Tag Archives: Backcountry Skiing

Montana Lodge Life

The plan was hatched before the East got pummeled with snow and the West had one of the lowest snow years on record. In a way, it worked out. Sweeney and Kelly flew out and Catherine, Dylan, Atlas and I met them in Montana for some hut living, hot tubing, warm weather, and spring skiing.

We had a 8.5 hour drive from Seattle across the state, through Idaho and over 3 mountain passes. With Atlas still only 6 months, it was our first long trip with a dog in tow, and while he did well, it’s a bit different road tripping with a dog. But this story is about spending a few days up on a ridge with friends in western Montana, and doing some skiing, so let’s focus on that. Unfortunately Dylan and Catherine had to work part of the time, but we all got to enjoy the views and the hut amenities.

Dawn on Downing Mountain from our motel.

Sunrise on Downing Mountain Lodge from Sweeney’s goPro.

We met at a motel the night before, and it was great to see old friends again. The next morning, Sweeney, Kelly and I drove up early to ski until the hut was open to us. Catherine and Dylan took care of the pup and met us after.

Usually, there’s several feet of snow blocking the road for the last 1.5 miles to the lodge. Not this year. We drove up, and still had about a half mile hike to the snow each way. Behind us, the avalanche basin and upper zone glistened in the midday sun on the upper mountain.

Skinning commenced in the base of the gully and we set a steep track up. Luckily the snow had plenty of time to consolidate and the Low danger meant we were mostly concerned with timing the corn right. Day one was mostly a quick up and back, following the skier’s right side of the gully where some lightly crusted powder lay. The hike out was what made it unique.

That evening we all sampled Montana brews, and enjoyed the hot tubs and dry sauna and sunset over the valley below. We let Atlas outside on a long lead but as he’d never been ‘off leash’ outside a dog park, we kept an eye on him.

Day Two

We set out sights a bit higher for the second day, and skinning up past our previous days top out over the looker’s right shoulder and neared the summit ridge. Up there we found cool lines and some powder. Sweeney wanted to push on, but Kelly and I were content to hang out. I found myself in especially rough shape after being sick for months.

Sweeney got the best views as he pressed on a bit higher than us, all around were snow capped peaks and enough lines for a lifetime.

On the descent we found some variable powder, then snaked through trees in the burn zone and back out to the main gully.

We were hoping to make an afternoon group jaunt with skis, skins and snowshoes, but because of the lack of snow we instead took short walks on old logging roads and hung around the lodge.

Day 3

The last day I was pretty beat. Sweeney, Kelly and I make the trek up once again, first to our ski cache, and then following our day old skin track. The day was warm and I wanted to maximize lounging, so I turned around and did my best to make the most of the pristine corn for one last run. Sweeney and Kelly followed suit not far behind after they’d gained a few hundred more vert. They still had a whole second half left of their trip. After one more day at Downing Mountain they were headed to Whitefish.

Catherine and Atlas greeted me at the lodge. After we said our hellos and were headed inside, Atlas spotted a crow, and took off exploring for the first time. We were a little concerned at first, but he came back when called, and after handing out treats to everyone, we turned it into a fun game. By the afternoon he was playing fetch in the yard and was good and beat from romping about in the open spaces.

Day 4

We let Atlas tire himself out a bit as we packed up for the long ride come. We chased the sunset across Washington, where it beat us to the horizon near Ellensburg. After the long drive, we felt good to be home.

Here’s a short video of some of my skiing footage from the trip. Sweeney has much more, and everyone snapped some great shots of the trip.

Yodelin Wednesday

On the Wednesday after Catherine and I’s return from Leavenwroth, I decided it was time for a tour. The snow had piled up and settled down since the weekend, and despite the relatively low base compared to last spring, I gave Yodelin another try. There were two other groups skinning up, and the whole area is relatively protected, so my biggest concern was falling in a tree well, but luckily at least most of those were filled in. Route finding was a bit difficult since its turns out the access road is full of brush when it’s missing 5-8 feet of snow. It was a true East Coast skin heading in: frozen solid, and lots of thick brush. Luckily the higher elevations had over a foot of light and fluffy powder on top.

Conditions in the PNW have been even worse than last January , so it’s been tough to get the touring in. People have been doing it, but finding good routes as a difficult challenge and I’m not that familiar with the early season routes yet, aside from Rainier. This was my first tour since late last June, early July when I skinned up to Camp Muir. Taking a few laps at Yodelin is certainly a different sort of tour, but it was fun nonetheless.

Heading out was just as hard as skinning up due to the low coverage, but in between I got a few creamy turns. It was a fun walk in the woods and certainly an interesting way to start the touring season. Though it was fun, in retrospect I perhaps should’ve waited to go touring a few more days. It rained everywhere the day after, but I was also just shaking off a cold, which has since turned into a chronic cough probably due to spending the day inhaling cold mountain air…

Back in the Saddle: Highlight Reel

It’s never too late for more video! Finally an edit from my first post-Dynafiddle excursion in which literally nothing went wrong and we had a nice day. Check it out:

Gear List:

Camp Muir Classic

Sean, Tim and I did some mid-summer skiing just about a week ago. We day tripped over to Mt. Rainier and though we didn’t really luck out with the weather, we had a great time.

We got a reasonable start at Paradise, with plans to take it as we went, and immediately ran into this:

Thick fog the whole tour up. Luckily the NPS and guide services had kindly flagged the standard route to Camp Muir the whole way up, and I was somewhat familiar with the mountain from my last visit.

Our best view until we broke the clouds, the Nisqually terminus below Panorama point. We made good progress up the first half of the tour, but began to slow down through the multiple transitions, and lack of visibility. The whole Muir snowfield is fairly safe in good weather, with many parties ascending and descending, flags, and fairly distinct ridges to either side. Nevertheless with poor visibility, we stuck together to took it slow and steady, especially with the recent accidents on the mountain.

Tim snapped about half the photos of the trip on his own camera.

Sean and I during a snack break.

Higher up, we continued following the well-worn path and flags, without much change.

We were getting a bit demoralized by the fog, and weren’t originally planning to go all the way to Muir, but heard Muir was only a short ways ahead when my phone died ~8700 ft. Just as we were cramping up and having thoughts of stopping, we broke through the clouds.

We trudged the last bit up to the Camp and took it easy for awhile at 10,000 feet. Finally we got some well deserved views. It was fun hanging around. Other groups were mainly camped out, with a few other skiers getting ready to descend, who kindly took our picture.

After some rejuvenating snacking, we geared up for a slow descent into fog.

The first 20 or so turns were creamy, and fresh from a few inches the night before, making the whole thing worth it.

Sean heads off.

Me vs. the fog.

Tim coming to join us.

Then it was back to fogginess and low visibility, which meant, follow the flags and tracks, and stick together.

We got slightly separated at one point, since visibility was that bad, but met up fairly quickly at the next transition point, and stuck together the rest of the way back to Paradise, marking just about a 5k vert day.

On our way out, we saw some local wildlife.

Of course the clouds were hanging right at Paradise, so descending down the mountain held some great views.

On our way home, the weather decided it was about time to clear up and become gorgeous.

And finally, we were back to Seattle.

See you guys on the next tour!