Jay Silveira
New member
Well, it FINALLY happened. <BR> <BR>I've personally been waiting almost two years for this auspicious event, and many people have been waiting even longer (so I wrote a fairly big report for the day and captured some video). <BR> <BR>Lost Trail Powder Mountain officially opened Chair 4! (Saddle Mountain Lift). <BR> <BR>The anticipation of the opening of chair 4 has been heightened by a number of events over the past few years. In 2000/2001 it was the infamous Bitterroot fires that still leave their scars on the mountain's slopes. In 2001/2002 it was mechanical and permit issues. So far this year it has been lack of snowfall, avalanche danger, lack of personnel, and who knows what else. The opening of chair 4 had become a bit of a joke in the local community, and last year signs at the mountain lovingly warned people not to even ask about when it would open. <BR> <BR>It would be one thing if chair 4 supported a new small pod of trails, or made access easier to certain slopes, but the opening of chair 4 in fact transforms the identity of Lost Trail. The numbers I've heard indicate that the new terrain expands the ski area by 3-4 times in overall acreage. I can't find a good number of what the old acreage was, but now it's up to 900 total acres, and the vertical drop has bumped up from the 1,200'-1,400' range to 1,800' with all of that vertical available in one shot off chair 4. Couple the expansion with crowds that are already pretty sparse, and you've got a recipe for some serious lift-serviced powder. <BR> <BR>Before I go on to the day's adventures, I'll talk a little bit about the recent weather at Lost Trail and western Montana in General, since it has something to do with the timing of the events that unfolded. Last week hosted the third 12" powder Thursday in a row, and although I didn't attend, I heard good things about the conditions. It turned out that the snow was a bit lighter than the previous Thursday, and as a bonus, they opened up chair 4 to the select few that were out on that day. Those of us who weren't there certainly thought it was a bit of a sneaky tactic (Chair 4 is supposed to be open only on weekends) but it turns out they wanted to test out the chair and other aspects of the area with minimal crowds. Fortunately (for those of us who hoped to visit on the weekend) they only opened the marked groomed runs at this stage, and not the steep terrain like Hollywood Bowl. By the time Friday rolled around, they had received more snow and were reporting 18 inches for the week. Another storm was coming in for Friday night and Saturday, with the potential for another 12-18 inches, but there was a catch with this system; it was going to be VERY warm. Snow levels were predicted to rise to between 8,000' and 9,000', meaning that even Lost Trail might not escape the above freezing temperatures. Everyone made plans to contact each other in the morning and make a decision based on the snow report. There was little doubt that they would get SOME snow, and chair 4 would finally open. I watched the radar during the evening, noting each echo that passed over the Lost Trail area, wondering what kind of precipitation was falling since I lacked and up-to-date temperature info. <BR> <BR>When Saturday morning finally arrived, I pushed the speed dial for the snow phone and got a horrible message. It was something to the effect of "We've received no new snow overnight, the temperature is 30 degrees, and we will not be opening chair 4 because Mother Nature has not been kind to us." How much worse could things get? It seemed like all that great powder had been hit by rain, and now the opening of Chair 4 was going to undergo yet another interminable delay. When all was said and done, we (Jon, Derek, and I) decided not to head out. Although Jon was thinking of heading up and taking a look, I think Derek and I were more in favor of bagging the day and hoping for a good Sunday. Maybe some magic would happen and enough snow would fall to cover up the inevitable crust that must have formed from a rain/freeze. I said that I'd go if people REALLY wanted to head up, and left the conversation with Derek with his words "I'll talk to Jon and get a final word. If you don't get a call from me in 10 minutes, it means we're not going." The phone never rang. I'm pretty sure I was happy to get some extra sleep, and to have a bonus day to get some extensive work done on this year's ski movie. <BR> <BR>Sunday arrived and I decided to check the snow phone on the off chance that any new snow had fallen up on the hill. To my surprise, the report said 12 inches new, 10 yesterday and 2 overnight. Whoa! That was so cool. They reported that opening of chair 4 was "tentative" which in Lost Trail terms usually means no. Still, it would be fun to head out and poke around in the new snow. A few minutes later, the phone rang and Jon was on it, letting me know that he and Derek were definitely going up for turns. Even Yvette, Derek's wife was heading up. None of us could believe that another foot had