Lost Trail Powder Mountain, MT 11NOV03

Jay Silveira · Nov 17, 2003

I forgot to cross-post my SkiVT-L trip report last week, but hopefully this will help to update folks on western Montana conditions. Since my report we've had another system come in, and things are looking good for continued moisture. ------------------------------------------------ It's funny, but many years, my first day of skiing just sort of sneaks up on me. Whether it's waiting for Killington to blow the whistle and finally open the runs, or the surprise snowstorm that hits the mountains in October. This year, circumstances came together again, rather suddenly, to get me out on the slopes. Much like last year, we got a big October cold spell in Western Montana, where low temperatures dipped down to the single digits even in the valley for many days. We also got a touch of snow (~1/2 inch) which actually hung around on the ground for a change due to the cold temperatures. After a bit of a lull, the next storm system came in this week, and it was enough to convince me to get out on the skis. When I headed into work on Tuesday, I checked the SNOTEL report for Saddle Mountain up at Lost Trail Pass, and found that the snow depth had jumped about 10 inches overnight. The 9:00 A.M. report had the snow up to 16.3 inches, and based on the heavy rain that was coming down in the valley, it was still increasing. I was happy to see this, figuring we’d get off to a much better start than we did last year (Lost Trail didn’t open until Christmas) but I wanted to get some work done in the lab and forgot about it for a bit. Sometime between 1:00 and 2:00 P.M., I headed home to grab lunch, and as it continued to pour outside, an all too familiar feeling came over me. I felt like I should go skiing. E and I had just trimmed our new skins for the CMH fat skis over the weekend, and the skis were just sitting there at the door doing nothing. The kicker on the deal was that it was technically a holiday (Veteran’s Day) which I have off, so I decided to make a little use of it. As I loaded up the car, some snow began to mix in with the pouring rain; this had to be an omen. The snow mixed in and out in Hamilton (3,560’) and the temperature was 40 F. However, by the time I crested a hill south of town (~3,700’) the temperature had dropped to 37 F, and the mixture changed over to all snow. This snow was coming down really heavily, and by the time I reached the town of Darby, I pulled over into a gas station and swapped out the summer wiper blades for the winter ones. I could see the snow already building up in the holes of the summer blades, and I didn’t want to take any chances as I got further down the road. It took just a couple of minutes to change the blades, but the snow was coming down so hard that my hands were soaked and frozen by the time I was done. I’m sure this is the kind of stuff that makes most people hate winter, but for me, the joy of winter more than outweighs these sorts of minor inconveniences. The snow fell heavily for about another 15 minutes, but buy the time I approached the pass, it had let up, and I could actually see some holes of blue sky. This was surprising, but I knew snow had fallen up there according to the SNOTEL. When I hit the top of the pass (7,000’) no snow was falling, but the snowbanks were a few feet high and I could tell that a lot had come down. I could see that the road into the Lost Trail parking lot had been plowed to some degree, but there was a 2-foot snowbank blocking the entrance. I got out and confirmed that the road itself had about 3-4 inches of new snow since the last plowing, and then decided to blast through the bank and head up. The Forester had no problem (I bet the blasting of the snowbank would have been cool on video) getting through and up the road, and I even had to blast through a second larger bank to get all the way to the lot. Once there, I found that the lot was nicely plowed, but a sign indicated that part of the lot was closed to use. A guy was running a big front loader, working on plowing the lot in my area, so I asked him where I could park that would be out of his way. He didn’t seem to keen on my being there, and said that they’d be all over the place so I should park back down by the highway. This would add an extra 20-30 minutes onto my hike, and parking down on the highway wasn’t exactly what I wanted to do with all the snow plows clearing the pass, but it seemed my only option. After a few minutes of searching, I found what would hopefully be a safe location where I wouldn’t get plowed in, and parked it. My skins were already set on my skis, so I just got my gear on and went. Now that I was walking, I could get a good feel for the snow depth. There were about two feet of snow by the road, and as I headed into the trees, it dropped to around 1 foot. There wasn’t much in the way of base, but I wasn’t hitting any rocks or other debris, so I continued on. The skinning was easy, although glide was non-existent. I’m not sure if this is a function of full-width fat skins, or deep powder. Either way, there was certainly no slippage as I got on some steeper terrain. The scariest part of the hike was when I had to head up a steep embankment that made up the edge of the parking lot. I would occasionally hear the “whoomph” sound of settling snow underfoot, and even though I was basically on the edge of a parking lot with only 50 feet of slope, it still sent a chill up my spine. Fortunately I wasn’t going to be going anywhere near avalanche terrain today. Once I’d reached the base lodge, I spotted some tracks heading up one of the green trails, and was greatly relieved. The snow wasn’t all that heavy, but breaking trail through two feet of powder had been a chore. My pace quickened once I got on top of the old tracks (even though they were footprints) but the light of day was starting to fade. I made it up to the last pitch of South Face by around 5:00 P.M., and had little choice but to head down due to the oncoming darkness. I had heard horror stories about ripping off fat skins, but they weren’t actually all that bad, and soon I was back in my skis and ready for my hard earned run. The pitch of the slope I was going to ski was actually in the range of single black, which I hoped would be enough pitch to keep going in the deep snow. I started out before the pitch steepened and all my skis wanted to do was submarine. I really had to sit back to get above the snow, and I was still at a crawl. Only in the very steepest part of the pitch did I manage to squiggle out a few turns. It was nice, but a lot of work. I knew my turns were done when I neared the bottom, my skis tilted forward a bit, and I found myself stuck in snow up to my waist. Oh well, even if the turns weren’t the best, I got to get out on the snow and got a good workout from the hike. Certainly my deepest first day ever, although far from my best first day turns. But it sure beat going to the gym for the day.

