Backcountry Skiing at Brundage Mountain

Last week's weather had been kind to the Idaho mountains by dumping a foot of new snow.  Knowing that it was going to get warm this weekend I figured skiing farther north up by McCall might be our best bet.  With this in mind I sent John Platt an email for beta on a place he had skied a few weeks prior - Sargeants http://www.splattski.com/2012/brundage/index.html

Turns out in addition to providing a map to the area John agreed to join us with an old friend of his. 

Tamara, Dylan and I met up a John's place in McCall and after meeting his old friend John Beckman (Bird) we made the short drive to Brundage Ski resort - our take off point.

The weather forecast I had remembered from a few days back had mentioned sun, but we were graced with lightly falling snow with little wind.  Not great for photos, but excellent for skiing!

The initial skinning took us out Goose Creek Road, which is essentially a snowmobile race track.  While skinning up the road we all got to meet Bird.  Luckily we were only on the snow covered road for a little over a mile before we peeled off and headed up the mountain.

Dylan was feeling it this morning so we allowed him to break trail through the new snow.

Dylan leading the troops

As we progressed further up the mountain I was getting pretty excited.  We were moving from one open glade to another. 

In a couple of hours we reached the summit of Brundage Mountain at 7803 feet and the snow still hadn't let up.  We quickly (well relatively quickly) removed our skins, had a quick snack, and headed down.

The snow was silky smooth powder and it was hard for me to keep the Woo-Hoos! from my lips.  We skipped from open glade to open glade down for a run of approximately 1000 feet!

John Platt showing his tele form

Bird showing his tele form

And Dylan showing his tele form

After some great conversation and lunch we figured we needed one more lap.  So we packed back up and started up again.  It had gotten a little warmer as the day progressed and we were enveloped in more of a cloud of mist rather than snow.  Once again, Dylan took the lead as we progressed upward. 

Into the mist we go

We again march up to the summit and headed back down.  Since it had warmed up a bit the silky powder was a little thicker but excellent none the less.

John (me) getting some turns in

By the time we had reached our lunch spot again everyone was smiling.

We debated heading up for another lap, but it was a little after 2PM, and Dylan had plans that night. So we decided to call it a day.  John lead us through some powder stashes as we made our way back to the snowmobile race track.  From there it was a short 15 minutes or so cruise back to the car.

Another excellent day in the snow!

Here is a short video of the trip:

2nd Peak - Soldier Mountain

The President's Day Weekend was upon us and we didn't have anything planned together.  Tam was still a little injured from the Bull Trout trip last weekend and Dylan was off on a scout campout.  Ralph (Luddite) had posted something on IdahoSummits.com about skiing 2nd Peak on Sunday and I had the nerve to ask about it being an open invite.  He replied with, "The more the merrier."  With Tam basically telling me to get out of the house so she could get some school work done, it was on!

I met up with Ralph, Chris and Bob at the Soldier Mountain ski area on a gorgeous, sunny morning. A little after 9:00 we were heading for the ski lift.  Taking the lift is a real time saver, eliminating 1500 feet of climbing.  Can't beat that!


View of 2nd Peak (center) from the ski patrol hut

We stopped at the ski patrol hut to check in with the patrol before heading through the OB gate.  From this hut, you need to drop a couple of hundred feet down a hill before starting the ascent.  The tracks down this hill had been made by snow machines and were frozen and crusty.  In trying to pick up some speed to go as far as possible up the opposing hill, I caught an edge and took a hard header.  Dang that hurt!  After shaking off the cobwebs from the fall and swallowing my pride, I put my skins on with everyone else and we headed up. 

Chris charging up the hill

It was a great morning. When I rolled through Fairfield earlier the temperature was 6 degrees.  It was just as cold during the climb, but with the sun shining and little wind I was in my base layer in no timem sweating profusely.  Chris found a zone and was charging up the mountain leaving the three of us lagging back.  After an hour of us chasing Chris, he finally stopped so we could take a break and admire the views.  After Chris's run, it was Bob's turn to lead the charge up the hill with his splitboard.

Somehow I got in front of Bob and Ralph to take this photo

I was excited to be with these three guys. All three of them are big climbers and I wanted to see if I could keep up with the pace (I think I did). Also, after last weeks long tour with minimal skiing, I needed someone to show me the choice runs.  Since Ralph grew up in the area I figured I could learn a thing or two on places to ski.  Once we got through the trees the route opened up and became obvious.  As did the potential of the area.


