Jay Silveira
New member
We had another batch of moisture come ashore this week, but this time there was an interesting twist. One thing I’ve found about here in Western Montana is that we don’t get nearly as cold as the eastern portion of the state. The large arctic outbreaks that spill down from Canada (like the one that has currently been visiting the Midwest and Eastern U.S.) don’t seem to seep very far to the west. I’ve been told that this is due to the mountains, but since it does happen sometimes, I’m sure there are other factors as well. The interesting twist for this batch of moisture was that the arctic air WAS pushing to the west. Along with this arctic boundary, a moist flow from the coast was coming ashore, and the two happened to be colliding earlier this week right over West-central Montana. <BR> <BR>In Hamilton, and the rest of the Bitterroot Valley, we don’t actually get a lot of snow (Hamilton’s average annual snowfall is around 40 inches, only about half the amount Burlington gets). With this collision however, we got our biggest valley snowfall of the season on Tuesday night/Wednesday. Many people got up to a foot of light dry powder at their homes, and in town we managed to pull out about 6 inches. With temperatures that dropped to the teens, it felt very wintry. Although the next day, we got freezing rain and sleet in the valley (ruining all the nice powder) Lost Trail reported a storm total of 12 inches which meant it would be another good powder Thursday. I didn’t get a chance to head up, but it looks like temperatures stayed cold and the snow must have been great. <BR> <BR>Today, I did head up for some turns in the afternoon. Although only a couple more inches had fallen since powder Thursday, it was pouring in the valley and I figured it had to be doing something up at the pass. The only issue was the very warm temperatures. It was 48 degrees in Hamilton (3,560’), which was a far cry from freezing. Temperatures dropped quickly as I headed south toward the pass however; 41 degrees at Darby (3,850’), and 39 degrees at Sula (4,400’). The temperature stayed fairly constant to the bottom of the pass (~5,000), and snow didn’t start mixing in with the rain until 6,200’ (37 degrees). Vertical was running out, and I was getting worried that the mountain would be getting rain, but at 6,650’, the mix suddenly changed over to all snow. At the base of the mountain (7,000’), it was 33 degrees and snowing like crazy! It hadn’t been snowing like that the whole time, so only a couple of new inches had accumulated, but the conditions looked excellent. <BR> <BR>For a first run, I took a groomed Meadow Run to Far Out to Southern Comfort, and found they were pretty cut up with heavy snow. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), jumping off the edge into the powder was easier skiing. Even though the really light snow from earlier in the week had been buried by the new heavy snow, it skied great. There had been talk of opening Chair 4 for the weekend, but neither the website nor the snow phone said it was open. I decided to head down to Chair 3 and take a look anyway. Chair 3 drops down below pass level to 6,400’, into the elevations where mixing was occurring. I skied some tolerable heavy powder on the steep portion of Main Street, but below that, I nearly stopped in my tracks when I tried to head off the groomed run. The snowfall had turned into a mix and the snow was wet, wet, wet. I looked over and could see that Chair 4 was actually running, but when I chatted with the Chair 3 lift-op, he said they were still preparing it for people. The latest news I’ve heard through the grape vine is that it’s either avalanche danger or coverage that is holding up the opening. Since this week added another 10 inches to the base, (Saddle Mountain SNOTEL at 7,900’ has gone from ~40 inches to ~50 inches) I guess we can hope that any coverage issues are resolved. <BR> <BR>After sticking like glue at the bottom of Chair 3, I decided I didn’t need to go down that low anymore, and also decided that I would throw some wax on my horribly dry bases and see if that helped. I just threw on a little fluoro wax I had in the car, and although I didn’t really expect much, it helped remove a lot of the sticking. <BR> <BR>With the new snow, Lost Trail was finally able to open the rest of their steep terrain on the main mountain, so everything is now open and well-covered except for the expansion area. This meant that Outlaw, a very steep pitch off the skier’s left of North Face, was finally ready for skiing. It had slid earlier in the season, removing much of the base, and substantially delaying its opening. Since I hadn’t skied it in almost a year, I got confused about the entrance and wound up in a very tight chute to skier’s right. With the heavy snow, I didn’t think that an 8 foot wide, 40-degree slot through the conifers would be the smartest move for a first steep run, so I traversed left in search of something wider. I didn’t quite get to Outlaw, but I found some open terrain that sufficed. Although not quite untracked, there was a lot of fresh snow, and with the dense stuff that was falling from the sky, it was holding up great. It was one of the many times in the day I was reminded of our trip to Red Mountain in 2000. Days of dumping snow, wet clothes, and fun treed steeps. After finishing the steeps, I dropped below Femur Ridge and found heavy powder to skier’s