backcountry skiing Archives - The Dancing Wind

Skiing in June, 2019 Edition

June 14th-17th, Max and I skied Beartooth Pass and Beartooth Basin with our friends Lindsey and Linda. We arrived in the afternoon on the 14th and did a couple of laps on Gardner Headwall. The snow was soft and slushy, and a bit sticky near the bottom. I gave the first run a try in the bowl on my backcountry setup, which I normally only use in deep powder. But this snow was a different kind of deep. 😛

Steph's double posthole on Beartooth Pass — Beware of the waist-deep double post hole! Lindsey helped pull me out.

Although I love my DPS Yvette 122 skis in powder, I didn’t love them in spring slush, so I committed to wearing my resort boots and using my Blizzard Viva 8.0 skis instead, which I have always loved skiing in slushy spring snow. Then the real fun began, because we also got to ski the steep headwall proper for the first time.

Lindsey and Steph skiing Gardner Headwall

Max skiing Gardner Headwall while Lindsey watches

Max skiing the bowl portion of Gardner Headwall

It was hot on the bootpacks back up though with the sun reflecting off the snow. Max and I rolled our ski pants up into shorts!

On June 15th, Linda joined us for a day of lapping Gardner Headwall. It was so warm that I wore a t-shirt and my hiking pants this time instead of ski pants. We had a lot of fun together in the spring slush. The sky was beautiful too!

Steph skiing down Gardner Headwall with beautiful clouds

Lindsey, Steph and Linda on Gardner Headwall

Steph, Lindsey and Linda on Gardner Headwall

Max skiing Gardner Headwall with Linda skiing in the background

In the afternoon, Linda dropped the rest of us off by the start of the hike out to Rock Creek Headwall. There was a storm rolling in and we were hoping that we could beat it, but unfortunately it caught us before we got there.

Not wanting our first trip down Rock Creek Headwall to happen in whiteout conditions, we decided to turn around. We got pelted with stinging hail the whole way back. Oh well, next time!

On the 16th, Max, Lindsey and I skied a full day at Beartooth Basin. They had just been able to open for the season the day before, and we were all super excited. The snow was so good!

Steph skiing the bumps at Beartooth Basin

On June 17th, Max and I skied a power hour at Beartooth Basin and did a final lap on Gardner Headwall before our drive home. We had so much fun that we decided to come back again to try skiing in July.

Max ripping down Chute 2 at Beartooth Basin

Steph at Beartooth Basin in my Skis.com gear

Backcountry Skiing March 9, 2019

Today Max and I did a seven-hour backcountry ski tour through the western mountains of Idaho. We were the first ones to reach our destination and there was a lot of fresh snow, so we were breaking trail and finding our way during our uphill skins for most of the day. We also dug a snow pit (putting that Avy 1 class knowledge to good use!) and enjoyed plenty of fun powder runs down.

All Female Avalanche 1 Course

Yesterday I completed a 4-day, all female Avalanche 1 course thanks to a Progression Session I scholarship from Jackson Hole Babe Force. The classes were taught by the American Avalanche Institute, both in classroom sessions in Jackson, WY and out in the field on Togwotee Pass and Teton Pass.

There were an amazing 24 women in the classroom sessions on Thursday and Friday. One of our instructors told us that there are usually one one or two women in the class! Because our class was so large, we split up into four smaller groups for our weekend sessions in the field. We met up bright and early in Jackson, WY on Saturday morning to carpool to Togwotee Pass. It was very cold and there was plenty of fresh snow, both on the slopes and on the road.

We learned and practiced so many things to help us stay safer in the backcountry, including how to use our probes and beacons, how to check and understand the avalanche forecast daily, how to make the best decisions about where to ski (and where not to ski) depending on conditions, and how to do beacon searches and simulated rescues.

Avalanche 1 Class Probe Technique Demonstration — Our instructor Britni showing us proper avalanche probe technique

instructor showing us how to use our phones as inclinometers — Britni showing us how to use our phone as an inclinometer

Our reward for a long Saturday packed with learning was to skin up the slope behind us and ski down through some untracked powder! Our all-female group was supportive and encouraging of the varied experience and skill levels we had.

group of women skiing — My group getting ready to drop in for some powder turns!

Between our Saturday and Sunday field sessions, Mother Nature decided to DUMP a foot of snow on Teton Pass. We got a bunch of shoveling practice getting in and out of the parking lot on Sunday.

But it sure was fun to ski down on our way to learn how to dig snow pits and do snow stability tests. Below is our group about to drop in to a foot of untracked powder! We got a couple more super fun runs in after digging our pits too.

Avalanche 1 instructor demonstrating snow stability tests — Jessica showing us how to do snow stability tests in our pits

Thanks again to Jackson Hole Babe Force for the opportunity to learn backcountry snow safety in a supportive environment.

Skiing in June

Thank you to Moosejaw for kindly sponsoring this post. All opinions are 100% honest & completely my own.

The saddest day of the year for me is usually in mid-April when the Grand Targhee lifts stop turning for the season, signifying that ski season is over until November. But since my husband Max & I learned to backcountry ski last December, the madness of skiing all summer long has opened up. So instead of hitting the beach, I packed clothing for temperatures ranging from 30-80 degrees, my backcountry ski backpack, skis and avy gear and hit the road. Destination: the Beartooth Highway along the Wyoming/Montana border for some skiing in June. My Moosejaw Madness story was about to begin, because I love skiing too much to only do it during one half of the year!

First stop: Beartooth Basin summer ski area. In our excitement to ski their rope tow lift area, Max and I bought full-day lift tickets without actually looking over the edge first. After we took our first look over the cornice in the photo above, we were both thinking “oh no, we just wasted $70.” It was really steep and scary looking, and we we considering bailing!

But we spent a few minutes summoning our courage, watching others ski down and survive, and then dropped in and wound up having tons of fun skiing soft spring corn. There was a definite learning curve involved in mastering the rope tow for me, which included two consecutive fails while the line of people watching me struggle and fall shouted advice and encouragement (after which I sent myself to the back of the line). But in no time, I was picking up someone else’s fallen gear on the way up, and helpfully motioning sideways to someone who fell off the tow in front of me and was laying there in my path. We ended the day really glad that we had stayed.

bootpacking up to Reefer Ridge on the Beartooth Highway

On day two we moved to the backcountry, and began with a bootpack up to Reefer Ridge. No more rope tow pulling me up the mountain – now I was hiking it myself, carrying my backcountry ski backpack from Moosejaw filled with my avy gear and with my skis strapped on for the way up.

enjoying the view of the Beartooth Moutains

After making it to the top, I had to admire this view of the Absarokas before skiing down. (Scrambling over rocks while wearing ski boots: awkward.)

backcountry skiing down from Reefer Ridge on the Beartooth Highway

Skiing down, facing the view of the incredible winding hairpin curves of the Beartooth Highway. The snow was fun, soft corn for the top half, and chunder on the bottom half. I quickly learned why some people were stopping halfway down before starting their next lap.

bootpacking up a massive wall of snow along the Beartooth Highway

Next stop: Gardiner Headwall. The amount of snow still here in mid-June was pretty incredible! It was about twice as high as the cars driving through.

Time to pick a line down. This area had gotten icy from below freezing temperatures overnight, but had softened up enough to be fun now. I didn’t spend too long in this spot, because the wind was strong enough to almost knock me over!

Such a fun ski down! Those tiny dots below the rocks are other skiers doing a steep bootpack back up – the fate that also awaited me at the bottom of my run. So worth the burn though! I already can’t wait to go back.