Finding A Load At Lionhead
Another powder find…the Continental Divide, near Lionhead, MT. We skied both Idaho and Montana powder! Liked them both!!
Turbo
Crossing the Border!
Dean and Heather had spotted some promising ski terrain south of Hebgen Lake, just across the border in southern Montana.
We had entertained the idea of skiing a new line in our own Lemhi Range but my scouting of that area on Wednesday found a lack of snow depth, making such an attempt infeasable at this time. Snow reports from Montana made it a more practical choice!
We parked in a turn-out just east of Hebgen Dam and skinned across the frozen lake, with Heather and I taking turns reassuring Dean that the ice was indeed thick enough to support us!
We worked our way up toward a ridge that lies west of Denny Creek, a drainage that empties into Hebgen Lake.
Skinning across the lake, we were under the clouds. As we wound our way up, we went through and then above the cloud layer, with glorious sunshine spreading out over Idaho to our west and still obscuring Hebgen and Montana to our east!
We worked SW on our ridge, to an east facing bowl and drainage that feed into Denny Creek and started down from about 9300′. We had nearly 2000′ of open glade skiing and then milked the lower drainage and a logging road to ski back down to the frozen shores of Hebgen Lake, at about 6500′.
We found 12 to 30″ of snow,mostly facets with a little newer snow on top and no slab in aspects we traversed. Sunlit aspects were starting to warm as we headed down but shaded snow stayed soft and fluffy.
Dean and Heather skinning across Hebgen Lake
Emerging into the sunshine at about 8000'
Looking down our descent bowl to the clouds over Hebgen Lake
Dean finding the turns to his liking!
Nearing the finish of a great day in new territory!
First ski tour of the season
Over the river and through the woods…
First turn of the season = BIG GRIN!
Avalanche Gulch on Lionhead Ridge
THE MAN!
The crew.
Great day at Targhee Pass! Heather, Chad, and I skied three different eastside shots from the Lionhead Ridge. Cold temps, bluebird skies and completely fresh lines with great people… now that’s worth giving thanks for!
Plenty of good snow to ski if you know where to look. The tree skiing isn’t quite ready but the open glades are great!
~Dean Lords
within an hour’s drive…
… from my house there are many life times worth of adventure to be had. Today, we had the distinct privilege to show my boss at Mammut around some of our own private Idaho he has only seen in photos the last few years.
me and Mikey on the Lionhead Ridge above Targhee Pass
left to right:
me, Ricardo, Chuteski, Turbo and Mike having a quick lunch break after lap two
Heather skiing the best snow of the day on our last (4th) run of the day!
Yes, that snow is pounding her in the chest!
Mikey in mid float on his super fat tele-boards
the perfect sign for the perfect experience
the effects of powder shots to the face during our final blitz to the car parked at the top of Targhee Pass!http://www.youtube.com/get_playera little fog skiing off the top of the Lionhead Ridge!
>Targhee Pass Soft
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Dean Lords
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Heather Lords
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RicardoIdaho
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