Back country skiing: going full steam, 747, Ranch Creek

At a spring on the O'Brien Creek trail portion of 747

The Mizpah ridge line

The Mizpah warming hut

Up a steep hillside side-stepping

Our winter wonderland

Jasmine Krotkov below the Ranch Creek Bowl

 Now that we're back from California, I've been back country skiing full steam.

I did two Little Belts trips this week, a new 747 variation, and a blast from the past --- the Ranch Creek run.

Both involve climbing Porphyry Peak at the top of the Showdown Ski hill, always the first mountain climb of the year.  Both at Kings Hill Pass.  747 also ends there, Ranch Creek at US89.

The Trail 747 route to Forest Service Road 6314 and back by way of the O'Brien Creek Trail, a 5-mile run, has become a real favorite for its solitude and ease.  The road is shared with snowmobilers who groom it.  

Ranch Creek is one of the original backcountry routes, one of three designated by the Forest Service.  It travels along the Mizpah Ridge and drops into the Ranch Creek drainage.  The last few miles are on a Forest Service Road.  The length is roughly 10 miles. I hadn't done it in recent years, opting instead for a route that parallels it to the north on a high ridge, and then dropping into the adjacent Nugget Creek drainage.

The 747 variation drops much sooner into the open O'Brien Creek trail meadow that features a large spring.  It is reached by way of a narrow gulch below an old trail that connects the Showdown service road to Porphyry with 6314.  We opted for this Thursday to get away from the road and enjoy a more back country experience.

Even though all three of us skiing that day are highly experienced we violated a cardinal rule of back country travel and became separated not once, but twice, and paid the price in short searches for each other.

The day was frosty and overcast, but it warmed up and snowed on us.

On Saturday we experienced base-less snow for roughly half of our long trip.  There was plenty snow, much of which had fallen in the past week.  It was good snow, too, at a depth of about two and a half feet.  However, it hadn't set up properly and we had to plow through the stuff, sinking down to within about six inches of the ground, which we could hit with our poles.  The first four miles, to the warming hut, had good snow that had set up and we could stay on top.  But, we worked our butts off for the following six miles.  When I took my only fall, it was like falling into a vat of cement that sucked me down and wouldn't let me up.  I had to take off my skis to right myself and continue.

Mizpah Ridge is always the highlight of this trip for me.  It was a magical winter wonderland with great views to the Bridger Mountains and across the Little Belts, and snow and ice-frosted trees.  It is an enjoyable kick and glide experience across this mainly flat ridge.

The Ranch Creek bowl at the head of the creek had been a large clearcut and now has mainly grown in except for the old logging road.  We thrashed around on these roads before abandoning them and going straight down to the Forest Service Ranch Creek Road.

I was glad to see where the travel restrictions ended, that keep snowmobiles out of this area.  There were fresh tracks and we were able to glide out on the road the last couple of miles rather than slog through the base-less snow.

The sun finally came out in the final hour of our trip and we enjoyed blue skies that were fronted with snow frosted trees, a real treat.