in. No really, it is in.  Like the good old Bitterroot days.  Party on in the Bitterroot. Go get it before it rains again!

Swan slabs:  2/21 I skied the Swan slabs in a moderate length day with Leah.  We enjoyed a mellow climb and took a long, warm lunch above the ski run.  The entrance is very steep, and I was able to ski cut a 6" soft slab pocket in thin snow in the starting zone.  With avalanche danger abated, we skied good settled powder down to the ice.  We were able to downclimb steep re-gen trees skier's left of the first ice step, but got pretty stymied on the second ice step and ended up rappelling from an established anchor from the ice climb.

Lunch break at our high point, with the Blue ice bowl and upper Blodgett visible.

Leah skiing at the top.
The crown from the small pocked I triggered is visible just below the ridge.

Fun powder skiing in the Swan slabss.

Our 30m rope was about 10 feet too short, but I was able to belay Leah down and downlimb the last few feet myself.  Aside from it taking a long time, we felt safe the whole time, and the skiing out to the trail was surprisingly decent.  We were already late for day care pickup, and scuttled out as quickly as possible.  I have come to the unfortuntate conclusion that Swans slabs isn't a great ski run after making two descents and encountering a lot of difficulty getting around the ice at the bottom both times.

Rappelling at the end of the rope.  I had already tossed my pack,
and just hopped down the last few feet to safety.

Arch bowl and unnamed slab bowl:  3/14 I returned right on the cusp of the coronavirus outbreak to ski a few new to me runs.  After hearing multiple tales of woe of accessing Arch bowl (the bowl just east of Horsehead arch) from the bottom, I was deviously excited to try it from the top.  I left the car parked at the Blodgett/Canyon road intersection in a driving snow storm, and it flurried on and off for most of the climb to Ronmey ridge high point.  Fortunately, the weather cleared just enough to make for an absolutely gorgeous afternoon. 

 

Climbing out of Canyon creek.

From the ridge top, I skied down to the top of Arch bowl.  I skied a nice clean line on the Eastern edge. It was great! From a small bench well above the creek, I wrapped around to West arch bowl.  

Looking down to the Arch near the top of the Arch bowl.

A big climb put me on top of point 8352 and my intended ski line in the slabby gully system that drops off the North shoulder to Blodgett.  I encountered some thinly covered rock slabs near the top, but was able to work my way off of them into deeper snow.  The bowl itself is steep and fun.  It all sits on perilous rock slabs, but the snowpack was frozen and locked down, and I felt safe.  The skiing was great all the way to the creek.  The egress was quite easy, with enough snow to ski all the way to the trailhead and out the road with only a couple of ski-off transitions.  I was pretty excited about Arch bowl.  It has a pretty thin snowpack, but skiing it from the top is the way to go, and exiting down to Blodgett would be doable with a lot of snow. With the underlying slabs, the unnamed bowl felt too objectively hazardous to be a recommended ski run, but I am glad I got it done with safe conditions.

Climbing above the Arch.

Crazy light in the new peak to creek run.

Thoughts on Coronavirus and skiing in Montana

6/1 Update:  Now that it generally feels responsible to be backcountry skiing, I am going to start putting backlogged posts up.  My plan is to put them up incrementally through the dog days of summer to keep everyone excited for ski season 2021!

5/11 Update:  In Montana, the stay at home order has been lifted, and the nasty early April weak layer finally appears to have stabilized.  And folks are starting to venture into the mountains.  I certainly have been more comfortable about skiing and pushing a bit more, and conditions have generally been nothing short of excellent.  A thought experiment I have found useful is to think about how much risk I would accept in non Covid times, then take a moderate step back from that.  Let's stay safe, remember the image we project to non-skiers who are struggling through this difficult time, and stay vigilant in minimizing risk.  Also, this is the best information I have about the status if access in the Missions as of May 11th:  

1. Must live on the Flathead Indian Reservation.
2. Must have tribal recreation pass.
3. No overnight stays
4. There is no stipulation regarding native or non native status.

4/9 Update:  Missoula avalanche has a mandatory read here.  Also, the public observation page is still live. 

I am growing increasingly skeptical of my initial view that we can generally ski normally as long as we think hard about risk.  I think there is a really strong case to be made that the skiing community has already failed (the concept that any individual can be responsible, but across the Western US, we have failed), and as a whole society, we should be doing everything we can to protect those most vulnerable to Covid.  Also, my thinking is evolving on social media to the point where I don't think it is very helpful to post a lot of images of skiing, at least for myself.  Both because there are arguably more important things to have a conversation about, and because it feeds our desire to keep recreating like everything is OK.  A few recent articles I have found compelling. Skiing, skiing, travel to rural communities, ethics.