fallen; that made 30 inches for the week (with a bit of a warm-up thrown in too of course). <BR> <BR>The drive to the mountain featured a few squalls of snow; more as we got closer to the pass. Jon and I met up at the parking lot (the others were arriving a bit later) and immediately got ourselves set in case chair 4 opened. I had my radio set to "scan" so if any chatter came up about the opening, we'd hear it. We checked with patrol at the summit, and strangely enough, they were optimistic for a chair 4 opening. They warned us not to rush though, any opening would be a little while out while they finished grooming, cleaned the chairs, and checked on avalanche hazard. <BR> <BR>So, we took a run down to Chair 2 to see what conditions were like. Jon and I decided to hit the secret meadow first, and found lots of untracked over a smooth surface. It didn't seem like the warm-up had done much at all. However, when we merged back onto Thunder and hit terrain that people had skied yesterday, we could see that the wet snow had been pushed around on the slope and hardened into chunks in places. Sometimes a bump would be a deposit of the new powder, sometimes it was a refrozen block of yesterday's gunk; it made for challenging skiing. We found similar conditions on South Face; good snow but just not really bottomless. <BR> <BR>Soon we decided it was time to see what was going on over at chair 4. As we went lower in elevation, it seemed like the crust was a bit thicker. Still, as long as we were on terrain that hadn't been tracked up the previous day, the powder skiing was awesome. The crust was more like a thick layer in the snow, and for the most part you couldn't feel it where the new snow had fallen. Interestingly, the powder situation was WORSE in the dense trees. The new snow had mostly been grabbed by the trees themselves, so the covering of powder over the refrozen material was thinner. We've all heard about temperature inversions, well this was a sort of "snow quality inversion". Great turns were had on Main Street however; few tracks meant great snow. To give an idea of consistency, Jon and I guessed the new snow was around 9% H2O. We even had an inch or so come down quickly in the morning, made up of nice fluffy crystals that had us covered in white by the time we got off the lift. <BR> <BR>We arrived at Chair 4 to see the lift operator cleaning off the chairs. He said grooming and control work were still in progress, "maybe 30 minutes." We ran another run off chair 3 to pass the time, and when we got back to chair 4, a line of powderhounds had already started to form. There were maybe a couple dozen people already in line, so we figured it would be best to get a spot now. The line began to grow behind us, and as we wondered how Derek and Yvette would ever know we were way over here at chair 4 (they don't have radios) down the trail comes Derek, grinning from ear to ear. I guess there was little question where Jon and I would be hanging out. <BR> <BR>After another few minutes, the lift operator and groomers gave us a report that it would be a while more, so the line broke up and we had to find a way to occupy ourselves for another hour. We decided to hit the cars and get some food, do a bathroom break etc. Derek had just bought new alpine ski boots (anxious to do some alpine after so many years of tele) but he was still on his old Rossignol 4S skis. We'd been talking about getting him on something fatter, so I grabbed my fat skis off the rack for him and said this would be a good taste of fatness. It's nice when folks have similar foot size and DIN settings so that you can swap skis. I stayed on my midfats and said he could swap off and try those as well. <BR> <BR>We did a quick groomed run off Chair 1 to pass the time, and on the second lift ride, the top operator was giving out the word that they were loading Chair 4. Holy smoke! We couldn't believe this was actually going to happen. We high tailed it down to Chair 4 and got in line. They were loading 10 chairs at a time, then leaving a space of about 10 chairs. I guess this was in order to gauge the stress on the lift which had yet to see a full load. This meant that a bit of a line formed, but it also meant that the untracked would last a LONG time. I guess the big Kahuna of the new area is Hollywood Bowl, a bowl area of maybe 35 degrees that drops right down into the Elk Basin drainage area between the expansion and the main base. This area has a bunch of rocky chutes and terrain features that make it very appealing, although it probably has the highest chance of slide activity as well. Jon inquired about Hollywood Bowl with the lift operator, just as the operator got a message from patrol saying they were thinking of keeping it closed for the time being. We were bummed a bit, but there would be tons of other places to check out, and hell, we were finally on Chair 4! <BR> <BR>Riding on Chair 4 felt extra special since we had waited so long, but it also gave some interesting new views of the mountain. We were now partway down the highway