J.Spin
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Additional pictures from the day are available through the link at the bottom of the report.
With the southerly flow from an approaching Pacific storm system, Saturday was quite warm, and the temperature at our house in the valley (3,590?) was near 60 degrees F. I checked on the readings from the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL, and found that the temperature had even reached as high as 44.1 degrees F at 7,940? in the Lost Trail area. At times the rain had come down furiously in the valley, and I doubted that such warm conditions and likely liquid precipitation would bode well for the snow surface at Lost Trail. There was a winter storm warning up for the Bitterroots, and while the precipitation did eventually change over to snow at some point in the night, the mountain only reported 3 inches of accumulation (very close to the 3.3 inches indicated by the SNOTEL). The snow depth at the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL site was 83.7 inches after the new snowfall, which is slightly down from the highest reading of the season, 87.3 inches of depth on March 10th. It will be interesting to see if any further gains in snowpack depth can be attained at the elevation of the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL now that we?re heading into April. I know that in Vermont (thanks to the great data set available at the SkiVT-L website), the average Mt. Mansfield snowpack at 3,900? typically starts to fall off after the last week of March, but I?m not sure about the Lost Trail area. The most useful data I found from the SNOTEL page suggests that the snow water equivalent at the Saddle Mountain site typically peaks around the third week of April, but I?m not sure how this relates to the actual depth of the snowpack since it may not give information on snow consolidation.
The Sunday morning report from Lost Trail indicated a temperature of 23 degrees F, so we were hopeful that some of the new snow was at least a little drier than mashed potatoes. The base snow was obviously not going to be optimal with the warming and refreezing, but we wouldn?t quite know the condition until we got on it. The forecast called for highs at 7,000? around 30-40 degrees F, and although there was the chance for as much as 2 to 5 inches of new snow along with winds of 10-20 mph, we knew it would be fine to take Dylan out in those conditions. With the storm flaps down on the child carrier, he?s well protected and air temperature is our only major concern.
We left Hamilton under partly sunny skies, but soon ran into clouds and light snowfall as we drove toward the pass. The parking lot was only about 1/3 full at 10:00 A.M., a sign of the usual fall off in skier visits as spring approaches. The beauty of skiing at this time of year is that the lodge is very sparsely populated, and getting a place to sit down and stow one?s stuff is easy. One of the downsides to fewer skiers is often less lift options, and that was the case on Sunday. All the lifts were running except Chair 1, which meant that we had to use Chair 2 to access everything on the main mountain. Normally this wouldn?t be such a big deal, but with Ty, it meant it would take longer to get over to Chairs 3 through 5.
We headed down Drifter to get to Chair 2, and something was immediately obvious: Spring had finally come to Lost Trail. The refrozen base snow was probably the hardest overall surface I?ve skied all year at any of the places I?ve visited. Up to this point in the season, I don?t think Lost Trail has really had any major thaws. I think there may have been some minor episodes above freezing at Lost Trail this season, but they were nothing that wasn?t quickly covered up by a nice new layer of deep snow (at least before I had a chance to get out on the hill). Even my days in Vermont and Utah were powder and packed powder conditions. But, that?s the way it goes with skiing in spring; winter snow conditions don?t last forever. Compounding the hard base conditions was the fact that the Drifter trail has mostly southern exposure, so the sun had already cooked the new snow and thickened it up. It was interesting to see Ty struggle more than usual on the hard surface and tracked up wet snow. This was probably the first time he?d encountered such conditions since he?s been under his own power on skis. When we finally reached some groomed terrain, I was struck by how much easier the skiing was for Ty. I hadn?t always noticed a huge difference in Ty?s skiing when he?d switch between groomed and non-groomed surfaces, but Sunday?s conditions definitely showed the benefits that groomed snow can provide.
We headed up Chair 2, and based on the conditions we?d encountered on Drifter, we definitely wanted to head to something that was out of the sun. So, we took North Bowl, and while the base snow was still hard because of the refreeze, the new snow was somewhat drier. We then headed up Chair 5, and I decided that we should try the Bear Claw Ridge trail, since it is the most north facing and well protected of the main trails. Well, one run there was more than enough. Even though the trail was protected from the sun, people had really chopped up the snow on the last steep pitch, so it was a crunchy, chunky, icy mess with pockets of snow thrown around. I?d categorize the steep part of the trail as a dark blue or single black pitch, but the narrowness of the trail (probably 30-40 feet wide) adds to its complexity. Ty had skied the Bear Claw Ridge trail before, but definitely not under such nasty conditions. After a couple of turns on the steep icy pitch, he asked Mom to help him (which essentially meant skiing between her legs and having her support most of his weight), but Mom convinced him he could ski it, and he did. I?m not sure if he realized it (nor did I at the time), but under the conditions, it was probably one of the most challenging pitches he?s conquered this season. So, even though chunky, icy snow may not be the most fun stuff to ski, it certainly gave Ty a new challenge to step up to.
