Spring Skiing
We were not quite ready to put our skis away yet, and the recent dump of snow made it impossible for us to do so. We were out in Waterton a couple of days this weekend, on Friday we skiied from Forum Ridge down to Cameron Lake. Conditions were pretty awesome for this time of year. The snow was boot-top but more wet and heavy than the tradtitional dry powder of the Rockies. It was still pretty awesome though, and the fresh snow from earlier in the week had settled nicely and bonded with the layers below.
On Sunday we skiied from Summit Knob to Cameron Lake. The sun came out in full force over the weekend, and it was amazing to see how much snow had vanished from when we were there on Friday. There was now a pretty strong sun crust built up, but once it softened up it made for some good skiing. The snow is pretty wet and heavy now, and we watched a lot of wet slides on the north and west aspects of Mt. Custer and the south end Forum Ridge. Summit was considerabley more shaded by the trees, and the snowpack was a lot more stable.
That being said, I think skiing in Waterton is pretty much done for the winter with the temps forecasted for this week. On our way out Sunday we saw a party climbing - I assume it was Blair and Chris?
posted by Aimee @ 4/28/2008 09:24:00 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
no it's not true the ski season is not over....... You shouldn't say things like that it's kinda rude. :) I was up at sunshine this weekend and they still have fresh lines off piste! It was a bit of a zoo though, we were parked 2kms from the gondola, the Coors Light Ski party was goin on... so that's why it was so busy. The snow was still good and there were no rocks, which is good for sunshine.
Hey Aimee. Glad to hear the skiing was good. I've been sick the last couple of weeks so i haven't done much but i was amazed at how much winter was left in Waterton. I mean, even the lake is still froze. How unusual is that for the end of April?? I agree though. I think the skiing is done for Waterton for this year. It's time to head North for the glaciers.
Anyways, that was Dave, Trevor and myself on the Hump on Sunday. Fun day but the ticks are bad. I probably picked at least fifteen off.
I agree, time to look elsewhere. let's hope they get the road to Logan's Pass cleared soon too...
you can check out where the plows are in glacier
http://home.nps.gov/applications/glac/gttsroadplow/gttsroadplowstatus.cfm
Which route did you guys do Blair? I was dissappointed to not get up on Rosedale. I was kinda of looking forward to it.
Anne appreciated escaping the wind at Blairmore. I can't say she liked the rock too much though. We didn't get a chance to hop on the right most routes.
Chris
Logan's Pass generally opens up on the American Memorial Day weekend or the following weekend. The skiing is generally very good as long as it's not fogged in. I've had some awesome days skiing there.
if anyone is interested Big Mountain in whitefish still has really good snow going on. At the lift base there is still probably around 5 feet of base and the snow is still firm. On the flip side the rock climbing at stone hills was really good.
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