It's spring skiing time

On the Continental Divide Trail west of Stemple Pass

H. Wayne Phillips on the wind-sculpted slopes near Granite Butte

Spring skiing is upon us.
Thursday epitomized this.
Temperatures reached into the 50s, even on the Continental Divide Trail off Stemple Pass.
The dirt and gravel road to the pass was a mushy mess.
By the end of the day the snow was a mushy mess, too.
However, the bright sun, the lack of wind, the cloudless blue sky made for a perfect day outdoors, even if the skiing was suspect.
We chose our ski route by wherever we could find snow protected from sun, which early in the day meant hunting for north and east facing slopes.
From Stemple that meant heading southwest to Granite Lookout, some 1,000 feet above the pass.
The Continental Divide Trail rises immediately from the pass, sometimes steeply in spots.
Eventually it breaks out on the north facing slope where the wind has thinned the snow.
Here, we headed back into the trees and found sculpted, if hardpack snow on the ridgelines to just below the lookout, where we stopped for lunch and turned around.
Heading down we had hoped for some great tele turns, but had to be satisfied with the beauty of the snow that had been piled and shaped into fantastic piles by the wind.
By the time of our turnaround the snow, even in the trees, had softened up, slowing our skies and making turns difficult.
But we had been amply compensated by the tremendous vistas in the many open spots on the ridge where we could drink in peaks deep in the Scapegoat and Bob Marshall wilderness areas, blanketed in white by the snow and highlighted by deep blue sky. We could see that spring had worked the flanks of Joy and Crater peaks, baring rocks and grass.
By the time we reached our car at the parking area the road was clear of snow, which had melted into puddles.
We had enjoyed our ski, but realized that it wouldn’t be long before we’d be hanging the skis up for the season.

Two Medicine, two named peaks

H. Wayne Phillips on top Flattop Mountain with Glacier's Little Dog and Summit mountains in the background

Turning in a basin between Flattop and Elk Calf mountains

Approaching Elk Calf summit

Marias Pass offers visitors the splendors of both Glacier National Park and the Badger Two Medicine Wilderness Study Area of the Rocky Mountain Front.
Friends have been telling me that this has been one of the best backcountry ski seasons at Marias they’ve seen in years.
You generally battle winds there that buff the snow into ice in most places, exposing full hillsides in others.
I went to check out the area a week ago to see if the stories of bountiful snow were true.
They are.
We arrived after about four inches had been deposited on more than five feet.
There were some icy spots, but generally the snow was powdery and very good for telemark turns and climbing.
We had set out to climb Flattop Mountain (elevation: 6,549 feet), about a 1,200 foot rise from Marias Pass, the lowest spot along Montana’s Continental Divide.
Accompanied by H. Wayne Phillips, we made our way up the Pike Creek Road veering to the south to attain the ridge that climaxes in Elk Calf Mountain (elevation: 7,607 feet).
With some luck, we happened into an old fireline along the Continental Divide that serves double-duty as a hiking and snowmobile trail.
Fire had gutted both sides of this high ridgeline, but in doing so opened up sweeping vistas.
The new snow covered up some tracks that had been laid down the day before by a group of my Glacier Mountaineering Society friends who had climbed Flattop, some on skis, others on snowshoes.
While this is big snowmobile country, they had left this divide trail to the skinny skiers.
We left the trail to get to the ridgeline quickly.
The ridgeline became a small peak (“bump”) that afforded us spectacular views of Mounts Elk, Summit and Little Dog to the north in Glacier Park. To the south we could see we had a ways to go to get Flattop, and Elk Calf seemed sort of unattainable, but worth dreaming about. To the west were the peaks of the Great Bear Wilderness Area, to the east, the low-slung Two Medicine country.
We dropped off the “peak” on the west side of the divide and quickly came to a small lake that sits at the head of Skyland Creek in the Flathead National Forest. We took a break to admire the beauty of the area, noticed the large snow cornices on the banks of the lake, and took shelter from a cold northwest wind that blew all day.
Climbing out of the lake we regained the ridgeline and Wayne made a line that skirted Flattop.
We were on our way to distant Elk Calf first!
Our goal was to stay as far away as we could from the corniced lip of the Elk Calf ridgeline. This wasn’t as easy as it sounds because the ridge is narrow and there are outcrops of rock above the snow.
The wind had sculpted “speed bumps” into our path, much like what snowmobiles do when they rut up a trail.
At one point I took off my skis to negotiate the rock, and then skied up to the top where I waited for Wayne, who was working his way up the final third of a mile without skis.
The wind cut through me as I waited for his arrival on the summit.
There were enormous snow cornices on top that prettied up an otherwise barren peak.
We looked around, our eyes filled with the views of Badger-Two, the Bob and Great Bear wilderness areas, Glacier Park, and the Great Plains in the distance.
Skiing down was somewhat easier and surely faster.
We made one start down through some excellent telemark terrain, only to discover it was overhung with a cornice that might have broken off, and that it pitched straight down through into a likely avalanche chute.
We worked our way back up, gained Flattop peak, gaped in awe at the scenery, and quickly worked our way back across the lake and down narrow telemark chutes back to our vehicle.
We had covered some 10 miles roundtrip over eight hours gaining and losing about 3,000 feet.
Not a bad winter’s day!