Almost to the ridge

Looking back down

The summit is in view

Ralph showing great form

1st Peak and Big Bowl - wind scoured

 As we progressed up the mountain toward the summit, the clouds started building and the wind picked up.  We stopped just short of the summit of 2nd Peak for lunch and to make the transition from climbing to skiing.  Here I added a couple of ibuprofen to ease the shoulder pain from the header I took on the first hill.

Ralph's plan was to ski one of the step chutes in Big Bowl, but the snow looked a little dicey to me.  After hearing Chris tell Bob that the snow was crusty and that Ralph had made it down without a problem by doing jump turns, I knew it was way too much for me.  I headed to skiers left and found some decent powder by the edge of the trees and headed down to meet the other three in Big Bowl.

2nd lap!

Since the snow up top was a bit crusty we decided to stay in the trees for some additional powder shots.  Here we had boot top powder and great skiing.  So great in fact that we did a couple more laps. 

As we skied out I couldn't believe how many bonus powder shots we were getting.  Unlike most exits, where you're fighting crust and ice on the edge of a gully, this exit consisted of short runs in the shade that offered excellent skiing.

Looking back at our turns (first run in purple and laps in red)

 We finished up with a boot up a couple of hundred feet to the ski patrol shack before a long run down Soldier's groomed runs.  My legs were dead tired, my neck and shoulder were killing me, but I was stoked.  What a great day to be in the mountains with like minded skiers.
Thanks Ralph, Chris and Bob!

Trip Stats:
House to house - 12 hours
Car to car - 7 hours
Over 3000 feet climbed, 3 laps
Unlimited amount of smiles
A sore neck and shoulder




Bull Trout Backcountry Ski

I'd been hearing about the great skiing off of Bull Trout Point for the last year or so.  Every time you drive over Banner Summit you can see the mountain and the possible ski lines.  Dylan and I convinced Mom that she should get up before the crack of dawn and head out with us on another adventure.

The 2.5 hour drive was uneventful other than some thick fog between Idaho City and Lowman which slowed us down.  Luckily as we headed up toward Banner Summit the skies cleared.

Bull Trout Point is somewhere back behind this hill

All smiles at the start

 We quickly packed, put on our gear and hit the flats.  I had a topo of the area and we had a general idea on where we wanted to be, but having never hiked or skied here we were a little in the dark on where to go.  So, we followed some faint ski trail into the trees.  Unfortunately, the faint ski trail petered out and we were on our own.  We fought through the thick lodge pole pines to make the ridge after an hour or so.

Heading up out of the trees

Once we got on the ridge the sun was shining and it was pretty warm.  Ralph had told Dylan that he usually skied the north facing bowls off of this ridge.  When we looked over the edge we could understand why -  the snow looked great.  The only problem was that it was really steep and it looked like it would be difficult to get back up. I was concerned about the steepness and the possibility of starting a slide (even though the avy forecast was moderate) and expressed this to Dylan and Tam.  Tam gave us a flat out, "NO!  You're not skiing those lines!"  Oh well, time to continue on up to see if we could find something else.

On the ridge and in the sunshine

Heading higher

The problem was, we couldn't find anything else off the north side.  It was all a little too steep.  So after 3 hours of climbing we stopped to have some lunch at about 8800 feet and discuss our options.  At this point we were a little tired (at least Tam and I were) so we decided to just ski down through the trees on the south side through a large bowl.

The snow was nice and creamy through the trees and a little like spring skiing where the sun had been shining on it.  There was a little whooping and hollering going on as we exited the bowl into a wide drainage.

Dylan in the south bowl

The fun thing with these backcountry ski trips is the varying snow as you drop down in elevation.  Today we had mostly frozen corn type snow without much ice.  Dylan took the lead with Tam and I following.  Dylan took us through some areas that had tight intersecting gullies.  It seems like every time Tam hit one of these gullies her skis would pop off and down she'd go.  Once she came over a rise only to drop down onto a spring!  And what a spring it was, flowing water that had grass and mud around it!  Being the good husband that I am, I didn't take a picture of this crash, but did get a good laugh out of it.

Once out of the drainage we came to a wide flat area that would be a marsh in warmer temperatures.  The snow was still firm but we had to put our skins back on and break trail for a mile or so to get back to the car.  Extremely painful.

