West Angle Mountain Bowl

West Angle Bowl

Northeast side of West Angle Mountain
Togwotee Pass, Absaroka Range
March 22nd, 2009

With a big storm in the forecast and the previous days weather hitting 50 degrees, we really weren't sure what kind of skiing conditions we'd find. One thing was clear though, the day was designated for turns. Passes were secured. We were headed out to try something. We eventually decided to buzz the machines up the Snow Cat track on West Angle Mountain and see what was left for north facing powder shots. With sunshine and a good few inches of fresh powder on the ground, things were looking better than we'd anticipated.

The a view of the Tetons from where we parked our "Snow Cats" on top of West Angle Mt.


Matt drops into our first run of the day.

Scoping out the entrance.

A look up at Matt from a different angle.

His view of me as I dropped in.

Looking down at Matt and his exit tracks. Looked delicious!

A look back up at the first run of the day. It was already pretty tracked up, but not out. It was an awesome run. If this was any indicator of what the entire day would be like... oh boy!!!


It turned out, it pretty much was an indicator of what the rest would be like, only it just got better! Two feature motion pictures worth of better...


The Shad Show

The Matt Show

The rest of day in photos...

Matt leads the way to virgin pow.

After skiing a great tracked up run, we decided to push a little further east along the mountain, in search of fresh pow that hadn't been pillaged yet. Didn't take long before we discovered massive quantities of untouched powder fields.

Loads of cornices too.

My first glimpse of what was below one of the cornices. It made me giddy!

Matt, all grins as he let's me plow the road up, after our first run.

After a while, he took over.

A look up at one of four runs we did in this area.

A couple more.

Another perspective.

A look up from farther down.

Yet another run.

I make my way up for another.

Dropping into a little couloir as the weather finally began to deteriorate a little. This would be our last run of the day.

A look at our lines through it.
(click to enlarge and see the sloughing action)

A look back from a little farther away.

Matt expresses his dismay over the black storm clouds approaching as we decide to call good for the day and start the skin back to the sleds.

The weather was moving in fast on us. Made for some interesting views of the Tetons.

Finally back at the sleds in near white-out conditions.

It went from blue-bird to sasqwatch conditions in no time at all.

And then changed back by the time we had the sleds loaded.

One great look back at the bowl we'd spent most of the tearing up. Another, unexpected, epic day. Really worth getting out of bed for!