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| A foot of newly fallen snow made this trip a wonderland |
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| Across the top, heading for Mizpah Peak and its bowls |
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| Mary Stelling on her queenly throne taking a rest |
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| Our group of nine on the final stretch |
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| These stats add a 300 foot telemark run I took down Golden Goose at Showdown |
It wouldn't be so bad if it were not for a mile-stretch of road that has been badly churned by off-road vehicles, exposing lots of unavoidable rock, and lots of scattered deadfall.
If you could ignore this one-mile stretch, this is a challenging and scenic trip.
Our Wednesday Wayne's group skied this Wednesday and despite abundant snow still hit the rocks and several of our group even resorted to walking a stretch, skis in hand.
The last mile or so of the trip is on an old logging road, which if the snow is sparse can provide a fast, icy ride. But, we had great snow Wednesday and were able to easily ski right down it.
The trip gains over 1,100 feet (most of it from Kings Hill to Porphyry Peak) and loses 2,400 feet and offers several nice telemark stretches.
The highlight of this trip is skiing across the open ridge allowing for tremendous views of the east side of the Little Belt Mountains, the Big Belts' Edith and Baldy peaks to the west, and an occasional glimpse of the Crazy Mountains.
The rock garden comes about a mile to the south where the Ranch Creek Trail turns down into the old clearcut.
Above Ranch Creek it was interesting to look down on the old clearcut that we used to easy ski down almost unimpeded. It is now a maturing re-grown forest. I've been skiing this area for 35 years. That seems like fast growth to me.
I don't recommend this trip unless there is sufficient, settled snow with a good base to cover the rocks.
We had a foot of new snow, but unfortunately there was no good base on the rocky mile.
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| Our route |
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