Ride the Divide

After getting shut down earlier this summer by snow, I was excited this Saturday to return to the Bangtail Divide Trail in drier conditions.  The trail once again delivered, 22 miles of pure singletrack bliss... and combined with a bluebird day in the 70's and the company of a couple good friends, I can't resist calling it the best day of riding this summer.

A good one on the Great One

Still feelin the ski stoke from last weekend but not quite up for another 14 hour day,  Pete and I opted for a more casual mission to the Great One.  After exchanging pleasantries with a couple mountain goats and hangin for a bit on Sacagewea Peak, we headed over to the top of the couloir.  The skiing in the top was perfectly soft and filled in and we ripped fall line turns to the break.  Unfortunately a recect wet slide had removed much of the snow in the lower half, and some equal downclimbing and jump turning led to the apron with a debris pile of rock and trees.  This is such a classic line to have so close to Bozeman.

July 9th, Y-not?

Last weekend i finally hooked up with my friend Pete Tapely, who has found his ski stoke quite late in the season.  Pete put down his first tracks about a month ago and is now in ful summer ski swing, but hey i didn't argue, as it had been over 30 days since i had some quality time with my sticks.  We decided to go get after the classic Y-couloir on Black Mountain in the Absaroka Range.  After a looong approach with some intensely high water creek crossings we came upon the lake and the peak above.  The skiers right line looked out of condition and had some looming hang-fire, so we opted for the skiers left line, finding some great spring corn all the way down.  After cooking it back down the trail we hit the car at 9:45, capping a 14-hour day... whew!

Upper Pine Creek Lake, the Y-Couloir is to the right of the large face.

Pete also made a really solid edit of the day. 

Click the link below and go full screen, hit the HD button, and crank the volume!

http://vimeo.com/26307556

Breaking through a wall of Tourists

Over fourth of July weekend I had an extra day off, and was itching to finally get the backpacking season on the road.  The issue was the ranges around Bozeman didn't have more than five miles of trail that didn't lead into three feet of snow, so I decided to drive into the mouth of hell...  Yellowstone on fourth weekend.  After a seriously slow drive through musch of the park, and some training in keeping blood pressure level, I arrived at the heart lake trailhead.  This area is south of Yellowstone lake and is the southern border of the Caldera, meaning along about 8 miles of trail, you get hot springs, mud pots, and geysers with no RV's, Texans, or boardwalks.  It was a unique experience to get to explore these features on my own.

Fumarol

Heart Lake and the upper Rustic Geyser basin

Hot Spring under Deluge Geyser

Sandhill Crane

Perfectly preserved Grizzly Bear track

Nine Sleep, give or take one...

Been off the blog for a while now, but comin at ya with the back logs.  About a month ago now i headed down to tensleep with a crew for a few days of clipping bolts on high quality limestone (a rarity in Montana).  After a late night warp speed trip, complete with getting lost, we had some great days on stone, i'll have to make it back to this awesome sleeper area (pun intended) again this summer.  A couple images will be coming to the main site soon as well.