What can I say to describe how great the skiing is at Fernie, BC and they are still getting hammered with powder! After the “slow start” this winter most ski areas are filled in and its time to charge it. Here are a some day and night powder madness photos from late January. We headed up to Fernie, BC with the Bomb Snow and Mystery Ranch Backpack guys Kyle, Henry, Willie, Ryan and Rob for a week of blower powder – over 4 feet in 2 days!!! If you don’t like powder then these photos will be boring.
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Yesterday my good friend and I Sonny headed up Logan Pass for a September 1 ski day. We have skied many of days from deep December powder to icy summer stuff. This year we were blessed with 3″ of smooth butter snow! It was a great way to ski my 46th month in a row of skiing year round within 75 miles of Whitefish. Who knows what this years La Niña holds…
Looking up Bird Woman Basin in Glacier National Park.
Bird Woman Falls – all 492 feet of her with a fresh coating of snow.
Logan Pass got it’s first 3″ of snow on September 1, 2011 with the famous the Going-to-the-Sun Road in the back left.
Logan Pass visitor center with 3″ of September 1, 2011 snow.
Snow covered flowers.
Fresh snow on Logan Pass water falls.
Who’s kidding who we are skiing!
Sonny getting ready to drop in.
Skiing is believing!
Sonny in the 3″ of butter.
Time to down climb.
Flowers with snow.
Paint brush on Logan Pass.
Logan Pass finally opened Wednesday July 13, 2011 the latest we have ever had to wait for the entire Going-to-the-Sun Road to open. It took road crews longer than normal following our epic winter snow pack and cool snowy spring in Northwest Montana. As always its wild to see all the tourist in flip flops playing in the snow. We headed up for some July skiing and hit 44 months in a row of skiing year round within 75 miles of the Flathead Valley.
Snowy Logan Pass with the upper section of Going-to-the-Sun Road in the middle left.
High Line trail and Going-to-the-Sun Road.
The Going-to-the-Sun Road has 30 foot high snow banks in sections.
Lunch spot with my Mystery Ranch Snapdragon.
The Whitefish crew farming up the pass.
I just got back from a week in Big Sky, Montana. The weather gave us a little bit of everything from sub zero temps, 90+ mph winds to dead calm bluebird powder days off the tram. I meet up with two local good friends Joe Turner and Brad Biolo for a few days of telemark madness at Big Sky Resort and a sunset tour in the Beehive and Middle Basin.
Skier Joe Turner’s images from Big Sky and the Beehive Basin area. Turner is sponsored by Mystery Ranch Backpacks, Icelantic skis, Bern Helmets, AEVS, Zeal Optics, Columbia, Leki, Swany, Dry Guy, Crash Pads, Core Concepts and Ski Southwest Montana.
JOE! you’re a tiger… no a snow leopard!
Joe and Brad booting.
Mystery Ranch Backpacks (L to R) Fuze, Saddle Peak and Snapdragon.
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Images of Brad skiing Big Sky Resort and the Beehive Basin.
Brad, Kaya & Amy skinning.
Brad & Joe.
Brad breaks off a 2 foot slab and goes for a ride over the cliffs, he pointed it and rode it out! It got my heart racing!
Kyle Taylor was in town for a few days over Christmas and we skied the resort and hiked some. Zak Anderson with Montana Ski Company came along the day we skied Skookoleel to Seven Sisters. We had some great weather during the holiday season at Whitefish Mountain Resort “Big Mtn” Oh and some great side country access.
Kyle making some big turns in the soft snow.
Kyle booting up Hellroaring.
Kyle digging through the new Blackjack pack by Mystery Ranch.
Dropping in Hellroaring.
Zak coming down Skookoleel.
Kyle at the bottom of Skookoleel before the Seven Sisters.
Zak heading down one of the Seven Sisters.
Zak loves those race poles. They freak me out.
Cool top sheet on Zak’s Skookoleel skis.
Kyle debating left or right… and a close up of the Blackjack without the top.
Kyle headed left.
Zak poking around on the of the Seven Sisters.
Zak checking his line.
Kyle gets the grab for good measure.
Get some Kyle!
Last June Dan, Jason and I headed out to bike, hike and ski Divide Mountain. The summit is on the boarder of Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. We were planning on skiing the north face of the mountain but the snow pack didn’t hold up to much so we skied the chutes on the northeast side back towards the plains. Divide Mountain is so named for a couple reasons, its summit exactly straddles the border between Glacier National Park and the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and partly due to the rather unusual division (or dividing) of ownership and management of the mountain itself. The Blackfeet Nation owns and manages, 25.89% of the mountain; the U.S. Forest Service manages 50.0% and the National Park Service manages 24.11%.
Getting ready at the truck. We decided not to ride our bikes since the mud was so thick.
Jason working his way up towards the ridge.
Jason gets another layer on before heading out to scout our line.
Jason checking out what’s below this roll over.
Jason and I went higher up to see what we could ski towards the north east.
Jason goes up the ridge searching for a ski line.
We scrambled up the ridge towards the summit but since the snow was so thin on the north side we turned around and skied the northeast side.
Divide Mountain’s summit, the north face is on lookers right. We skied the east side.
Jason and I head back to the old lookout to find Dan before dropping in. It’s pretty cool looking out from Divide Mountain and seeing miles of flat land.
Jason and Dan get geared up before heading out to ski down Divide Mtn.
Dan making some turns in the lower open area below the lookout.
Dan goes flying by towards the plains. The next set of hills are some 2,000 miles east towards New England.
Our ski lines in the lower open section below the Northeast side of Divide Mtn.
Dan and Jason make their way back towards the truck after skiing Divide Mtn.
A few of my Mystery Ranch Backpacks and gear dry off in the front yard after I hosed the mud off them following our June ski. 
