Lost Trail Powder Mountain, MT: March 18, 2021

[ChrisC]

I headed out to the final ski area near Missoula - Lost Trail Powder Mountain. (Always have been curious where its long name came from?) This resort was also included on my Spring Indy Pass - a good purchase for resorts around the Spokane/Inland NW region.

The snowfall up at Lost Trail was significantly more than other resorts I visited - even more than Lookout Pass. The weather was more of the same for...Cloudless, temp around 20f....warming to about 50f by mid-afternoon. The place was remote. It also has a very curious layout where rope tows play an integral role in connecting parts of the mountain.

Since things were still a bit hard in the AM, I headed to the Saddle Mountain groomers.

After the groomers which were softened by the morning sun, I tried the off-piste the White House zone. Decided a north-facing run might be good, but still too early.

Therefore I decided to move to the south-facing runs served by Chair #2. Again another funky tow is required. Lots of untracked corn.

Lost Trail sometimes gets the rap as a more intermediate hill, but I did not necessarily think so. I found some decent steeps. However, they are a bit out of the flow.

Some great packed powder on the north-facing steeps here off Chair #1.

Finally, it was time to get scout the White Room chutes - specifically the ABC chutes. I think I skied A and C.

Closed out the day with a few more runs off Chair #1.

Afterwards, I had an epic drive across the state of Montana to stay with a friend in Livingston, MT. What a cool town! I understand why he lives there versus Bozeman.

 

[Tony Crocker]

The snowfall up at Lost Trail was significantly more than other resorts I visited - even more than Lookout Pass.

Lookout may get more snow but Lost Trail is 2,000+ feet higher, so surfaces are way more reliable and late season snowpack could easily be deeper.

Lost Trail sometimes gets the rap as a more intermediate hill, but I did not necessarily think so.

Tseeb and I certainly got that impression, but that's because we spent most of our day on Chair 4. Chair 4 is a 15+ minute ride for 1,800 vertical, the lower 3/4 of which is quite flat. Why were we there most of the day? There was a lot of untracked snow, a rarity during the 2014-15 season. The White Room sector has numerous short steep shots but it takes along time to lap those runs with the slow chairs. We didn't get to the chair 1&2 terrain until after 2:30PM.

I made a negative comment in another thread about Lost Trail in spring, but that's clearly due to my doing most of my Lost Trail skiing on chair 4. Chairs 1 & 2 would probably have been at least as good as what we skied at Maverick on March 5. Jackson Hot Springs where we stayed is about halfway between those two areas, but Maverick was more convenient as we were headed toward Salt Lake afterwards.