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.

MLK Day in the Winds

Blue Sky Powder Day
Southern Wind River Mountain, Shoshone NF
January 15th, 2007

Headed into the stash we've been nibbling on for the last few weeks. There seemed to be more snow, no wind and blue sky today. Cold as heck though. Somewhere around zero degrees.

Karla breaks trail for Chuck and I all the way in. Hard to beat a deal like that!

Before.

After.

We all agreed that this was the best powder we've ridden so far on this hill, this year. Not as dense as last week. Good stuff!

Looking down on our first run of the day. We ended up getting four more, scattered out all over the mountain. It was a great day.

Chuck surfs it up on his second run for the day.

Another look at our second runs.

You know it's a good day when this guy starts thinking about hucking.

Whaahoooo!

The landing.

A look at some of our lines on our way up for more.

Karla slides into the pow.

From the top.

Mmm, Mmmmm good!!!

A look back at a few of our runs.

Chuck and Karla make the climb for one more.

Down she goes!

Chuck rides off into the sunset.

What a day, much better than the day before- as far as turns go anyway.

Angle Mountain Avalanche

Avi on Angle Mountain
Absoraka Range, Shoshone NF
Togwotee Pass Area
January 14th, 2007

Chuck eyes some potential goodness.

We're weren't sure where to go, but we wanted to try somewhere on Togwotee. It was way cold out so we didn't really want to go far on the snow machines. I was hoping maybe there'd be a trail punched into a bowl with lots of low angle terrain behind East Angle Mountain. Although the avalanche forecast was "moderate", we knew there had been alot of activity on Togwotee, so we all had our avi goggles on for the day.

What the thermometer looked like at my house when I got up.

The trail I was hoping for that head up into a bowl behind East Angle Mt had not been punched in yet. In fact, there really hadn't been a ton of snow machine traffic. Lots of great powder around though. Perhaps the cold temps was keep traffic at bay. We scratched our sno-go plan and headed out from the truck instead, towards what looked like some lower angle, smaller runs. We could see ski tracks on a similar aspect nearby that looked good. We thought maybe that was a good sign. We proceeded with caution.

Karla begins the climb. The snow looking and feeling good.

As we entered steeper terrain we spread out, especially across open slopes. This slope whooomped on us a little, with some hair-line cracks. It didn't go. It was a clue though, that we didn't ignore.

After Chuck wiggled around this area, a beautiful powder slope came into view. We were all hopeful it would be good. It wasn't super steep. It looked sooo good! After much discussion we picked route to the top that we agreed would probably be the safest in the event of an avalanche.

About two-thirds of the way up, our route began to skirt the edge of the open slope (SE facing). Chuck was in the lead, and Karla was behind me. I remember telling Chuck, "I wouldn't go out much further." He agreed and started to put in a switch back in when the slope above him started to move. I hollered, "There it goes! It's going, move back!" Chuck was trying, but it was hard. Yikes! Holy Crap!

When things stopped moving, Chuck was about five feet below me. We were both still standing, right on the edge of the slide path. Karla was safe behind us a ways. During the slide Chuck managed to move backwards enough to avoid getting sucked into the main slide. Whew!

Where our skin track ended. Chuck triggered a crack that shot up the edge of the slide path about a hundred yards, sending a 25 yard wide , 3 foot soft slab down our way.

Right in front of us the slide stepped down to a 3 to 4 inch hard slab that slid on depth hoar, pretty much to the ground.

Chuck expresses his thoughts about still being alive. When things stopped, I'm sure glad he was only five feet below me. It could have been much uglier.

The slide. The red arrow indicated where we were when we triggered it.

Me with the crown of the slide above. Bummer!

Chuck and Karla near the bottom of the slide. After it went, we looked for a different way to the top, be we couldn't find a safe route. After I experienced more whoompfing, we decided to retreat.

On our way back Chuck decided he wanted to dig around in the debri pile. We probed around a bit too. The debri pile was 6 to 7 feet deep in places. The regular snow pack was closer to 3 to 4 feet deep. It's doubtful that Chuck would have been buried deep in this slide, but you never know- 6 to 7 feet is enough. It would have been a scary ride for sure.

When we got back we started noticing quite a few slide paths that had ripped on South facing slopes. We didn't see these on the way in. Maybe we missed them, but I'm also thinking the fracture we initiated may have run over and around the ridge to cause some of these. Hard to say. Some of these ran with little more steam though.

The debri piles had small up-rooted trees and stuff in them.

Unfortunately, this was all I got for turns today. Oh well. I lived.

The slide from a distance.

A little closer view. The red was our approximate skin track going up. Click on the picture if you want to zoom in closer.

Couloir Practice

Dropping Mini-Couloirs in the Winds

Southern Windriver Range, Shoshone NF

January 7th, 2007

The mountain.

Chuck takes a run up some steep pow, trying to bust a trail into Christina Lake.

