Jan 19, Mount Roosevelt

Frank checks out our objective from Snow Lake - the skating across the lake was great!

Scott kicks steps as he ascends the final steep section on our way to the summit of Mt. Roosevelt.

Frank in front of Chair Peak
Slope eases back on final skin to summit. Alpine Lakes Wilderness in background. Snow lake below.

Scott does the tele thing off the summit.
As I was editing photos for the trip, I circled back to the photos at the beginning of the month. What a difference a couple weeks make. Although Frank, Scott, and I were generally stoked on a beautiful day in the mountains, the snow quality does leave a little to be desired. Our first turns of the summit were definitely the best of the trip. As you can see in the photo, Scott even has spray coming up from the snow. The rest of the way down, which was not quite as sunny, involved a bit of side slipping and a lot of scratchy firm snow turns. However the great scenery and incredible terrain made this an excellent day.

Jan. 16, Lundin Couloir



Hmmm, the weather was nice. Snow not so good. Descent in trees was very variable.


Jan 4, Chair Peak Basin

I had taken a holiday from touring to enjoy some great lift served at Alpental, but was itching to get some human powered uphill. Hooked up with Ellie B. to try and convince her that Jackson Hole wasn't the only place with good backcountry skiing. Took advantage of the lifts to spin a couple of slack country runs, then we headed up the Chair Peak basin to take a look at the North facing slopes, that lead to Snow Lake. Unfortunately the N. side was fairly wind affected. Fortunately the turns back down to Source Lake on the S. slopes were silky smooth with about 14 inches of fresh stuff. Spun one last lift run down elevator gate to finish another excellent day.

Jan 2, Shovel Day


Started off the new year with a shovel in hand. With the colder then normal snowfall, my new garage had quite the build up. It had almost 5 feet of snow that was making no moves to slide on it's own. Hard to complain with the great skiing all this snow has produced!