After skiing the Bear Claw Ridge trail, we caught Chair 5 again, and this time took an interesting route. Just as the Raven Trail is essentially a cat track that heads off to the skier?s right of Chair 5, a similar trail exists off the skier?s left of the chair. I?m not actually sure what the trail is called, because I?ve never heard of a name for it, nor is it listed on any of the Lost Trail maps. But, it actually feeds two intermediate trails on the north side of the Bear Claw Ridge that are named on the most recent maps: Ice Tea and Bill?s Bluff. Traditionally, I?ve hit these trails after traversing across the top of the Bear Claw Ridge, dropping off the small cornices, and hitting the big snowfield. But, with the addition of Chair 5, you can get to these trails more easily. Technically, this will mean more traffic and less untracked snow overall, but I still think these trails are used relatively sparsely because they are out of the way, and you can?t use them to return to Chair 5. With this route consisting of entirely north-facing terrain, I figured we had to give it a shot. We took the traverse and opted for Bill?s Bluff, the first of the two trails. It?s a bit less steep than Ice Tea, so it seemed like a good choice for Ty. Although the trail wasn?t groomed, the new powder was again noticeably lighter than snow on other aspects of the mountain, and Ty handled it easily. We then made our way down to Chair 4. Along the way, Ty got up on some of the banks on the side of the trails and jumped off. The banks he typically jumps off are sloped and only about a foot high, but Ty enjoys it and it really lets him work on accommodating more dramatic terrain changes.
Dylan had been sleeping in the child carrier for much of the morning, but it was only a matter of time before he would wake up and want to eat. Knowing this, I wasn?t planning on any Chair 4 runs for the time being. A typical Chair 4 run takes a while with Ty, and then there?s a long process to get back to the main base where our food was stored. But, as Ty led the way down Candy Stick, he ended up heading to the base of Chair 4, and naturally assumed that was the way to go (being the first lift that he saw). Instead of trying to convince Ty to head over to Chair 3 (and making the walk), I figured we could head all the way to the top and take Oreo. I thought it would be nice to head to Elk Basin with Ty, since the snow in there is well protected from the sun, but as we were loading onto the lift, Ty indicated he was getting hungry. This meant that we needed to make our way to the lodge as soon as possible, so taking Oreo all the way to the base was the logical option. I?ve tended to avoid taking Oreo with Ty, since it requires a few minutes of hiking at the start of the run, and then there?s a long flat area as one crosses from the top of Chair 4 back to the main mountain. If Ty can?t do the whole hike himself (and he hasn?t been able to do it so far) it can mean multiple trips between carrying Ty and carrying skis. Happily, with Mom along as well, we were able to accomplish the hike in a single trip. Mom carried Ty, and I was able to strategically place all three pairs of skis over my shoulders and in my arms so that they could be carried. It was a surprisingly smooth process. We recently overheard one of the employees talking about plans to put a platter lift or rope tow up there, which will make skiing Oreo easier for everyone.
The light snow that had been falling throughout the morning was giving way to blue sky, and we?d been amazed at how hot it felt when the late March sun showed its face. Fortunately, even with some sun, the air up at the 8,200? elevation was brisk, and a nice breeze really made it feel like winter again. As we crested the top of Oreo and slid our way through the first flat section, I could see that many of the posts separating the edge of the trail from the snowmobile traffic zone were almost buried. A couple of them were at the exact level of the snowpack, and just looked like a small circle of wood embedded in the snow. It was kind of neat to catch the snowpack at just the same height as the posts. I?ve never actually seen what the posts look like without any snow, but since we were very close to the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL station which was reporting about 7 feet of settled snowpack, they must be close to that height. We played around in the powder off to the skier?s right of the trail, and used some of the remaining posts as gates to make some slalom turns. Ty did really well at this, until he decided to try going over one of the posts instead of around it, and found out that it didn?t quite work. The best part about the top of Oreo was the snow quality. There was a major difference in the skiing above 8,000?. The hard base was absent, and the new powder was the driest we?d encountered all day. We caught some great powder turns as we hit the first steep pitch of Oreo, and it was hard to believe that the snow was so great on a pitch that faced almost directly south. It clearly demonstrated what elevation can do for snow quality.
