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Went into north willow ck over the weekend 11/08, 11/09. Camped at hollowtop lake. temps never went below freezing(maybe really close) and we were hiking in rain for quite a while. Were able to throw on skins after about 2 miles. Above ~8500 ft there was around 2 to 3 ft of very consolidated snow. We rode a line just south of hollowtop and lapped the lower section a couple times. up high was a little wind buffed with patches of ice, but the lower section was a nice bit of fluff on top. If the temps drop and we get some more snow there will be some nice lines ready to go! oh and we got a late start on sat and decided to just get after the eighteener of pbr and set camp , so no turns on sat

One of my roomate's friends was out skiing near Pony during the first storm and posted some good pics. Is the snow still deep out there?

http://stevenjay.wordpress.com/2008/10/ ... ge-batman/

i saw those pics from that day, was out there as well but unfortunately not riding. all that snow has consolidated up high and melted(rain) down lower around town.

Oh well. It was still cool seeing pics of people doing pillow lines in October.

Just got out from North Willow creek last night. Instead of parking at the parking lot we drove the VERY unimproved road which Y's just before the n. willow creek trailhead. The road had no snow on it and was only impassible if you tried to drive up and over the first large pass you get to. We parked just shy of the pass and headed south toward Hollowtop through extremely thick trees. Not much snow to speak of until 8,500 ft and that was only in wind loaded, north facing aspects, or heavily treed areas. we skirted the ridge around Hollotop lake to the north as we were trying to reach the large chute which comes almost off the summit. When skinning no longer became possible we started traversing. Would've liked to have a rope and harness as we were scrambling unprotected in some no fall areas. Several of the more prominent rocks along the traverse had green spray paint...so this maybe a well traveled route in the summer. It was 2:30 by the time we reached the end of the technical section of the traverse...after this we could see it mellowed but was still a long boot pack over rocks to the chute with another 500ft of elevation gain. We decided to ski a shorter line which faced north east just off the lower sections of the main mountain massif. dug a pit and found a very weak wind loaded layer at 3". Another later was observed at 24-26" but this was very near the rocks and was still unbroken after 5 whacks from the shoulder. When forced to break, the break was NOT clean.

The riding was great in the chute for the first 200-400'. After which time the chute dumped into the larger basin & snow conditions down right sucked. Hardpacked icy snow with rock protruding. I saw samh's link to his buddies report of the 3' of fresh back in October. It appears almost all of this snow has either melted or become consolidated.

Come on winter! a hi of 63 for Bozeman is not what we need or want for 11/17!


on a totally unrelated subject....there is a reservoir on along the unimproved i mentioned above...there are some AMAZING boulders up there and I was wondering if it was a) legal to climb here and b) are there established problems?

one more general interest question...on the eastern most part of the north aspect of Hollowtop is what looks to be a very large clean piece of granite/gneiss...perhaps 700-1000' in height. anyone know of any routes on it?

So far I've only visited Hollowtop by looking at in extensively in Google Earth. I haven't made the trip out there yet so don't know whether any of the rock you mentioned goes.

On another note, thanks for the detailed trip report. It sounds devasting in terms of snow conditions compared to previous reports from the Tobaccos. I hit up Beehive this weekend and the snow there was delicious. A few dozen miles away but worlds of difference I guess.

ya, talked to a few kids who hit up the hive this weekend and it sounds like i guessed wrong this week

gotta love the roots. if ya have a decent rig u can pretty much drive anywhere, one of the few ranges where motorized access is pretty much the rule not the exception. sure wish my bronco's clutch wasn't out. and don't know about the rock in question, but loren or some of the peeps at northern lights could probably tell you. sucks the snow went to but it doesn't surprise me with the wind and temps.

Ha, whatever. You've guessed right all the other times you've been out this year so no worries ; )