Although there were a few rolls, my traverse back to the car was generally downhill, and with the skins off, my skis felt like they were freshly waxed. Within a few minutes I was back at the car, happy to see that it had not been plowed in or towed away. It was now basically dark, and the only action was that of a delivery truck that was trying to drive up to the Lost Trail parking lot and got stuck. As I packed up, I witnessed the driver struggling, but getting nowhere. Finally, one of the snow plow operators pulled him out. I’m not sure why a delivery would be going on at that time of the night at a closed area, but at least he got out OK. So, another first day of skiing is in the books, and hopefully many more will be on the way. If the base at Lost Trail keeps building up, we should be able to open much earlier than last year. I got a few pictures from the outing which can be found at: <A HREF="http://www.JandEproductions.com/2003/11NOV03.html" TARGET="_top">http://www.JandEproductions.com/2003/11NOV03.html</A> J.Spin

hamdog · Nov 17, 2003

some people will do anything to get thier first fix of the season. i hiked 5 miles up to a bowl in Hyalite Canyon just outside of bozeman awhile back. it was all dirt trail the whole way up. found a stash in a little chute. i got about 100'-200' vert in the bowl, and did it about a dozen times. then i went back a few weeks later and the hike required snowshoes(to early for my split), and man was that a workout. we got much better lines than what i had gotten before, but also hit a lot more rocks. i dropped in off this cliff and caught a rock comeing off the top of it. it threw me forward, and i could do anything but hope there was enough coverage on the landing. poof! few! JUST enough coverage. i belly flopped and hit my knees on some rocks, hit my wrist, ripped my glove and my coat in two places, but i didn't wack my face on any rocks. that was a close one. i won't ever be jumping cliffs like that in early season again. anyway, after i 'walked off' and flexed my knee a little bit we headed down ferther into the bowl. there were a couple of little chutes. i B-lined through 'em and took some nice wide open turns and threw some snow around. hit a few rocks on the way down, but a good lap overall. but dam was i beat. we rode down as much as we could until we had to hike the rest out. i took a chunk of p-tex out of my board that is about 5" long and the width of a nickle.....right down to the base. ouch! good thing it's my rock board. that's what it's for. and the next day i could barely move. sore for about 3 days. gotta whip those muscles back up into shape. sorry, no pics from my trip. i don't have a camera.

Lost Trail Powder Mountain, MT 11NOV03

Jay Silveira

New member

hamdog

New member