Roaring Fork Tour

Touring the Roaring Fork via Boulder Creek
Popo Agie Wilderness Area, Shoshone NF
January 28th, 2007

A view of Windriver peak early in the morning, from above Frye Lake.

Got up early to take a stab at making my way into Leg Lake, and possibly a couloir up there. It's tricky finding the route up there in the summer, so I wasn't too ambitious about how far I'd actually get in the dead of winter. I figured turns would be a bonus, if they happened.

A view of the Leg Lake cirque from Roaring Fork lake.

I've had lots of practice getting this far in the winter time. Finding the route at the end of the lake proved to be harder than I thought though. I ended up following a drainage too far to left, too far up (probably Boulder Creek). Before I knew it, I was skinning up boulder fields. Yuck!

Literally what I skinned through for about an hour. Up and down.

Once I figured out my goof, I started climbing over a mountain, hoping I could find an easy way to drop back down into the Roaring Fork and one of it's meadows. Then maybe I could get back on track. Climbing the mountain worked, but it it wasn't easy. Nothing but boulders both ways.

Finally down in the first meadow on the Roaring Fork. This would be as close as I would get today. I started skinning at 8:00am. It was 11:00am when I got here. I blew two hours climbing a mountain of boulders that I didn't need to. Yikes- I would need those hours if I wanted to ski anything up there, and that was provided I didn't take any more detours, which was still easy to do with the 3 miles in front of me. I blew it. Decided to abort. Oh well. Have to try it again some other time. Next time I bet I'll be able to get this far at least, with no problems.

Time to point the skis back down my track.

Looking back on the Leg Lake Cirque and my track over Roaring Fork lake.

Nice foot of snow I had to plow through the whole time too. It was fun gliding back down the track though.

The only line I would get this day.

The day before Tally and I had another nice ski. We conquered the switchbacks- all the way to the top!

Seeya later!

Tally's Sick Day

Tally's Sick Day
Wind River Mountains, Shoshone NF
January 24th, 2007

Tally gets ready for some serious skiing.

After ralphing her brains out the night before, and a trip to the emergency room- Tallulah slept like a log all night long (or what was left of it). After a night like that, we didn't think daycare would be a option the following day. Mom elected me to stay home with Tallulah for the day. Here's what she gets...

Headed up the trail with Tallulah in tow.

After a great morning of holding down fluids and food, Tally seemed back to normal. No temp, all smiles and giggles. Hmmmm. Wonder if she was faking it. Ha! Well, I figured we might as well make the best of it. We loaded up our skis and headed up Sinks canyon where there was still some great snow left.

About half way up the switchbacks we looked down at this. We couldn't resist.

Tallulah and Shad score turns!

Taking aim for the second run.

Our line, after the second run.


What did Tally think of being towed for turns?...

"Yeeehaaw!" Or more like, "Kee! Keee! keee!" Giggle. Giggle.

She couldn't get enough.

Tallulah rests and takes a milk break below our lines. Hard work riding that sled when it's flying down a slope!

Looking down on our X-country Rossignol/ Chariot figure eights.

During our break Tallulah decided to try out some of that powder for herself...

"Hhhmm, looks good."

"I think I'll touch it."

"Hhaaaaaah! I like it!"

A look back on our lines as we head down the mountain.

Back at the car, dad frees Tally from her ski bindings again.


"How was your ski today Tallulah?"...

"Haaaaaaahhhhsome! Kee kee kee!"

Not bad for a sick day. It's back to work tomorrow I guess. Nothing a good ski can't cure!

Backyard Turns

Urban Snowboarding
Lander, WY
January 21st, 2007

After X-country skiing all day in terrific powder, my appetite for turns was churning. I had to get some. After a dissapointing (not steep enough) run down the street that leads up to our house, I loaded the rock board on the quad and buzzed a couple blocks behind the house. I've always wanted to try this...

Not so bad, it turned out!

The snow was deep enough on top, and the ground was soft- no rocks. It ended up being great fun!

Kinda like potato chips... I just couldn't stop.

Looking down on a few lines.

Time to head home, I could almost here mom hollering. Felt like a kid out sledding all day. Ha!

