Jay Silveira
New member
On Friday, we returned home from the northeast to find a surprising 6-8 inches of snow on the ground in Missoula. I spoke to one of the guards at the airport and he informed me that it had fallen over the past couple of nights. It got me excited for what the mountains might have received, due to the fact that most storms out here drop only a little snow in the valley, which generally disappears in a couple of days. <BR> <BR>Saturday was spent unpacking and catching up on other stuff, but Lost Trail only reported an inch of new snow anyway, so we weren't missing much. On Sunday, we were all a bit under the weather, but when I checked the Lost Trail snow phone and found out 8 new inches had fallen at at a temperature of 5 degrees, I had to shake off the cobwebs and head out for a couple hours of powder. <BR> <BR>We're currently at the western edge of that big mass of cold air that will eventually move east, but it pushed its way into western Montana overnight Saturday, dropping valley temperatures from the 20s to the single digits. As I headed up the pass this morning, the temperature actually rose a few degrees, so I knew a temperature inversion was taking place. I was wondering if single digit temperatures would keep some skiers away, but the amount of cars in the parking lot at the start of the day seemed about average (by Lost Trail standards at least). <BR> <BR>When I checked out the consistency of the new snow, I was surprised that it wasn't quite as light as I'd expected. It was still very light, maybe 5-6% H2O, but I thought it might be like some of that stuff we get in northern Vermont sometimes that blows away if you look at it cross-eyed. Still, with only 8 inches, it was probably going to be better skiing if it provided some resistance. I decided for once that I'd try for fresh tracks down one of the steep chutes above Femur Ridge, since I usually head for other stuff first on a powder day. I headed to Slides, and was probably the third person there. The skiing was great, but the 8 inches of powder did little to change it from simply skiing the packed snow underneath. I then headed down and jumped off Femur Ridge into the bowl, and found similar conditions. I was actually hoping for a little cushion of powder on my landing in the bowl, but I went right through to the packed snow below and almost lost it. <BR> <BR>There were plenty of bumps and snow contours on most of the trails, so I decided to see how the edges of the groomed runs skied with the new powder. I hit Meadow Run/Southern Comfort, and things were a little better, but still far from bottomless. I figured it was time to try Moose Creek and see what the new snow had done there. Moose Creek certainly delivered, and taking the right side of the standard entrance delivered bottomless turns, although there had been a lot of traffic in the underlying snow and it still required constant attention. <BR> <BR>For my final run, I decided to head down to Chair 3, which I expected to have very little traffic. I opted to take the big open woods shot between Main Street and Side Street, and found more bottomless powder, as good or better than Moose Creek. I was even rewarded with a big fat face shot near the end. Now THAT was a great way to end the morning! <BR> <BR>So, overall, the best powder turns I found were on Moose Creek and the Side Street trees, although I bet that a lot of the less-traveled woods have great snow as well. The base depth is now up to 74 inches, so hopefully Chair 4 will be opening soon and we can get into Hollywood Bowl and the other great terrain on Saddle Mountain. <BR> <BR>J.Spin