Easter Ice
The compound gullies are pretty much shot. The top pitch of the left route is still in, but looks quite sunbaked. The right side pillar is still standing, but not a wise objective.
Irish Dreams has fattened up considerably. No ice on the middle lake, however, means a wavy canoe ride across the lake.
The townsite still has very deep drifts of snow. It is taking some time to melt his year. The upper lake still has some ice on it.
My recommendation - skiing down at the Choteau hill before it closes.
posted by chris g @ 3/21/2008 10:46:00 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
all i can say is spring touring this year is going to be amazing.............. happy skining! Scott
Today I managed to pull out the soloist and top rope a couple of the info bureau climbs. While the wind was a bit chilling from the snow banks, the rock was exceptionally warm. If Sunday isn't windy rock hounds should have a good time out on the hump.
The other alternative is to break out the RP's and head to the Pass Creek Slab.
No idea what the Frank boulders or Riverside Crag would be like right now. Glenwood boulder should be nice and warm though.
Hey Chris, you didn't happen to get a look at Sullivan Falls did you?? Just wondering what kind of shape it's in.
Spent four days two weeks ago and again last Friday climbing around Field and Lake Louise. Ice for the most part is still good but it is starting to get sun affected. Spring is definitely coming. Might be time to head for the glaciers....
Blair
I had a quick glance and it looks good. Things are still freeze/thaw here. As long as it is out of the sun it is fattening up.
Actually, funny you should mention the Choteau ski hill (Teton Pass). My wife and I went down to choteau for three days over the Easter Weekend, and did two days of backcountry skiing starting from near the ski hill (the ski hill closed the week previous). The skiing was fabulous, and we wound some tremendous scenery and terrain for telemarking.
We also did a day of track skiing south of Great Falls in the Kings Hill Pass (7,200 ft) area in the Little Belt Mountains, South of Great Falls. The skiing was great there too, and we talked to some ski patrollers at the ski hill there (Showdown) who said there was some great backcountry to be had in the area as well.
Downside? 2 hour wait/lineup at the Sweetgrass border driving down to the States. We came back via the Del Bonita border crossing, and had NO lineup at all -- but the border crossing staff seemed a bit bored, and spent quite a bit of time with us. Still, on long weekends, it's probably better to avoid the Sweetgrass border crossing (the Del Bonita staff told us the lineups were up to 4 hours long over Easter).
Brad.
Nice to hear about the trip down there Brad. I get the feeling those mountain ranges are largely unappreciated up here.
A few years ago Clay and I hiked our Kayaks up and over the pass west of the Choteau ski hill before heading down the north fork of the sun river. Some amazing open country like one rarely gets to see. Not much whitewater though.
As soon as I finish my master's course this semester I will be putting some more of those pictures up over at the ORKCA blog.
Any chance of posting some picts Brad?
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