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.
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. 
After the “slow” snow season we had going in winter 2009/10 it was a blessing to have it dumping when we arrived in Ymir, BC Canada just south of Nelson, BC in March. To even get to the yurt we had to get towed in approx 18 miles by snowcat and sleds. It was puking snow so at times we weighted down the sleds and just had to walk with one on the machine. Once we reached the snowcat some sit down and a ride. Since it was snowing so hard our guide and owner of Ymir Yurts Trevor Holsworth took us in a few extra miles to make sure we got in safe. We dug a pit and during the digging the column broke. Yes, fresh two feet with inches falling every hour it seemed. Once dropped off near the ridge we headed up the safest skin track and no more than 200 yards up the skin we set off a good size avalanche that almost reached the wives below. We keep heading up the route we picked and reached the ridge. Once at the ridge we skied down to the yurt and Trevor returned to the snowcat. The next couple of days we poked around yurt skiing anything we all felt was safe. Here are some of my images from that trip. Enjoy.
Dave blowing up a few turns after coming out of the trees.
The ridge line between the drop point and yurt. We mostly laps off lookers right side of the ridge.
Patrick and Dave wearing the Fuze by Mystery Ranch Backpacks checking out all the slides around us.
Patrick skinning out the ridge with his Fuze by Mystery Ranch Backpacks.
One of the large avalanches we set off from the ridge. Most were remote triggered but this broke just below us.
Laura skipping around the lower meadow below the ridge.
Dave following Patrick with his Fuze by Mystery Ranch Backpacks.
Amy finding her line down.
Jess stopping only to get her skins out of her Saddle Peak pack by Mystery Ranch Backpacks and head back up for another lap.
Dave and Patrick digging a pit.
Dave cutting with his laser powers.
Patrick clearing out the sides of the rusch block.
View towards the yurt from where we dug out snowpit. The yurt is in the middle left near the thick timber line.
Patrick skis back towards the yurt rocking his white Fuze backpack by Mystery Ranch.
Jess making it look easy and smooth with her Saddle Peak pack by Mystery Ranch Backpacks out of Bozeman, MT.
Patrick, Amy and Dave having a lunch break back at the yurt.
Dave cruising by with his Fuze backpack by Mystery Ranch on.
Drying out in sunshine.
Jess wearing the Saddle Peak pack by Mystery Ranch Backpacks and Dave with his Fuze backpack by Mystery Ranch Backpacks on the ridge looking around.
Amy, Dave and Jess relax at the yurt.
Sunset the last night from the ridge above the yurt. Can you say cross loading?
Base camp at the yurt. Next time I’m bring some oven goods!
Patrick about to ski down to the snowcat pickup spot with a nice looking Big Sky pack by Mystery Ranch of Bozeman, MT.
Patrick floating down on his DPS wailer carbon skis and his Big Sky pack by Big Sky pack by Mystery Ranch.
Dave and Jess hanging out at the pickup point. The ridge line in many of these images is the one in the upper left.
The last week of January I took some of my fellow Whitefish Powder Ninjas down to the Ski MBA Bell Lake Yurt in the Tobacco Roots near Pony, MT. It was harder than you think to get five strong skiers together in less than 10 days to go on a ski photography assignment. We wanted powder or bluebird, ended up getting 25″+ of classic fresh Montana cold smoke powder and cold temps help keep things safeish*.
Andy tows in Trevor, Dave and Erick to the trail head where we start our skin.
Dan was to eager to see how deep and soft the snow was so he decided to go jump off a rock at the trail head with no skis to see how deep it is… DEEP!
After skinning in it was time to dig a pit. Trevor and Dan check how things are layering following the storm
The next morning we got after the terrain above Bell Lake. Dan making his way down the first lap of the day. Snow report… DEEP!
Dan coming off the ridge near Peanut Bowl. Again we found really really deep snow. That’s Dan in the lower right getting a face full.
Trevor finding his way down face shot alley.
I decided to lay down on the cliff above this little chute to get a shot down on Dan as he pops off the rock into the chute. After Dan skied it I took sloppy seconds.
Trevor flying down from his line into the apron beside where Dan and I just skied. It was pick your chute for all.
Erick showing off his many years or mastering the powder ninja art. Where is he? Behind that pole plant!
Conor agrees about how deep the snow is. So deep we had issues breathing at times.
After a early dinner we headed out around 8:00 p.m. to do some night powder shots. With the help from Erick holding the flash and me at the tripod we were able to get some nice night images. Big Dave made the first turns of the night off a wind lip + flash + 6 second shutter speed + snow texture in foreground.
Trevor went second just down from Dave’s spot. I changed up the frame wanting more of a mid shot.
Conor turns after a steep start. I like how the tree feels on the left.
The next morning Dan, Trevor and I headed up first to see if we could get morning light but the clouds didn’t lift over night and it was snowing light with temps around 17 F.
Erick skinning across the lower section of Peanut Bowl with Dave and Dan in the background waiting for their turn to cross this slide path.
The group getting ready on ridge and looking for breaks in the clouds.
Conor airing off a cliff we found poking our way down to Bell Lake.
Craig, Erick, Dan, Dave, Trevor and Conor on Bell Lake during a powder day. A great place to be on a powder day!
After dinner on our last night the sky cleared so we skinned up to Bell Lake to check out our lines on the ridge and stars.
Moonlight over head and time for second dinner.
The next morning we skied out from the yurt towards Pony. This image is looking back towards Bell Lake near the saddle in the right center.
Thanks again to Andy, Kevin and the crew at Ski MBA Bell Lake Yurt!
One of our images was picked up by Mystery Ranch Backpacks of Bozeman, MT for an ad in the regional magazine Bomb Snow spring 2010 issue. The photo was taken at Whitefish Mountain Resort. These packs are top quality handmade in Bozeman. Designed by Dana Gleason who started Dana Design.