Looking for snow on Stemple

On top Mount Joy, looking toward Crater peak

Windblow Mount Joy snow sculptures surround Mark Hertenstein

Parts of Crater Mountain were swept clean of snow

We’re anxiously awaiting the annual snowstorms that pulse through the state each March.
While there’s fairly good snowpack on ridgelines, it’s starting to get questionable for backcountry skiing. In other words, spring skiing has arrived.
We traveled up to Stemple Pass near Lincoln Saturday hoping to take advantage of snow up high and found about four new inches on a hardpack.
Our destination was the high route to Crater Mountain via Joy peak, two bumps that rise about 700 feet above the cross country ski area trails.
Wind was whipping in from the east. The west-facing slopes had been hit pretty hard earlier in the week. The telemark conditions were a bit on the poor side.
That didn’t stop us from doing what we set out to do, and we were rewarded for it, finding some spots to do turns through a clear cut on Crater’s southeast flank.
We found that the wind had created “speed bumps,” ridges of snow on most of the trails. Wind had also whipped the snow off spots on the west face of Crater peak.
The wind had sculpted spectacular cornices on Crater’s ridgeline.
We decided to do some exploring and followed that ridgeline north for quite a distance examining lovely outcroppings of volcanic and sedimentary rock in the area. The rock here is brown, gold, green, red and gray. Part of the ridge is covered in rock that has been pulverized into a whitish powder that gives it a surreal quality.
After a nice lunch in a shelter of twisted pine, we telemarked our way back via the North Meadow Trail to the Stemple Pass parking lot.
The Stemple Pass cross country ski area is quite large with a variety of loops that suit skiers of all skill levels. It is a great jumping off spot for one of the region’s best tours --- the Stemple to Flesher Pass run, a 12-mile distance. The snow is quite consistently good, and the distance here is less than 100 miles from Great Falls by taking the Sieben exit on Interestate 15.

High on the Highwoods

Highwood Mountains' scenery brings Eric Newhouse to his knees

Off with the skis to cross the creek

Our annual Eric Newhouse birthday ski

I’ve long been curious about skiing across the heart of the Highwood Mountains, between the Thain Creek campground cutoff to the missile silo at the head of Arrow Creek on the Geyser Road.
It’s a trip that travels between the two highest peaks in that range, Highwood Baldy and Arrow Peak.
I now have no doubt that it is doable on a point-to-point day ski, but probably doable as an up and back ski trip as well.
All that’s needed is sufficient snow, which one can’t always count on in the windswept and low-slung mountain range east of Great Falls.
I thought we had the perfect storm on Saturday that deposited about four inches of snow in town, so Sunday we headed off for Geyser to check out the possibilities.
We were quite disappointed to find little new snow had fallen along the road.
The storm seems to have stopped at about 6,000 feet, dropping good snow at that level and along the ridgeline from Middle Peak to Highwood Baldy.
My first inclination is always to go high and try Middle or North peaks, but my skiing partner, Eric Newhouse had better sense and never having been on this stretch of road, persuaded me to stay low so he could have a better look.
It turned out to be a good decision.
We skied from the missile site to Shoulder Creek along the road, a distance of about 6 miles (12 miles roundtrip). That brought us to about 2 miles from the Thain Creek turnoff.
What stopped us fast flowing and cold Highwood Creek, which was brimming with snowmelt brought on by this bright and clear winter day with temperatures near 50 degrees.
We had been able to negotiate several ice bridges across the creek higher up, but the lower we descended, the trickier it got crossing the creek. We both broke through the ice at one point, each drenching a foot (and me a ski).
We decided to turn around when we could find no reliable snow or rock bridge.
Over the distance we gained and lost about 1,500 feet.
There was good snow, about a foot of it at the high point on the run, but we found ourselves scraping rocks and picking up snow underfoot on the lower elevations.
Our low point on the trip, where we turned around was about 4,500 feet. Our high point about 5,600 feet.
What a wonderful feeling to have this beautiful area to ourselves, this clear, warm day!
The only distraction was an occasional jet painting a contrail overhead in the inky-blue sky.
The animals were out enjoying the day, too.
We found numerous footprints in the snow, including fresh tracks we believed to be mountain lion.
We could leisurely break and snack without fear of instantly freezing up, as we basked in the sun.
I know that we’ve got winter storms headed our way yet this winter, but this was a reminder of how much fun a spring ski tour can be.
And, so close to Great Falls!
The missile site is 12 miles northwest of Geyser.
On the way back out we stopped at the town tavern, a true community gathering place, where we were able to rub shoulders with folks who looked like they could have been models for Norman Rockwell.