Mom helped Ty through the long flat section of Oreo below the peak, while I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of the tracks we?d left in the best snow of the day. As we approached the first hairpin turn of Oreo, we all cut through the trees for a little more powder, then we made our way down to the Bear Claw Ridge. We took the skier?s left option of lower Oreo, which I chose without even thinking. It wasn?t groomed, and even though we?d only dropped about 600 feet in elevation, the south facing snow was quite thick compared to what we?d just found near the Chair 4 summit. Ty had a difficult time in the heavy ungroomed snow, especially since he was hungry and getting tired. E pointed out that we should have taken the groomed branch of Lower Oreo on the skier?s right, but it hadn?t even entered my mind as option. In my typical thinking, that branch was generally there for hiking up to the Bear Claw Ridge, not for actually skiing. But, it was obvious that was the branch we should have taken, I think I?d even remembered to take it way back when I?d tried Oreo with Ty before. Well, Ty made it down with a lot of help from Mom, and soon we were back at the lodge for lunch.
After lunch, we asked Ty if he wanted to go home, or if he wanted to ski some more, and he indicated that he wanted to ski. So, we headed back down to Chair 2, this time taking the easier option to the skier?s left of Drifter. I turns out this trail actually has its own name: on the map it?s labeled ?B-2?. I?m not sure what that means, but maybe it has something to do with its proximity to the Bunny Hill. E said that she uses this route with her beginner students when they come up on class ski trips, because it bypasses the steeper part of Drifter. For the most part, the snow was still thick and sticky over a firm base, but at the last corner of B-2 and the bottom of Chair 2, some corn snow had actually formed. What a pleasant difference the corn snow was from the rest of the snow surfaces in the area; I wished we could find more of it. From the top of Chair 2, we took the usual easy route down to Southern Comfort, where Ty got to watch some racers training on slalom gates. E noted that Ty was getting tired again, so we took one more run on North Bowl, then hit the lodge to pack up our stuff and head home. The Avocet indicated that Ty did 7 runs for a total of 5,935? vertical, which was very similar to last week. He seems to be fine with this amount of skiing now, which is well up from what he could handle just a few months ago at the beginning of the season. Hopefully he can get a couple more days of lift-serviced skiing before the lifts close and we have to start hiking for turns. Lost Trail has a planned closing date of April 2nd, so we may have only one more weekend of lift-serviced turns there.
Additional pictures from the day can be found at:
http://jandeproductions.com/2006/26MAR06.html
J.Spin
With the southerly flow from an approaching Pacific storm system, Saturday was quite warm, and the temperature at our house in the valley (3,590?) was near 60 degrees F. I checked on the readings from the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL, and found that the temperature had even reached as high as 44.1 degrees F at 7,940? in the Lost Trail area. At times the rain had come down furiously in the valley, and I doubted that such warm conditions and likely liquid precipitation would bode well for the snow surface at Lost Trail. There was a winter storm warning up for the Bitterroots, and while the precipitation did eventually change over to snow at some point in the night, the mountain only reported 3 inches of accumulation (very close to the 3.3 inches indicated by the SNOTEL). The snow depth at the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL site was 83.7 inches after the new snowfall, which is slightly down from the highest reading of the season, 87.3 inches of depth on March 10th. It will be interesting to see if any further gains in snowpack depth can be attained at the elevation of the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL now that we?re heading into April. I know that in Vermont (thanks to the great data set available at the SkiVT-L website), the average Mt. Mansfield snowpack at 3,900? typically starts to fall off after the last week of March, but I?m not sure about the Lost Trail area. The most useful data I found from the SNOTEL page suggests that the snow water equivalent at the Saddle Mountain site typically peaks around the third week of April, but I?m not sure how this relates to the actual depth of the snowpack since it may not give information on snow consolidation.
The Sunday morning report from Lost Trail indicated a temperature of 23 degrees F, so we were hopeful that some of the new snow was at least a little drier than mashed potatoes. The base snow was obviously not going to be optimal with the warming and refreezing, but we wouldn?t quite know the condition until we got on it. The forecast called for highs at 7,000? around 30-40 degrees F, and although there was the chance for as much as 2 to 5 inches of new snow along with winds of 10-20 mph, we knew it would be fine to take Dylan out in those conditions. With the storm flaps down on the child carrier, he?s well protected and air temperature is our only major concern.
We left Hamilton under partly sunny skies, but soon ran into clouds and light snowfall as we drove toward the pass. The parking lot was only about 1/3 full at 10:00 A.M., a sign of the usual fall off in skier visits as spring approaches. The beauty of skiing at this time of year is that the lodge is very sparsely populated, and getting a place to sit down and stow one?s stuff is easy. One of the downsides to fewer skiers is often less lift options, and that was the case on Sunday. All the lifts were running except Chair 1, which meant that we had to use Chair 2 to access everything on the main mountain. Normally this wouldn?t be such a big deal, but with Ty, it meant it would take longer to get over to Chairs 3 through 5.
