Southern Wind Pow

Southern Winds
Christina Lake Area- Shoshone, NF
January 9th, 2010

The Back Yard: Christina Lake and surrounding peaks.

Made my first run into the Winds this season. The coverage on the 15 mile snow machine ride in was much better than the same time last year. Much, much better. Conditions are average I think- too thin to get really crazy on the sled, but 3 feet or more up high on protected aspects. Enough for some great split boarding action. Felt good to be up in the Winds again- like an ol' pal. When conditions are sketchy on Togwotee, you can always find some big, safe terrain in the Winds. Powder too!

High Marker Hill and The Notch.

Had to skin in from the lake as there's not much of a trail going any further. Felt good to be skinning again, though I wasn't a hundred percent.

One the last day of my last run at Big Sky, riding my board, I got puked out onto a patch of moguls smokin' fast, and a few of them bucked my around somethin' fierce. Ended up twisting my knee a bit and walloping my ankle- real bad. The pics were from anke a week ago- a day or so after it happened. Since then it's been recovering quickly- lotso ice and elevate and IBprofen. Didn't know for sure how it'd hold up for turns this weekend. Turned out alright- still hurt, but the good snow and great weather took the pain away.

The view from my "split" board as I break trail. Flying solo today.

The snow was pretty rotten under a about a foot of soft dense snow, maybe about 5 inches of fresh on top of that. In most places it was supporting me, but I did get some cracking and woomfing as I approached steeper slopes. Because of this, and my ankle, I stuck to pretty low angel terrain above the trees, and ridges an trees below 10,000 ft. The snow was more stable up high (more wind hammered up there).

Near the top of my first run.

Classic Wind River alpine pow- fun stuff!

Like butta' !!!

Turns above Christina Lake

Dropping!

Woohoo!



A video taken from camera duct tape on my pack- need more practice with this, I know. Even so, it's kind of entertaining. Gives you an idea how long the runs are (over a minute).

Looking down an nice little run.

Good to be back in the Winds!

Lovin' it!

Looking back on my way out. I actually didn't ride this aspect- is has some steeper. bigger slabs hanging on rollovers that I wasn't quite ready to try out by myself. I rode more of the stuff along the sky line (lookers left). Angles are slightly lower over there.

Watching the sun set over a creek on my way out. Beautiful country!

My ride across Gustave Lake (part of the 15 mile sno-go ride back to vehicle).