Just getting into the lake was an adventure on this day. The storm from the night before left quite a bit of new powder. We had to break trail the last five miles into the lake. It sure was handy having Chuck's powder hog along to plow a trail through the fresh snow. I think I would have been denied on my sled alone.

After digging out our sleds a few more times, we finally got to climbing up the mountain. Brian, Karla and Chuck skin towards the objective. It was definitely a cold and windy day, but not as bad as it could be I guess.

Still going up, taking in the views along the way.

Getting closer to the objective.

Chuck starts the climb into the notch/ mini-couloir. Karla and Brian opted to play in the powder below, rather than the rocks, wind and cold above 11,000 ft. Chuck and I had the notch to ourselves.

Chuck on top of the Mountain and it's mini-couloir.

Shad on top. Christina pass in the background.

Ready, aim,

take some time to air out your armpits...

and fire!

Shad drops the notch.

The top was pretty hard, but the snow was actually pretty decent after the first turn or two.

Chuck practiced his figure eights on the way down.

Chuck in action!

After the notch drop, we headed down the mountain and made a few more runs on lower, deeper stuff, that wasn't so exposed.

Chuck gets ready to pop a wheelie.

Karla rides the Southern Wind powder!

On the edge!

Brian, the lone tele-marker, sweeps in a turn or two.

Brian gets some more turns in. Kinda dense snow, but he chewed it up anyway.

Looking back at the mountain we just spent the day on. Good stuff! Even if it was cold and windy.

Gliding out down through the trees, back to the machines.

Back at the machines, packing up for the 15 mile ride back out to the vehicles. The arrow shows where Chuck and I dropped from earlier.

The end...

to another beautiful cold and windy day in the Southern Winds.

Exploring the Ramshorn via Horse Creek

Ramshorn Scouting Expedition
Absaroka Range, Shohsone NF
December 31st, 2006

Chuck's 800 Skidoo Summit, armed for two.

Since the Avi danger was a bit iffy for bigger stuff on Togwotee, we decided the blue bird weather would be handy for exploring some new country. So we headed up north out of Dubois to see if we couldn't get a bead on some lines in the Ramshorn country- maybe even the peak. We parked near the where Horse Creek road turns to go up Double Cabin. Armed with just Chuck's powder hog and our splitboards we headed out. We buzzed past the T-Cross Ranch, dodged a moose, and just followed the snow machine tracks. I believe we ended up in the Ramshorn Basin area, which is not exactly where I wanted to go. We missed the turn that would take us towards Burrough's creek. Bugger. We would find it later though.

Out of Ramshorn Basin we started skinning up a big nameless mountain (part of the "Ramshorn"). About 40 minutes into the skin things like this (above) started coming into view. Way cool, except- that's the stuff we wanted to be on. We kept climbing, and eventually our ridge line turned SE. The snow started to get crusty.

One of several bowls that we got a look at- all part of the Ramshorn area. Someone's probably got names for them. I couldn't find any on my maps though.

A very good looking couloir.

Over a thousand feet later, out of the trees and on to the steep- looking East/ NE.

Once out the trees the almost South facing snow was really cooked. Ski pole tests and probes revealed at least a 1-2 inch hard crust sitting on surface hoar. As steep and as big as the slopes were above us, we didn't think it was a good idea to continue up this mountain. Even if it held, it would have sucked to ride. If it went, it could be deadly. So we opted to bail and head back down our skin track. Rats! Could have gotten an awsome view of Five Pockets from on top. Oh well- guess we'll try again on another day.

Chuck begins the ride down our skin track, happy he doesn't have to climb or ride the 800 ft of suncrust above him. After we got back to the sled, we decided to back track and look for a road that would get us closer to some better aspects.

Chuck blasts back over his track to come get me, after blazing a few miles in the powder up a route that would get us closer to the Ramshorn Peak area.

Turned out blazing trails through powder is almost as much work as climbing and skiing mountains. Nearly as much fun too! Ha!

A view of the mountain we spent most of day climbing, only to be denied. Bummer- that's the way it goes though sometimes. I'm glad we played it safe.

Chuck looks at some amazing possibilities.

Finally, we ended up more where we were hoping too. This ridgeline would have been very accessible from the sled, and it looked to be full of potentailly nifty couloirs and bowls to ski. On the other side was another huge bowl, and Ramshorn Peak. Buggeroo! I really wish we could have punched in here first. I'm fairly certian we could have scored some epic turns if we would have gotten here earlier in the day. It was 3pm by the time we got this far. We didn't really have any time left. Oh well. Now we know. Guess it's all part of dialing an area in.

Closer looks at a couple of couloirs that caught my eye.

Soaking it up, already thinking about the next possible opportunity I'll have to get into this area, and actually score some turns.


I generated this map using an old 99' Delorme Topo program. I'm not sure how accurate the roads are on it, but I'm fairly certain I plotted our approximate routes correct. You may have to click on it to read it. The red route is where we went first. The Black route is our ski/ climb route. The blue route is where we went exploring with Chuck's sled and got much closer to where we wanted to be.