4/4 I feel obliged to put a few thoughts out there to the Montana ski community in order to foster thought about how we approach backcountry skiing individually and collectively during the Coronavirus crisis.  I certainly don't pretend to hold any of the answers.  I also know the situation is changing daily.  But I think that a few principles deserve consideration and will hold through the end of ski season.

Leah and I did the Mission traverse at the beginning of the Coronavirus oubreak.
It was my best day of skiing this year. We nailed it.
In retrospect, I don't know if it was responsible.

I believe exercising outside is immensely beneficial for mental and physical health.  But backcountry skiing is a privilege.  Montana is under a shelter in place order.   Many have lost their jobs, or are working in health care or other essential jobs and scared, or will be sick. I don't really buy the assertion that we are entitled to backcountry ski for our mental health, or to feel normal.  While I do think that skiing is still a reasonable thing to do, I could spend the rest of the year biking and running for exercise, and my mental health would be just fine.

I think we should each take a step back and consider overhauling our approach to skiing in light of Coronavirus for the rest of the season.  We certainly should give ourselves large safety margins, but I think we should be thinking deeper than that.  A place to start is to define responsible recreation.  There is a vast range between mildly indulgent (i.e. going out for a quick hour tour at Marshall), and getting caught in an avalanche.  My thoughts are evolving, but the more I think about it, the less confident I am that big backcountry tours are responsible. It has also been helpful to reach out to friends to get a second opinion.  And, it has been great to see folks respectfully call each other out in instances where skiers have overstepped what is responsible.  Here are two of the ways I am challenging myself to be different.

• Re-set skiing goals.  I thrive on challenging days in the mountains. I am working to let go of all of my previous goals for the year and completely re-thinking about what I want to accomplish. 
• I am working to spend less time thinking about fitness and recreation, and to devote more time and mental energy to being a responsible citizen.  Keeping track of everything that is changing with coronavirus and reacting accordingly takes a lot of thoughtful engagement.  Working from home without child care is time demanding, and I need to focus on quality time with my son.  I need to be present and a good partner to Leah in this stressful time. 

We must take a hard look at risk. There have been many close calls and skier avalanche incidents across the West since the Coronavirus outbreak.  Including in the Bitterroot.  Even though the vast majority of us have been conservative, the ski community is failing.  Avalanche uncertainty is lower in the spring, but conditions aren't spring like in the mountains right now, and even when they are, we still have to be vigilant in avoiding avalanches.  With spring avalanches, you usually know when you are pushing it.  We should not be pushing it right now.  My personal mantra is: Choose low risk objectives, then be aware, conservative, and consistent, and set the bar low for bailing.  Get up early in the spring.  And don't get greedy.

I am especially thinking about driving, duration of outings and fatigue, contingencies for unplanned accidents, going out with marginal weather, and getting lost, especially at the end of the day.  Let's think about having a rescue plan that doesn't involve S&R (i.e. checking in and out with rescue capable ski friends, using in-reach or other tracking tools).  I also think we should think very hard about doing tours in unfamiliar terrain, and in locations where the ingress and egress are tricky.  A few Missoula areas that I believe deserve special consideration:

• Missions:  The Missions are closed to non residents on Tribal lands.  
• Lolo Peak:  Skiers get lost coming back down Carlton ridge from Lolo Peak.  I think that this can be partially mitigated with technology if we have a blue dot showing our location in relation to the trail. 
• Driving in the Bitterroot:  As mountain trailheads start to open up, let's think really hard about driving responsibly on snowy roads.  I got stuck and had to call a tow truck this year.  It sucked at the time, but it would be irresponsible right now. In addition to thinking about getting stuck, we should think about using reliable vehicles, and we should consider impacts to other users like getting stuck meeting oncoming cars on rutty, snowy roads, and parking in places that make it hard for other cars to turn around.  Or getting pinned in behind another stuck vehicle (like could happen driving all the way in to Gash).  

It is incumbent on us to keep the risk of transmitting or contracting Coronavirus while skiing very, very low.  I think we are all thinking about the risk of transmission when transmission when skiing with partners.  It seems reasonable to avoid driving with others to go skiing.  But should we be skiing with partners at all?  And should we offset the carbon footprint of driving separately by driving less?  For now, I plan on skiing solo for at least the immediate future, but I have not though through this well enough to have a strong opinion.  I think we should plan our outings to reduce or eliminate stopping in rural communities.  For the time being, I am planning to do self contained outings with few or no stops oustside of town.

Backcountry skiers need to be very aware of the image we are projecting through our actions, and on social media.  I think that sharing trips to the mountains and enjoying public land can be positive, but it is pretty tone deaf to celebrate what we can get away with in the mountains when a lot of people are putting their health at risk on the front lines.

Can we backcountry ski in Montana safely with minimal transmission exposure?  People might disagree with this assertion, but I think we can.  Montana is different from many other backcountry locations in that skiers aren't generally traveling far to ski, and use is relatively low.  Being out in the mountains is about as socially distanced as one can get. Also, for the most part Missoula area skiers have a proven track record of skiing safely.  We have had very few avalanche incidents and Search and Rescue calls in the past several years.  All this doesn't mean that it is still responsible to ski, or that the situation can't evolve.

We are all figuring this out together, and I welcome thoughts and criticism.

Stay safe and healthy everyone.

Pinball Wizard gully for time

An ongoing post about trying to ski this local classic fast.

3/12/2020

I went faster.  

Ready to ski a few thousand feet of dust on roller balls.

I was able to put in good climb.  Hard, and even, and fast for me.  Although I am coming to think that one can rip skins on the Little St. Joe summit, I ripped skins below the first gendarme, a lot earlier than in previous outings, which saved a lot of time.  When I realized I could go under 3 hours, I also put in a good hard poling and skating push on the trail.  I have been healthy and have stuck to a relatively smart, progressive training plan since September, and am confident in my fitness right now.  Conditions are super filled in and fast right now, and I think this is getting close to my personal potential on this route.  

splits for future reference: First road crossing: 14, trailhead: 48.30; upper saddle 1.28.30 summit 1.59; Start skiing 2.10 Trail: 2.25; Car 2.52.54.

1/28/2019

A fine morning for fast Pinball Wizarding.

Jeffrey was motivated enough to rally at 5:30 for a fast go at Pinball.  The gully is in incredible condition right now.  We parked out at the Larry creek parking area and warmed up on the half mile skin to the trailhead before pinning it up in the dark.  I went out at an optimistically fast pace and pushed with all I had all the way to the top.  Evidently sunrise was really pretty, but I was hurting a little too much to appreciate it as much as I should have.  I lost a lot of time on my previous splits, but it was a beautiful morning, and we started making time up above the saddle by not having to stop for cold weather.  I gave it all I had on the climb, and the last few hundred feet were a grind.

From the top, we made the downhill krumholtz skin in great time.  With low avalanche danger, I also on the fly found a much faster way to traverse to the top of the gully by making a longer traverse all on the South side of the ridge.  We started down the gully proper in good time.  The gully was just fantastic.  Firm, fast, smooth skiing.  Perfectly clear, cold morning.  We had a few bobbles on the exit, but neither cost us much time and we zipped out on the icy trail, emerging in 3.15, a new best for me time.  I still think this is a FK(S)T.  Would love to hear of others doing it faster though.  I went up as fast as my fitness will allow right now, but I think I could shave another 10 minutes with perfect execution.  It is of course hard to wonder if sub-3 is possible.  

splits for future reference: First road crossing: 18, trailhead: 55; upper saddle 1.35 summit 2.06; Start skiing 2.25? Trail: 2.40; Car 3.15.

1/22/2017

With a Sunday afternoon to spare, I made a speedy go at the Pinball Wizard gully.  I went in to it well rested, and with a skin track in all the way up, was optimistic about fast conditions.  After a few minutes of warmup, I started pushing at a reasonably hard pace.  The climb went quickly for the first two thirds, although snow squalls did lower morale a bit, and reports from a ski party about cold wind on the summit had me wishing I had brought a second pair of gloves.  The upper mountain greeted me with surprisingly cold and biting wind, and I had to stop several times to layer up and deal with frozen fingers.  In any case, I only lost about 10 minutes to clothing and cold finger shenanigans.  From the summit, I took advantage of stable conditions to safely use the quick route, which takes a detour around the N. side of the last gendarme.  From there, one can rip skins and make a big downward ridgeline ski and traverse to the head of the Pinball wizard.  My fingers finally warmed up, and I was served a full helping of screaming barfies, but they eventually subsided, and it was time to ski.  

Your classic ski shot from near the top of the Pinball Wizard.

The skiing was great for the upper two thousand feet, and reasonable for the lower thousand.  On the ski out, I passed Andrew and Jeffrey, who were deproaching from adventures further up drainage which included a lot of skiing, one broken pole, and two broken skis.  Otherwise it was an uneventful exit.  I made it back to the car in 3.21, ten minutes faster than my previous fastest time.  It would be reasonable to cut ten minutes off, and I can't help but wonder if a sub-3 hr loop is possible with good conditions and some fierce suffering on the climb.

Back at the car.  Wearing my pink hat from the Women's march in Helena the previous day.
I am about as pessimistic as anyone about the next four years, but it was rewarding to participate.

splits for future reference: First road crossing: 15.30, trailhead: 44; upper sadd