We headed down Drifter to get to Chair 2, and something was immediately obvious: Spring had finally come to Lost Trail. The refrozen base snow was probably the hardest overall surface I?ve skied all year at any of the places I?ve visited. Up to this point in the season, I don?t think Lost Trail has really had any major thaws. I think there may have been some minor episodes above freezing at Lost Trail this season, but they were nothing that wasn?t quickly covered up by a nice new layer of deep snow (at least before I had a chance to get out on the hill). Even my days in Vermont and Utah were powder and packed powder conditions. But, that?s the way it goes with skiing in spring; winter snow conditions don?t last forever. Compounding the hard base conditions was the fact that the Drifter trail has mostly southern exposure, so the sun had already cooked the new snow and thickened it up. It was interesting to see Ty struggle more than usual on the hard surface and tracked up wet snow. This was probably the first time he?d encountered such conditions since he?s been under his own power on skis. When we finally reached some groomed terrain, I was struck by how much easier the skiing was for Ty. I hadn?t always noticed a huge difference in Ty?s skiing when he?d switch between groomed and non-groomed surfaces, but Sunday?s conditions definitely showed the benefits that groomed snow can provide.
We headed up Chair 2, and based on the conditions we?d encountered on Drifter, we definitely wanted to head to something that was out of the sun. So, we took North Bowl, and while the base snow was still hard because of the refreeze, the new snow was somewhat drier. We then headed up Chair 5, and I decided that we should try the Bear Claw Ridge trail, since it is the most north facing and well protected of the main trails. Well, one run there was more than enough. Even though the trail was protected from the sun, people had really chopped up the snow on the last steep pitch, so it was a crunchy, chunky, icy mess with pockets of snow thrown around. I?d categorize the steep part of the trail as a dark blue or single black pitch, but the narrowness of the trail (probably 30-40 feet wide) adds to its complexity. Ty had skied the Bear Claw Ridge trail before, but definitely not under such nasty conditions. After a couple of turns on the steep icy pitch, he asked Mom to help him (which essentially meant skiing between her legs and having her support most of his weight), but Mom convinced him he could ski it, and he did. I?m not sure if he realized it (nor did I at the time), but under the conditions, it was probably one of the most challenging pitches he?s conquered this season. So, even though chunky, icy snow may not be the most fun stuff to ski, it certainly gave Ty a new challenge to step up to.
After skiing the Bear Claw Ridge trail, we caught Chair 5 again, and this time took an interesting route. Just as the Raven Trail is essentially a cat track that heads off to the skier?s right of Chair 5, a similar trail exists off the skier?s left of the chair. I?m not actually sure what the trail is called, because I?ve never heard of a name for it, nor is it listed on any of the Lost Trail maps. But, it actually feeds two intermediate trails on the north side of the Bear Claw Ridge that are named on the most recent maps: Ice Tea and Bill?s Bluff. Traditionally, I?ve hit these trails after traversing across the top of the Bear Claw Ridge, dropping off the small cornices, and hitting the big snowfield. But, with the addition of Chair 5, you can get to these trails more easily. Technically, this will mean more traffic and less untracked snow overall, but I still think these trails are used relatively sparsely because they are out of the way, and you can?t use them to return to Chair 5. With this route consisting of entirely north-facing terrain, I figured we had to give it a shot. We took the traverse and opted for Bill?s Bluff, the first of the two trails. It?s a bit less steep than Ice Tea, so it seemed like a good choice for Ty. Although the trail wasn?t groomed, the new powder was again noticeably lighter than snow on other aspects of the mountain, and Ty handled it easily. We then made our way down to Chair 4. Along the way, Ty got up on some of the banks on the side of the trails and jumped off. The banks he typically jumps off are sloped and only about a foot high, but Ty enjoys it and it really lets him work on accommodating more dramatic terrain changes.