Once back at the car Tam showed us a large blister she had on her foot that had torn open during the slog.  But, being the trooper she is, not a curse word was uttered (to us) during the hike back.

Got to love her!

Tamara during a happier time that day

All told we were out for 6 hours, walked/climbed/skied for over 6 miles and gained 1800 feet elevation.  All to ski a little over 700 feet of vertical!

Super Sunday

This weekend has been good (sunny and warm) and bad (no snow).  With a Sunday afternoon and nothing to do (no skiing) Dylan and I took off for the Black Cliffs for a couple of hours of cragging.

Here is a time lapse that Dylan put together of the climbs.

First BC Ski Trip of 2012

The 2011/12 ski season has been off to a slow start.  Even though Bogus didn't open until a couple of weeks ago, we have gotten a few days in, but nothing in the backcountry.  After a hectic day at Bogus, Saturday, we figured we needed a day of solitude skiing.

Tam, Dylan and I got a reasonably early start and left home at 8AM; getting to Mores Creek Summit at 9:30.  Unfortunately, we weren't the first Subaru in the parking lot, nor the second.  As we were unloading another two Subys pulled in!

The plan was to ski off of Pilot Peak at roughly 7800 feet which meant a 1700 foot climb over a 1.5 mile distance.  Piece of cake right?  Well for some reason it took us a couple of hours to gain access to Top of the World Bowl for our first run.



Tam and Dylan trudging up!

 By the time we hit the top is was lunch time.  As you can see it was an absolutely gorgeous day!

After a quick lunch in the sunshine it was time to pull the skins and head down.  The snow was a mixture of cream cheese and wind blown powder.  Great for downhill (AT) guys but not so great for tele dudes!

We did a couple of laps before we called it an afternoon.  You have to love being out in the wilderness - ah solitude!

When we got home Dylan and I put together a little video from snippets taken with the GoPro. Enjoy!

(No music till I figure out the copyright thing)

Taking Taylor back to Bozeman

Last week saw the start of Taylor's fourth semester at Montana State University.  Wow - time flies! The last couple of years we have thrown in a bit of skiing with this 500 mile trip.  This year we hit Targhee and Big Sky.  Here are a few photos of the trip.

Getting ready at Targhee with a bit of cloud cover

The two lovely children ready to go!

Discussing where to go

Dylan wishing he was climbing the Grand!

Grand Teton

Mom and Dylan at Big Sky



Big Couloir - we didn't have are avy gear. Thank God.



The family on top of Lone Peak



Dylan tele'ing down a double black diamond



Special Hair!

Bull Mountain Utah

Last Sunday six hearty souls took off on a short journey to reach the high point of Box Elder County Utah – Bull Mountain.  The weather forecast for the day was a 20% chance of snow with up to ½ inch accumulation.  The plan was to tag the summit at roughly 9900 feet by following a route detailed on Summit Post. Together - Dylan, Dan, John, Margo, Steve, and I departed the trailhead a little before 9AM with our snow shoes attached to our packs in slowly falling snow.  It was a great start to the day.

As we progressed up the trail the snow thickened but our spirits remained high.

Steve and Margo



An hour into the journey the trail disappeared into a mass of jumbled deadfall.  John, with his keen navigation skills, directed us through the thick jungle of fallen trees as the snow continued unabated.  And John continued to direct us through the deadfall, and John continued to …

Eventually we wound our way out of the deadfall into a gully containing thick underbrush.  We were all smiles as we continued onward and upward through the thick snow with the tangled alder grabbing at our feet.

When the snow became shin deep and the brush had lessened, we put on our snowshoes and continued upward – still smiling.  It was hard no to – the snow was fantastic!  The only way the snow could have been better is if we were on skis!





The Summit Post trip report mentions a creek crossing at 8000 feet and we had our eyes peeled and altimeters out trying to find the crossing.  At certain times, when the snow wasn’t so heavy, our visibility was up to 50 feet, allowing us to feel confident that we were headed in the right direction.

At roughly 1:30, after 4 ½ hours of climbing and bushwacking we figured that we were in the wrong drainage.  With no chance of making the summit, the decision was made to turn around and head down.  We were still all smiles as we again negotiated the mass of deadfall, this time in snowshoes!



After another 2 ½ hours we made it back down to the trailhead where John pulled out his trusty tape measure and determined that there was 9” of snow piled on the cars.  We quickly loaded up and got off the mountain and out of the falling snow.

What an excellent day to be out enjoying some beautiful weather with great people!