Well it’s May now and most people are mowing the yard and planting gardens. But I’m still going for my endless winter adventures of skiing year round. I’m on month 18 in a row now and its snowing today. I do plan to get back out a few more times in May.
Below are some images from a recent trip on the Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier National Park. The road is closed at Lake McDonald Lodge so T.J. and I biked up to just below the loop and headed up a run out path for some turns.
TJ biking towards the Garden Wall.
TJ riding between a massive avalanche debris path that took out tons of new trees.
The path came across two sections of the Going-to-the-Sun Road, this being the lower section.
It must have taken crews days to clean up this debris and snow from the road following this 100 year avalanche cycle. Must have been a HUGE slide.
TJ booting it up where we plan to ski.
TJ is always looking for a jib or feature to bounce off. Here he throws a grab in for good measure.
Conor asked if I wanted to come on a yurt trip with him and his Jackson Hole crew. Oh ya! I was eager to hit the trail for this April late season trip. A trip full of fresh snow, steep lines and even a backcountry rescue. Below are some images from trip.
The Jackson and Whitefish crew hanging out on the porch.
Evan and Kaci inside the main yurt.
Drying skins, boots and melting snow.
Dan reading up on the area near the Williams Peak Yurt.
Main yurt at night with heavy headlamp traffic.
Yurts with stars and only one headlamp trailing to the sauna.
Dan skinning up to the basin to play for the day.
Sam and Dan heading off to the chute Jesus Christ near Thompson Peak.
Sam and Dan in the basin.
Evan and Trevor putting skins back on to go higher.
Aric going to see if he can join Dan and Sam as they start there boot pack up J.C.
Sam and Dan booting up J.C.
Sam on top and Dan just below the top of J.C.
Sam heads down J.C. first.
Sam in J.C. with Dan looking down.
Sam opening it up below J.C. with the shadows of Thompson Peak.
Sam freeing it in the bowl.
Sam heading to another gully below J.C.
He is one tall tele skier!
Dan bombing it past his boot pack up J.C.
Dan ripping a turn below J.C. with Thompson Peak shadows.
Dan looking back at J.C. chute that he just skied.
Sun dog over Thompson Peak.
Dislocated hip at 4:00 with approx. 10 miles to the cars, plus another 60 miles to the hospital.
Thankfully we all came together at the same place and had two wilderness first responders in the crew.
It was slow going for the 8 hour backcountry rescue. Everyone pitched in and helped out our friend.
Here are a few images of the new Garmont Prophet NTN boots with touring Rottefella NTN bindings. Enjoy the sneak peak.
Tour mode.
Prophet’s moving around in a storm.
Another view of the Prophets NTN and Rottefella NTN bindings in tour mode
Looking down on the boot.
Conor showing they ski too.
They are buried under the snow, but trust me they are there.
It’s always nice to end the season strong with deep blower powder days. It’s hard to believe its the end of March, but the snow keep falling! I could ski powder year round.
Trevor freeing it in some steep side country.
Dave testing out the Canyon Creek whiteroom - CHECK.
Trev having fun in the sun.
Dean Mo flying through the WHITEROOM down First Creek.
Marni getting some pow turns in the Canyon.
Bluebird powder day! It started out with some patrol work on North Bowl Face. If you look close you can see the bamboo pole flying up after the charge goes off. Conor and I then headed over to Evans to see what it looked like after 8" fresh overnight. Conor is rocking the Scarpa T-Race boots and Bomber Tele bindings here. Nice red and white boot flying over some sluff.
Patrol work in North Bowl Face area.
Wider view of patrol work in North Bowl Face.
Conor skiing north bowl face after it opened.
Conor bumping off a rock in Evans with sluff chasing him down. Nice view of his Scarpa T-Race boots.
Conor in the whiteroom.
While at Big Sky I got to spend a night shooting with Kevin and his crew at Montana Backcountry Adventures yurt in Big Sky, Montana.
Loading up the cats at the Big Sky village.
About to head out to the yurt from the village area.
Lone Peak with the two MBA snow cats.
Kevin driving clients to the yurt.
Clients eating dinner inside the MBA Yurt at Big Sky.
The yurt and cats under the stars.