Dylan had been sleeping in the child carrier for much of the morning, but it was only a matter of time before he would wake up and want to eat. Knowing this, I wasn?t planning on any Chair 4 runs for the time being. A typical Chair 4 run takes a while with Ty, and then there?s a long process to get back to the main base where our food was stored. But, as Ty led the way down Candy Stick, he ended up heading to the base of Chair 4, and naturally assumed that was the way to go (being the first lift that he saw). Instead of trying to convince Ty to head over to Chair 3 (and making the walk), I figured we could head all the way to the top and take Oreo. I thought it would be nice to head to Elk Basin with Ty, since the snow in there is well protected from the sun, but as we were loading onto the lift, Ty indicated he was getting hungry. This meant that we needed to make our way to the lodge as soon as possible, so taking Oreo all the way to the base was the logical option. I?ve tended to avoid taking Oreo with Ty, since it requires a few minutes of hiking at the start of the run, and then there?s a long flat area as one crosses from the top of Chair 4 back to the main mountain. If Ty can?t do the whole hike himself (and he hasn?t been able to do it so far) it can mean multiple trips between carrying Ty and carrying skis. Happily, with Mom along as well, we were able to accomplish the hike in a single trip. Mom carried Ty, and I was able to strategically place all three pairs of skis over my shoulders and in my arms so that they could be carried. It was a surprisingly smooth process. We recently overheard one of the employees talking about plans to put a platter lift or rope tow up there, which will make skiing Oreo easier for everyone.
The light snow that had been falling throughout the morning was giving way to blue sky, and we?d been amazed at how hot it felt when the late March sun showed its face. Fortunately, even with some sun, the air up at the 8,200? elevation was brisk, and a nice breeze really made it feel like winter again. As we crested the top of Oreo and slid our way through the first flat section, I could see that many of the posts separating the edge of the trail from the snowmobile traffic zone were almost buried. A couple of them were at the exact level of the snowpack, and just looked like a small circle of wood embedded in the snow. It was kind of neat to catch the snowpack at just the same height as the posts. I?ve never actually seen what the posts look like without any snow, but since we were very close to the Saddle Mountain SNOTEL station which was reporting about 7 feet of settled snowpack, they must be close to that height. We played around in the powder off to the skier?s right of the trail, and used some of the remaining posts as gates to make some slalom turns. Ty did really well at this, until he decided to try going over one of the posts instead of around it, and found out that it didn?t quite work. The best part about the top of Oreo was the snow quality. There was a major difference in the skiing above 8,000?. The hard base was absent, and the new powder was the driest we?d encountered all day. We caught some great powder turns as we hit the first steep pitch of Oreo, and it was hard to believe that the snow was so great on a pitch that faced almost directly south. It clearly demonstrated what elevation can do for snow quality.
Mom helped Ty through the long flat section of Oreo below the peak, while I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of the tracks we?d left in the best snow of the day. As we approached the first hairpin turn of Oreo, we all cut through the trees for a little more powder, then we made our way down to the Bear Claw Ridge. We took the skier?s left option of lower Oreo, which I chose without even thinking. It wasn?t groomed, and even though we?d only dropped about 600 feet in elevation, the south facing snow was quite thick compared to what we?d just found near the Chair 4 summit. Ty had a difficult time in the heavy ungroomed snow, especially since he was hungry and getting tired. E pointed out that we should have taken the groomed branch of Lower Oreo on the skier?s right, but it hadn?t even entered my mind as option. In my typical thinking, that branch was generally there for hiking up to the Bear Claw Ridge, not for actually skiing. But, it was obvious that was the branch we should have taken, I think I?d even remembered to take it way back when I?d tried Oreo with Ty before. Well, Ty made it down with a lot of help from Mom, and soon we were back at the lodge for lunch.
After lunch, we asked Ty if he wanted to go home, or if he wanted to ski some more, and he indicated that he wanted to ski. So, we headed back down to Chair 2, this time taking the easier option to the skier?s left of Drifter. I turns out this trail actually has its own name: on the map it?s labeled ?B-2?. I?m not sure what that means, but maybe it has something to do with its proximity to the Bunny Hill. E said that she uses this route with her beginner students when they come up on class ski trips, because it bypasses the steeper part of Drifter. For the most part, the snow was still thick and sticky over a firm base, but at the last corner of B-2 and the bottom of Chair 2, some corn snow had actually formed. What a pleasant difference the corn snow was from the rest of the snow surfaces in the area; I wished we could find more of it. From the top of Chair 2, we took the usual easy route down to Southern Comfort, where Ty got to watch some racers training on slalom gates. E noted that Ty was getting tired again, so we took one more run on North Bowl, then hit the lodge to pack up our stuff and head home. The Avocet indicated that Ty did 7 runs for a total of 5,935? vertical, which was very similar to last week. He seems to be fine with this amount of skiing now, which is well up from what he could handle just a few months ago at the beginning of the season. Hopefully he can get a couple more days of lift-serviced skiing before the lifts close and we have to start hiking for turns. Lost Trail has a planned closing date of April 2nd, so we may have only one more weekend of lift-serviced turns there.
Additional pictures from the day can be found at:
http://jandeproductions.com/2006/26MAR06.html
J.Spin