back towards the Bitterroot Valley, and off to our left we could see unique views of some of our favorite runs at the main base area. Below us we could see the powdery intermediate slopes that make up the bulk of the front side of Saddle Mountain’s Terrain. They look great for cruising, although they lack the pitch to keep one going in deep powder. Out ahead of us lay the sparsely-treed slopes of upper Saddle Mountain. Partially thinned by fire, but also by other natural forces, these slopes have a nice black diamond pitch for around 500 feet before the terrain mellows and the trees close in. By now, we could see a few of the first skiers working their way down through the snowfields and the snow looked excellent. <BR> <BR>You can see some of Saddle Mountain’s terrain (front side) in the following picture from a backcountry day we had last April: <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/20APR02B.jpg" TARGET="_top">http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/20APR02B.jpg</A> <BR> <BR>We got off the lift and found ourselves atop Saddle Mountain at 8,200’. Personally, I still couldn’t believe I was there. After two years of delays, I wasn’t too far off from asking someone to pinch me and wake me from the dream. We had a couple of minutes to wait before Derek and Yvette arrived in the next batch of chairs, and Jon headed over to take a look at the status of Hollywood Bowl. Last we’d heard it was closed, but you never know 
. Jon returned with the good news that the bowl was open (woohoo!). Soon, Derek and Yvette arrived, and once we’d decided how we’d meet up (Yvette was going to take some mellower terrain) it was off to Hollywood Bowl. <BR> <BR>I’d seen the bowl from afar many times, but never looked down from the top like this. It was maybe 100 yards wide, with a smattering of trees and some obvious terrain features. Out beyond the edges, areas of exposed rock were visible, those to the right having the rocky chutes that I’d wondered about for so long. In the middle of the bowl, I could see about 500’ of vertical before the terrain split up into the trees, and only about 10 tracks from previous skiers. I decided to drop in first, and then turn around and film Jon and Derek skiing the bowl. Within a couple of turns I was up to speed and it was about as good as I could ever have imagined. Up at this elevation, there was no sign of any crust, and the only material below my feet was bottomless powder. This wasn’t just untouched snow since the last storm; this was untouched snow since, well, ever. There was a really nice roll near the bottom of the bowl that looked like a great line, but I decided to avoid it and let the others ski it once I’d checked it for rocks. I pulled to a stop at the bottom of the bowl, and couldn’t believe the run I’d just had. It wasn’t quite as deep or light as the chokingly incredible MLK day of 2002 (The White Room Day) but it was still one of the best Lost Trail runs ever. Jon and Derek came down next, experiencing similar outstanding runs, Jon catching the roll as I’d hoped someone would. He sailed right over the top and came down in a perfect tele stance as the terrain fell away below him. Unfortunately, with only the head cam running, I couldn’t zoom in, but I got it at a distance. Jon would later say that they were some of the best lift served turns he’d ever had (even after many years in Colorado) simply due to the fact that the snow had sat there untouched by skiers all season. As once can imagine, we were all quite loud as we exchanged whoops and exclamations about the terrain and snow conditions. <BR> <BR>Below the bowl, it was time to explore the subsequent zone of intermixed trees and trails. We decided to cut left into the trees and had a blast simply checking out all the unexplored terrain. There were plenty of lines in nicely spaced trees, and we barely scratched the surface. Before long, we found ourselves (and a few other skiers/boarders) traversing through the woods with no idea where we were. We knew that we were somewhere in Elk Basin, but nobody had been in here before, and we were essentially making a brand new traverse. Jon led the pack, we followed our noses, and soon we were back to the trails in the basin. But our run wasn’t over. Now we had some nice open slopes full of powder to navigate. The snow was again awesome, since with so little traffic, the snow that had been hit by the warming had nicely blended into the snowpack. <BR> <BR>Up we went again, and there was no question that Hollywood bowl was once more in order. Since the middle was getting tracked out a bit, we headed to the right in search of new terrain. We found a small chute, cut off from the main bowl by a few trees, and Jon and Derek headed down as I filmed from above. Then it was my turn. I was heading down on the right side of the chute, enjoying great powder, when something caught my eye and I was drawn down and even further to the right. There was a rock sitting near the edge of the bowl, and it looked like a perfect launch of about 5 feet into