right. <BR> <BR>Next run, I took another shot at Outlaw and picked the correct entrance this time. Again, after not skiing it for so long, I had forgotten much of its character. I had to do a double take when I looked down from the top and saw that the already steep pitch rolled away and disappeared to an even steeper pitch. I could look down on the highway, Bear Claw Ridge, and much of Lost Trail scattered below me. It was much like standing at the top of Starr at Stowe and looking at the base area below your feet (although Lost Trail doesn’t have quite the vertical of Stowe. Another bonus was the solitude. Nobody was anywhere near me at this hour, and although I could hear some voices down below in the Powder Bowl area, I felt alone. I had to sit and soak in the view for a while, trying to decide how to attack the slope. The first run down was good, but not quite what I wanted. I didn’t nail every turn in the spots I picked, and ended up going faster than desired. Sweeping down to the bottom in big arcs was fun, but I vowed to hit it again and ski it tighter. Second run I nailed it, popping between the slight hints of bumps that had started to form under the loose snow, and missing all the depressions that wanted to throw me for a loop. I stopped just briefly at the crux of the slope to check its pitch. I know I’ve done it before, but I forgot what I’d measured, and seeing it for the first time this season made me curious. Using the famous ski pole trick I learned on skiVT-L, my rough measurements and calculations gave me 42.5 degrees (I did the inverse tangent on a calculator, not in my head 
. I’ll have to get Jon to bring his inclinometer for a more accurate measurement. I wanted to call it a day after such a great run, but it was so much fun I had to hit it once more. The third time was another fun run, and after a slow start to the day, my ski morale had jumped a big notch and it inspired me to try another route. <BR> <BR>Each trip up Chair 1, I had been eyeing the skier’s right line of North Face. Although nowhere near as steep as Outlaw, it has a couple of nice terrain features (rocks) that let one get a bit of air on a still respectable pitch of 35 degrees or so. I had also seen some nice untracked snow in that area, and figured it would blend well with the terrain to make for a sweet run. On the first attempt, everything went great: bumps, air, powder, speed, control. Everything blended together and before I knew it, I had shot the face and was cruising the powder among the stunted evergreens below with a big internal grin (or maybe external for all I knew). I couldn’t believe that it had flowed so well on the first shot, and it was enough to make me do it again. Second run was good, but I felt my speed get away from me and I went faster than I wanted. My legs were passing “the zone” and were getting into the beginnings of tired from dueling with the heavy snow. I cruised to the parking lot and called it a day. <BR> <BR>I’m already psyched for next weekend. Even if Chair 4 doesn’t open, I can’t wait to get back to some of the steeps above Femur Ridge now that the coverage is great. If Chair 4 does happen to open, they’ll be a whole new huge playground of steep terrain in Hollywood bowl to explore. Moisture should still be streaming in this week, and it looks like things will cool down a bit as well. Drier snow would be nice, but it’s hard to complain when many areas of the west are badly in need of storms to beef up their snowpacks. We’ll take what we can get. <BR> <BR>J.Spin
. I’ll have to get Jon to bring his inclinometer for a more accurate measurement. I wanted to call it a day after such a great run, but it was so much fun I had to hit it once more. The third time was another fun run, and after a slow start to the day, my ski morale had jumped a big notch and it inspired me to try another route. <BR> <BR>Each trip up Chair 1, I had been eyeing the skier’s right line of North Face. Although nowhere near as steep as Outlaw, it has a couple of nice terrain features (rocks) that let one get a bit of air on a still respectable pitch of 35 degrees or so. I had also seen some nice untracked snow in that area, and figured it would blend well with the terrain to make for a sweet run. On the first attempt, everything went great: bumps, air, powder, speed, control. Everything blended together and before I knew it, I had shot the face and was cruising the powder among the stunted evergreens below with a big internal grin (or maybe external for all I knew). I couldn’t believe that it had flowed so well on the first shot, and it was enough to make me do it again. Second run was good, but I felt my speed get away from me and I went faster than I wanted. My legs were passing “the zone” and were getting into the beginnings of tired from dueling with the heavy snow. I cruised to the parking lot and called it a day. <BR> <BR>I’m already psyched for next weekend. Even if Chair 4 doesn’t open, I can’t wait to get back to some of the steeps above Femur Ridge now that the coverage is great. If Chair 4 does happen to open, they’ll be a whole new huge playground of steep terrain in Hollywood bowl to explore. Moisture should still be streaming in this week, and it looks like things will cool down a bit as well. Drier snow would be nice, but it’s hard to complain when many areas of the west are badly in need of storms to beef up their snowpacks. We’ll take what we can get. <BR> <BR>J.Spin