Montana Escapades

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Stark Mountain Lookout - Long road, great skiing.

First time doing a video of a test pit, sorry I wasn't talking loud enough.

Northeast aspect - ~6,800ft - 190cm snowpack - March 23, 2013
ECTP 11 @ 10cm Q2
ECTP 16 @ 35cm Q1
ECTP 25 @ 65cm Q1

What a fantastic day of touring! Although the weather continued in a frequent patchy blue sky fashion, it maintained relatively good visibility. The road up to the lookout was woefully slow going as it was littered with sharp rocks keen to reek havoc on tires. Mercifully, it gave way to some snow deep enough for snowmobile usage. I was going solo on this outing and exercising extreme caution, but couldn't help notice how easy it is to ride my snowmobile without another person on.

I spent my time in less steep terrain and treed sections as the avalanche danger (video above, and pictures below) was considerable. I hope to visit Stark again before the season is out. It offers many delightful ski runs, both to the north, east, and southern aspects. Trees perfectly spread out for fast tree skiing, along with an open bowl with little cliffs for when the snow it a bit sturdier.

Stark Mountain Lookout

Helpful road signs all the way from Exit 61 from I90

Fantastic ranches along the way!

Lots of tire-shredding rocks along the way. Considered myself lucky.

Enough snow to ride, finally!

Fluff!!!

Pioneering the road.

A healthy mix of patching blue skies kept things interesting.

First sighting of the lookout.

Little snow on the steps! Unfortunately, the trap door to the lookout was locked. :*(

First failure ECTP 11 @ 10cm Q2

First failure again

Next failure ECTP 16 @ 35cm Q1

Third failure ECTP 25 @ 65cm Q1

Sticking to the treed areas.

The main bowl looked pretty inviting though, had to save it for another day.

Thanks for looking!

-Miles Granger

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Lose Horse Canyon - First of the Poverty Slides; Fantastic Skiing!

After being out for a few weeks, Mike and I took a trip up Lost Horse Canyon. Our initial intent was to ascend into the Twin Lakes area, however breaking trail through a massive amount of snow prevented "Boss Hog" (our snowmobile) from making it.

Mike and "Boss Hog"

I brought along a tow rope, but quickly realized this was a tiring activity that would no doubt exhaust my legs in a hurry. To add further pain, the road isn't groomed and had developed substantial bumps that inhibited us from going much over 15-20mph.

Forest Service Station at the turn to Twin Lakes

The forest service station offered a glimpse of the amount of wonderful snow that had accumulated in the canyon. ~3 meters @ 7,000ft. As stated, our failed attempt at breaking trail and getting to the Twin Lakes had failed. In response, we hurried over to the first of the Poverty line slides, that we eyed earlier.

The very bumpy road, and first of the Poverty slide lines to the right.

The Poverty Avalanche slide path.

Little did we know, just how great the skiing would be. We scouted all sorts of features offered by boulders and down trees. A fantastically well spent day!