beautiful powder. I took it at a pretty good clip and instantly I realized it was bigger than I had thought. I pumped my arms once in that air to reset my balance, and looked down. I still hadn’t landed; time slowed down and it felt like an eternity. Finally, the ground came up to meet me and I had to absorb the impact, but thankfully ample powder and a good pitch made things easier. I screamed through the bottom of the bowl with good speed and came to a halt where Jon and Derek were located. I was still a bit in shock that the drop was so much bigger than I’d though; 10-15 feet is not a big deal in such nice powder, unless you don’t expect it. Still Jon and Derek said it looked great. Thankfully I’d traded Derek for my fat skis; they are so damn solid that they gave me the extra stability to pull out of the surprise situation with relative ease. I should treat them to a nice waxing for their efforts! We finished off the run with more woods and trails below, continuing our exploration of new lines. <BR> <BR>For our 3rd run on chair 4, we decided to come down the frontside of the mountain, in an area on the far right known as “The Ripper”. And rip it we did. I followed Derek and we sliced and diced through the open terrain will still very few tracks. Even though it was on 2:30 P.M., patrol was beginning to shut down the area and we knew it would be our last run on Chair 4 for the day. After skiing the Ripper, we headed to the right to dive back into the steeper trees. There was additional open terrain in this area that was barely skied, and although the trees to the left were a bit too thick to ski themselves, we knew that they led to some hidden steep areas. Those will have to be explored at another time. It was a shame to leave the area, because such light traffic has left tons of untracked snow; the front of the mountain had only been about 50% skied. Since Chair 4 won’t open again until Saturday, there should be lots of fresh powder left for everyone. <BR> <BR>We finished off with a couple of runs on the main mountain, finding real hard snow on Outlaw which unfortunately got well skied in the warm temperatures. The bowl below Femur Ridge was still in good shape, as was the North Face area. Today (Thursday) had only 5 inches of new snow for powder Thursday (from earlier in the week) but hopefully that snow will be ready and waiting for Saturday on Chair 4. The upcoming week looks to be dry, so we’ll have to make due with what Mother Nature has dropped us so far. Temperatures are much cooler now however, so the snow should stay in good shape. <BR> <BR>I put together some QuickTime video footage of the day (~3 min/11 MB) that can be accessed through the link below. Since I didn’t do any regular camera footage, it’s only head cam video, but it gives a good general perspective of the terrain and conditions. My headcam microphone wasn’t working so I don’t have all the whoops and hollers from the day, but I put some music in to spruce it up at least. As usual, you can click on the link, or right click etc. to save it to your computer. <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/LTHC02FEB03.mov" TARGET="_top">http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/LTHC02FEB03.mov</A> <BR> <BR>J.Spin
. Jon returned with the good news that the bowl was open (woohoo!). Soon, Derek and Yvette arrived, and once we’d decided how we’d meet up (Yvette was going to take some mellower terrain) it was off to Hollywood Bowl. <BR> <BR>I’d seen the bowl from afar many times, but never looked down from the top like this. It was maybe 100 yards wide, with a smattering of trees and some obvious terrain features. Out beyond the edges, areas of exposed rock were visible, those to the right having the rocky chutes that I’d wondered about for so long. In the middle of the bowl, I could see about 500’ of vertical before the terrain split up into the trees, and only about 10 tracks from previous skiers. I decided to drop in first, and then turn around and film Jon and Derek skiing the bowl. Within a couple of turns I was up to speed and it was about as good as I could ever have imagined. Up at this elevation, there was no sign of any crust, and the only material below my feet was bottomless powder. This wasn’t just untouched snow since the last storm; this was untouched snow since, well, ever. There was a really nice roll near the bottom of the bowl that looked like a great line, but I decided to avoid it and let the others ski it once I’d checked it for rocks. I pulled to a stop at the bottom of the bowl, and couldn’t believe the run I’d just had. It wasn’t quite as deep or light as the chokingly incredible MLK day of 2002 (The White Room Day) but it was still one of the best Lost Trail runs ever. Jon and Derek came down next, experiencing similar outstanding runs, Jon catching the roll as I’d hoped someone would. He sailed right over the top and came down in a perfect tele stance as the terrain fell away below him. Unfortunately, with only the head cam running, I couldn’t zoom in, but I got it at a