Post turkey day ski

Paul Cogswell enjoys the Deadman snow

It’s been in the 50s here in Great Falls and the wind is blowing hard.
But, surprisingly enough, there was great snow in the Little Belt Mountains Saturday, good enough for many tele turns in the Deadman Creek drainage east of the Showdown Ski Area.
About two inches of snow fell the day after Thanksgiving atop a couple feet of heavier snow that is setting up.
It appears that we’re headed for a super ski season.
I can’t remember having skied as much by Thanksgiving as I have this year.
On top of the great snow the sky was a deep blue and the sun shone brightly much of the day, although the temperature was about 18 degrees when we started and there was a brisk wind.
We did most of our skiing on the great bowls on the south end of the Deadman Ridge before turning around and trying the deep bowl on the north end. The south bowls were pretty good once we got beyond some windblown crust on top.
Had we not spent our day telemark skiing we would have had a most satisfactory cross country ski on Deadman. The snow is set up perfectly and it wasn’t tough to break.
Sunday the hunting season ends and I can put away my hunter’s orange vest and hat I wear for self protection when I ski during the season.
Unfortunately the end of hunting season means the beginning of snowmobile season.
Nonetheless, we’re in for a marvelous ski season!