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Matt, just back from his trip, writes: What a great trip! We did a lot of skiing after you left us. We checked out “Flapjack”, which was bulletproof and scary up top but better down in the bowl below. It was a great tour up to the top if nothing else! However, day four was where it was at. We skied the cornice rimmed alpine bowl in the south west corner of the basin and absolutely killed it! We put in eighteen lines and never crossed a track! We dubbed this run the “Peanut Butter Bowl”. I’ve attached a few stellar picks from the trip and we’d be stoked to see them on the blog or your flicker.
With all the food names emerging for the area, I’m guessing folks are eating well up at the yurt.
Here’s his photos:
PB Bowl
Hob Knob, with Toffee Slot in the middle
PB Bowl
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Matt and Big Sky friends Matt, Izzy, Justin, and Monty booked the yurt for 4 nights. I came up to guide for day 1. It was sick. Scope the sweet shots:
Hob Knob
Toffee Slot
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two days of deep-pow lines...
staring down the gut of 'Flapjack' - 2'+ fresh, over 1,500' vert
Yesterdays Tracks = Motivation
Lance - Enjoying the White Room
Day two...
Simon, Lance, Mike, Drew and myself had an unbelievable trip to the Bell Lake Yurt last week. Each day and each run kept getting better and better. We had consistent snowfall the first couple days with bluebird on Thursday, then more snow with zero wind on the summit of Thompson Pk, and another bluebird on Friday. Each day ended better than the last and each day we woke up a little earlier to get back out - ending with one of the best runs of the year. From beef tenderloin filet, to deep untracked lines, this was one of the best weeks I’ve had for a long time. Can’t wait to get back out!
Andy
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Paul, part of the group who stayed in the yurt on the 31st, 1st, and 2nd, emailed us this yesterday: Just got down today from a great weekend, 3 stayed another night. Yurt is nice and big and comfortable. Cook stove was great. Water set up was really nice. We got a little new snow and had some fantastic skiing in both the north and south bowls as well as the run out slopes on the south shore.
Nice. Here’s some sweet shots of his trip:
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Kene of Eye in the Sky Photography, was kind enough to pass on his stellar photos from his yurt trip back in Juneuary. Below are a couple beauties. See them all on our embedded Flickr account. Thanks for your visit Kene and crew!
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Please enjoy these sick photos by Eliza Wiley of the Helena Independent Record from her yurt trip over the weekend. Her story is published here:
Thanks Eliza! Looks like you and the crew had a great time!
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It snowed pretty good in the Tobacco Roots last Wednesday. We’ve got a snow stake in the works but haven’t had a chance to get it up there yet. This weekend brought the first official start to our season, with two separate groups staying back to back Friday through Tuesday. The funny thing is that they both booked under the same last name- a divorced couple had each separately assembled a backcountry group for a stay up at the yurt, all on the same weekend! In that same group, they also recognized a lone skier skinning from his car along the road when we passed him during the snowmobile tow (this was after the Black RMK 800 offered me and Josh’s pack a nice engine coolant bath) as an old friend and backcountry guru from Missoula. It’s really a wonder when you begin to realize how small the Montana ski community is.
A quick note on South Willow Creek Road: don’t drive it past the Potosi Campground! So far, every weekend I’ve been up I’ve seen someone stuck just past the campground. The road appears drivable, and is firm and bald in lots of places and generally nasty for snowmobiling and skiing, but underneath that wind/ice layer is nothing but sugar, which is plenty deep in spots. Many of the larger wind drifts are remnants of the huge October storm and still cover the road. The weight of a car (or a red Ford truck, or a big blue van) will easily punch through and find itself high centered in a huge hole. Which segways nice a discussion on ski conditions:
Andy guided on Saturday, dug a few pits, and kept it mellow. General conditions at Bell Lake are similar to observations being made in other parts of Southwest Montana: ground facets supporting a thick consolidated layer, a scenario built by a series of weird warming trends seen this season. No naturals were observed, though local Pony resident beta informs of a large slab avalanche that went on the Northwest face of Long Mountain, in the Granite Lake Basin, around Christmas. Wind, more than anything, has been the dominating factor in keeping the alpine from filling in like it should. Of course, all that blown snow has to land somewhere: one of Andy’s pits, dug in a protected area, measured 200cms deep.
Talking with others, there seems to be general agreement that while deep instability does exist on slopes with a decent snowpack depth, it is going to take some serious weight to trigger, while thin cover bony slopes offering the “facet garden” scenario offer greater risk for propagation, the subsequent “bridge of consolidation” being less supportive. And of course, wind slabs are also definitely worth worrying about.
In the end, we need the snow to start dumping in vertical rather than blowing in sideways. Hopefully February is the ticket. I’m looking forward to hear soon from the groups who have been up so far, and will definitely be posting any photos received from them. Big thanks to Josh, Holly, and Cary(sp) for offering up your water for the snowmobile and generally being great sports about the whole thing.
Here’s some more yurt photos:
