1.29.2012 Big Sky
It’s been an unnaturally warm, windy, and dry winter in southwest Montana. Pre-season, the weather guys couldn’t stop talking about how this “La Nina” winter was going to bring more banner snowfall, cold temps, and winter conditions to much of the northwestern part of the country. That prediction has failed miserably. Bridger Bowl has received 88″ of [...]
1.27.2012 Bridger Bowl
Bridger was eerily similar to the East Coast today. The snow on the lower mountain was very heavy and wind-affected. Anywhere that the wind was able to scour was scraped down to hardpack and was almost unskiable. I hiked up B-Route once to Sluice Box. It was a gorgeous bluebird day and the views from the top of [...]
1.22.2012 Bridger Bowl
I drove up to Bridger Bowl this morning for my first day there this season. It snowed for a while overnight and Bridger was reporting 7″ this morning. Conditions were very soft, deep in places, and rocky in places. South Bowl was a minefield with good snow covering bare rocks. I only managed to ski one run before the power went out to all of Bridger Canyon. I was halfway up Pierre’s Knob and made it to the top on the diesel backup.
1.21.2012 Big Sky
Driving up Gallatin Canyon on my way to work this morning, I was despondent. at 6:30 AM the temperature was 42F and it was pouring rain. Very much par for the course for this winter. Last week a strong storm pounded Montana, delivering record snowfall in most of the major cities. Bozeman and the surrounding [...]
Big Sky 12.11.2011
View Big Sky 12-11-2011 in a larger map I skied another couple of hours at Big Sky this afternoon. The snow is getting harder and drier as it sits in the sun without getting refreshed. We need snow badly! Despite the lack of new snow, Patrol keeps opening more terrain. Friday Thunderwolf opened with man-made snow on Elk [...]
Big Sky 12.4.2011
View Big Sky 2011-12-04 in a larger map Quick test of the video recording capability of the iPhone 4S…full 1080p video from a phone! 5-7″ of fresh, very low density snow fell on Big Sky overnight and when I finally made it to the mountain at around 1:30PM everyone I talked to on the lift [...]
Big Sky 12.2.2011
View BIg Sky 2011-12-02 in a larger map Today was my first day of skiing for the 2011-2012 Ski Season. We’ve had a very dry and dangerous early season in southwest Montana. A couple early season storms left a nice layer of facets that’s present just about everywhere. This deep instability has made backcountry skiing [...]
Late Season Skiing at Bridger Bowl
I started my 2010-2011 Ski Season at Bridger Bowl way back on October 27th. Eight months of skiing later, I finished my season in the same place. View Late Season Skiing at Bridger Bowl – May 11, 2011 in a larger map Supposedly, the mountains picked up 1-2 feet of fresh snow earlier this week [...]
Big Sky in April
My brother Dan flew out to Bozeman this past week. He’s been chomping at the bit to get out here and ski ever since I moved here. I think he was probably more excited than I was when I picked MSU. We skied at Big Sky for four days and had great weather, tons of [...]
“Spring” Skiing
Spring in Bozeman has brought us several back-to-back snow storms that have dumped several feet of snow in the mountains and in town. April 8 in Bozeman It snowed all day and all night and I woke up to easily a foot of snow in Bozeman. The drive up the canyon to Big Sky was [...]
Mad Wolf
5″ or so of cold smoke fell last night and it was a good day to work. I took this picture while ski cutting the Mad Wolf cornice under bluebird skies and had a total “I can’t believe this is my job” moment.
Skiing in Color
I reworked one of my images from the Mt. Blackmore trip and processed it in color instead of black & white. I’ve really been enjoying black & white processing lately, but I thought this was worth sharing too.
Mt. Blackmore Attempt – 2/20/2011
My friend Sam and I set out for Mt. Blackmore last Sunday, hoping to summit and ski some fresh snow. Our snowpack had finally started settling down and we were pretty sure we could and ski Blackmore. Plans change, however. The trail in to Blackmore winds it’s way up from Hyalite Reservoir just south of [...]
First Turns of the Season
Yesterday I cut class and headed up to the mountains. Bridger was crowded, with cars parked all the way down into the second lot. Not bad for the 27th of October. The four of us started hiking up, really wishing we had touring gear. First purchase of the year? I think so. We hiked up [...]
Winter Stoke
Snow has been flying here in Bozeman and the Bridgers have been coated more than once this September. I thought it was time for some winter stoke to get psyched for the coming ski season. This picture is of Sam skiing the meadows above the fingers last October 29th. Here’s hoping that this early season [...]
Big Sky Mosaic
There are alot more pictures coming as finals wrap up and I have more and more time to update this site, but I’ll start out with this teaser. Tim and I had the run(s) of our lives at Big Sky over Easter Weekend. We hopped in line for about 15th chair on the Lone Peak [...]
Ridge Skiing – D Route and Z Fan
Tucker and I skied off the ridge at Bridger again this past Wednesday. We took the Slashman’s Chair up, hiked to the top of the ridge, and then traversed north to the south boundary of D Route. There, we dropped down Boundary Chute and crossed over into Z-Chute. The Z-Fan runout was excellent soft snow [...]
Big Sky Ripping
I posted briefly a while ago with a panorama taken at Big Sky on the last week of February. The post detailing our run is here and the rest of the pictures are below. Tucker at the end of the traverse scoping out our line Skiing above The Bowl and Turkey Traverse Tucker charging down [...]
Big Sky Briefly
Tucker and I skied Big Sky on Saturday and made all of one run during the three and a half hours we were there. We took lifts to the top of Lone Peak and then skied down the Otter Traverse to the top of the Dictator Chutes. We put tracks down one of these chutes [...]
Surprise Chowder Day
Yesterday I woke up and checked the snow report, saw the 11″ of fresh and the little blinking blue light on the Bridger homepage that means powder, didn’t believe it, and went back to bed. When I woke up two hours later it was still showing the same thing. Forrest, Tim, Tucker, Megan, and I [...]
Some Photos from Last Week’s Ridge Hike
Last week I managed to secure a beacon for a couple of days of skiing off of Bridger’s vaunted Ridge. Tuesday, Clare, Taylor, and I hiked up from the top of the Slushman’s lift to ski some day old powder down to The Fingers. The view from the top of the Ridge was stunning. The [...]
Blizzard in the Bozone – 1/22-24
El Nino has not been very kind to the Bridgers this season. However, after a two week drought and some really crappy skiing, we finally got some snow this last weekend. Alot of it, actually. Friday, January 22 We got our 1-2″ overnight, and it was snowing lightly all day. Nothing really worth mentioning, but [...]
Slushmans
Tucker and I rented beacons, probes, and shovels today and headed up to Bridger for our first Slushman’s run of the season. Slushman’s is the new chair (formerly the Peruvian Lift at Alta) that Bridger installed last season to the south of Pierre’s Knob. It accesses some great, un-demarcated, patrolled terrain. Beacons are required to [...]