distance. Jon would later say that they were some of the best lift served turns he’d ever had (even after many years in Colorado) simply due to the fact that the snow had sat there untouched by skiers all season. As once can imagine, we were all quite loud as we exchanged whoops and exclamations about the terrain and snow conditions. <BR> <BR>Below the bowl, it was time to explore the subsequent zone of intermixed trees and trails. We decided to cut left into the trees and had a blast simply checking out all the unexplored terrain. There were plenty of lines in nicely spaced trees, and we barely scratched the surface. Before long, we found ourselves (and a few other skiers/boarders) traversing through the woods with no idea where we were. We knew that we were somewhere in Elk Basin, but nobody had been in here before, and we were essentially making a brand new traverse. Jon led the pack, we followed our noses, and soon we were back to the trails in the basin. But our run wasn’t over. Now we had some nice open slopes full of powder to navigate. The snow was again awesome, since with so little traffic, the snow that had been hit by the warming had nicely blended into the snowpack. <BR> <BR>Up we went again, and there was no question that Hollywood bowl was once more in order. Since the middle was getting tracked out a bit, we headed to the right in search of new terrain. We found a small chute, cut off from the main bowl by a few trees, and Jon and Derek headed down as I filmed from above. Then it was my turn. I was heading down on the right side of the chute, enjoying great powder, when something caught my eye and I was drawn down and even further to the right. There was a rock sitting near the edge of the bowl, and it looked like a perfect launch of about 5 feet into beautiful powder. I took it at a pretty good clip and instantly I realized it was bigger than I had thought. I pumped my arms once in that air to reset my balance, and looked down. I still hadn’t landed; time slowed down and it felt like an eternity. Finally, the ground came up to meet me and I had to absorb the impact, but thankfully ample powder and a good pitch made things easier. I screamed through the bottom of the bowl with good speed and came to a halt where Jon and Derek were located. I was still a bit in shock that the drop was so much bigger than I’d though; 10-15 feet is not a big deal in such nice powder, unless you don’t expect it. Still Jon and Derek said it looked great. Thankfully I’d traded Derek for my fat skis; they are so damn solid that they gave me the extra stability to pull out of the surprise situation with relative ease. I should treat them to a nice waxing for their efforts! We finished off the run with more woods and trails below, continuing our exploration of new lines. <BR> <BR>For our 3rd run on chair 4, we decided to come down the frontside of the mountain, in an area on the far right known as “The Ripper”. And rip it we did. I followed Derek and we sliced and diced through the open terrain will still very few tracks. Even though it was on 2:30 P.M., patrol was beginning to shut down the area and we knew it would be our last run on Chair 4 for the day. After skiing the Ripper, we headed to the right to dive back into the steeper trees. There was additional open terrain in this area that was barely skied, and although the trees to the left were a bit too thick to ski themselves, we knew that they led to some hidden steep areas. Those will have to be explored at another time. It was a shame to leave the area, because such light traffic has left tons of untracked snow; the front of the mountain had only been about 50% skied. Since Chair 4 won’t open again until Saturday, there should be lots of fresh powder left for everyone. <BR> <BR>We finished off with a couple of runs on the main mountain, finding real hard snow on Outlaw which unfortunately got well skied in the warm temperatures. The bowl below Femur Ridge was still in good shape, as was the North Face area. Today (Thursday) had only 5 inches of new snow for powder Thursday (from earlier in the week) but hopefully that snow will be ready and waiting for Saturday on Chair 4. The upcoming week looks to be dry, so we’ll have to make due with what Mother Nature has dropped us so far. Temperatures are much cooler now however, so the snow should stay in good shape. <BR> <BR>I put together some QuickTime video footage of the day (~3 min/11 MB) that can be accessed through the link below. Since I didn’t do any regular camera footage, it’s only head cam video, but it gives a good general perspective of the terrain and conditions. My headcam microphone wasn’t working so I don’t have all the whoops and hollers from the day, but I put some music in to spruce it up at least. As usual, you can click on the link, or right click etc. to save it to your computer. <BR> <BR><A HREF="http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/LTHC02FEB03.mov" TARGET="_top">http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/LTHC02FEB03.mov</A> <BR> <BR>J.Spin