Out there with Tom: Goodbye winter, welcome Spring

The alpine glow at sunrise over the Front west of Freezout Lake

On top Priest Butte, our first spring hike

Pillows of snow on O'Brien Creek

The Showdown ski hill is closed for the season, meaning its the best time to ski for us

The snow geese fill the sky above Freezout Lake

This has seemed an extra long winter.

Perhaps, because I started back country skiing in early October, and I'm still at it.

The snow has been phenomenal and in the Little Belts well over 100 percent above normal.

I haven't posted for a while because I caught that nasty virus that's been going around. No, not COVID, but one that settled in my lungs, creating a dry cough, and draining me of energy for nearly a month.

After my last posting from the Glacier trip, I've skied 747 a couple more times. It has became a relatively safe thing to do for this senior citizen. I also did a solo trip to the top of Porphyry Peak, and then caught caught up in the Freezout Lake snow geese/arctic swan mania. The birds were about two weeks late this year. We think it was because of the cold and ice. There were some 70,000 snow geese and 1,000 swans when we visited. It is one of Montana's great sights. We were there as the full moon set behind Castle Reef on the Front, and the rising sun cast a pink alpine glow on the wall of mountains.

We got our first hike of the year up Priest Butte above Freezout.

Then, an April 6 7.3 mile ski down O'Brien Creek with the Stellings and Jennings.

The snow in the O'Brien Creek bottoms was as deep as I've ever seen it. If it warms up fast it could be trouble for Belt Creek and could bring flooding.

It was particularly special skiing with the Jennings, who are 82- and 83-years-old, but you'd never know it. I'm not sure how they stay in that kind of condition. They blew right past me effortlessly with the AT skis. It was a sight to behold, and something for me to aspire to.