Big Mountain

Big Mountain
Southern Windriver Range, Shoshone NF
March 31st, 2007

Big Mountain, the summit hiding in the clouds.

With the near two feet of snow that fell this week in Lander, we had to give the Winds a whirl. Chuck said it was our "moral obligation". I agreed. Prior to the storm though trail conditions had really dried up, and they had stopped their grooming operations. The weather stations and snow plots up high were reporting that the mountains had recieved 50 to 60 inches of new snow (4 to 5 feet). Holy cats!! Matt decided to brave the pow w/ me and take a stab at getting into Christina Lake.

After a few miles of following an old track we cleared Deadhorse hill and dropped onto the loop road just before Granier Meadows. We were entirely on our own then. Nothing but 3 to 4 feet of powder, and two big heavy trail touring sleds. Yikes! We still had 12 miles to go, and the snow would just get deeper all the way. I thought we were screwed. We played around in the powder at Granier meadows, and I took at stab at breaking some trail. I got about a half mile in then came to get Matt. We got the skidoo stuck, and about the time we got it rolling again along came a crew of sleds I recognized. It was the folks I helped with recovering their sleds a few weeks ago, back by Lava Mountain. They had powder sleds and were planning on trying to get into Christina Lake. I said, "We'll follow!"

Matt gives his thumb a workout.

It was like this the whole 10 miles plus into Christina Lake, at least for the guys up front. I've never worked to hard to get in there. It took us (a crew of six sleds) about 2-3 hours to punch a trail in there. We'd go for a while then get a sled stuck, go some more- get stuck, go some more- get stuck. Eventually we made though, had fun the whole way in too. In the meadow while waiting for the powder machines to punch trail, we practice our deep powder riding.

Eventually, around 12:30pm, we got to the base of Big Mountain. Chuck and Karla joined us about then too. They left a few hours later than we did and buzzed right up the trail we had burned half they day punching in.

A view of Big Mountain, after skinning through the trees for a spell.

I let Chuck break trail for spell. Ha!

Chuck nears the ridge that drops into the Big Mountain Bowl.

Chuck, Matt and Karla strung out on the climb up Big Mountain. It's a big mountain.

Chuck and Matt a little further up.

The final push to the summit.

Matt almost there.

Time to ski! Matt drops from the top of Big Mountain.

A little scralpy, but not terrible.

Matt skis the Southern Winds!

Chuck rides the Winds.

Matt throws in some more turns.

Karla, Chuck and Matt shread it up.

Karla works her day job.

Chuck and Matt do figure eights. Ha!

Matt throws some snow.

Shad get a few more turns in.

Weeehooo!

Not exactly steep and deep, but if you've never skiied the Christina Lake area, and the weather permits- you might as well clobber the biggest mountain first. If we wouldn't have had to burn the time we did just getting in there, we could had tapped in on some stellar powder I'm sure. Oh well, I'll take what we got. It was a great day- quite the adventure!

With weather and winds starting to pick up and the day starting to wane, it was time to head out. A task that would be much faster and easier now that trail was in place.

A look back at Big Mountain.

Found this guy on the way out. He seemed to be enjoying the snow.

Back home, during the week Fib got caught napping with Tally. He couldn't go outside much because of the snow. Now that Tally can chase him, they're getting to be quite the pair.