One last look. Twelve runs total. A hundred turns, just not in one line. Ha! Oh well, gotta take em any way you can. Can't be picky about turns out your back door.

Skiing the Switchbacks in Sinks Canyon

Cross Country Skiing in Sinks Canyon
Wind River Mountain, Shoshone NF
January 21st, 2007

We got snow!

The night before this trip we got about 8-12 inches of snow down in Lander. Up the canyon a few miles, they had one to two feet of the good stuff. Perfect conditions for skiing the switchbacks. Just enough snow machine traffic for a trail, but not enough to make it too hard or bumpy. It was fantastic skiing!

Mandy helps Tallulah fasten her ski bindings.

Speedy Gonztinker smokes up the trail.

Sinks Canyon skier chick.

Shad and Tallullah demonstrate how deep the snow was.

Another Sinks Canyon skier chick. There everywhere!

One look at this run, and I had to try it. Even though I just had cross-country skis. I couldn't leave it to the high-markers. It was my duty to attempt turns. Should be interesting.

I went for it. Here's the view looking down on my cross country ski boot-pack trail.

Ooooheeee, it looked good!

It was too.

Nice light, deep pow. I wish I would have had my board or my AT skis. It was a little light on top, but man alive it got deep and good fast. I had a hard time keeping my tips up. Often I enjoyed a view like this (above) after one of my turns. Mandy and Tallulah were at the bottom (in between my ski tips) pretty much laughing their arses off as dad scored face shots on cross country skis. Not exactly the kind of face shots you brag about either.

Actually, I didn't do too bad considering I was using cross country skis. My last few turns actually felt and looked good. Ha!

Cross Country ski turns. I'm cool now.

Fun and games over, Mandy and Tallulah enjoy the cruise down.

One last look at the run I shot with my XC sticks. Click on it and you can see my tracks. Ha!
Great snow! Good trip, fun day! We're lucky to live somewheres with a backyard like this.

Lava Mountain (West Side)

Exploring the West Side of Lave Mountain
Absaroka Range, Shoshone NF
January 20th, 2007

Making ready.

After triggering avalanches last weekend, we chose an objective we thought would be a little safer. Nothing had been sliding on west slopes (mostly because they're wind scoured). We needed to explore Lava Mountain anyway. It happened to have a west slope that I was curious about. So we loaded up and headed in for a tour of the area.

After about 4 or 5 miles in we parked the machines and started skinning. Just the skin in there was looking promising.

On a small hill on the way in Chuck and Karla practiced skiing on their snowboards.

After a mile or so of skiing we reached the open slopes. We started getting some nice views of the surrounding country.

Spectacular scenery, but wierd ski terrain. It was looking pretty scoured.

In case you're wondering what those mountain are.

Pick your line. Like I said, it was wierd terrain. Pockets of great powder, and then huge wind drifts and hard packed areas. The base was very firm and the angles were pretty low. Our concerns about avalanches up here were pretty minimal.

Chuck starts the last leg of the climb to the top.

Karla nearing the summit of Lava Mountain.

Looking north/ northeast across the top of Lava Mountain.

Time to ride!

I took my skis for this expedition. Figured we'd be skinning alot. They're better for longer tours.

Pretty nice!

Once on top, we decided to snoop around, so we actually dropped down the other side, and found some nice shots with good powder. The weather started going down on us though. We only got a run in before we decided to head back. We didn't want to drop the bigger stuff in white-out conditions, if we could help it.

Chuck cruises the west side, of Lava Mountain.

The light got pretty flat, that combined with blizzard like snow, made it difficult to snoop out a fun route down the west side. We ended up taking a pretty wind scoured and bumpy line. Oh well! It got us back.

Chuck prepares to launch.

Karla rides her way down the west side.

Finally, off the mountain, we begin the cruise back to the machines.

Looking back on Lava Mountain. You can barely see the flat-top ridgeline that we dropped from in the distance.

Not a stellar day for turns, but we learned a bit about the country and saw lots of it. Plus we didn't trigger any avalanches. Beats a day on the couch!

Here's a map that plots our approximate routes. You may have to click on it to read it. The red is the snow-machine route. The blue is our skin track. The black represents areas where we got some turns in.