Easter Pow Pow on Togwotee

GD Mountain (Near Jules Bowl and Bonneville Pass)

Absaroka Range, Dunoir Special Management Area

April 21st, 2011

GD Mountain (near the entrance of Jules Bowl)

Powder Chickens

Headed up Togwotee last Thursday with Darran hopin' to get in on some late April powder. We did. Infact, there's so much snow up there... man. Drove just a few yards into the Brooks lake parking area and realized it was just a snow machine trail (they haven't plowed it in a while). Got stuck in there, waisted some time getting out of there and ended up parking along the highway.

Initially we were going to head more up towards Brooks Mountain, but when we reached Brooks lake it was a complete white-out... pukin' and nukin' the white stuff. So, we decided it'd be best to go into a more familiar area and find some north facing trees. Thus, we headed back up into Jules Bowl. There hadn't been alot traffic lately going into there. The trail along the side hills was melted and settled away, with six inches or more of fresh, soft snow on top. It was hard for Darran to keep the ol' polaris upright on those side hills. Eventually we made it in there though.

Quite an adventure just getting in there on the sleds. Eventually we got it done though.



Darran breaks trail neat the top of a very tasty looking run. Weather was such, that we stuck to the trees. Was hpoing for couloirs, but the snow conditions and stability was not very conducive for that.

Darran at the bottom of our first run.

The sun popped out for a spell, for our second run, so we tried some steeper, more open terrain. Ended up cutting lose a pretty good little new snow, slough slide (4-6 inch crown). It propigated pretty wide. That's all it took to remind me that couloirs were a no go for today. The two we parked under were very tempting, but both had classic wide, steep starting zones that I'm sure would have went with the first turn.

Pretty damned good for April 21st.

Weehoo!

After three runs we headed back. We'd have to break trail on the way out agian- it snowed so much.

And... true to form, the white-out, pukin'/ nukin' condidtions returned for our ride out.

Back down at the highway, getting ready to load up. Still pukin'!

Good stuff, great day! Wonder what May will bring?