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Things started getting really, really, really sloppy in there this weekend. A friend and I set off to climb Chico Peak - had bad beta - and ended up climbing an unnamed peak across the gulch from Emigrant. Due to waiting for some people who were supposed to join us we didn't leave Bozeman 'til 7:4am.

We arrived at the trailhead, booted for the first 1/4 or 1/2 mile at which time we were able to start skinning. The jeep trail was 99% covered with snow on the way in. We summited around 12:15pm in bright sun with temperatures that were probably in the 50s. The view of the surrounding bowls and chutes showed wet slides on most all aspects including debris in a chute adjacent to where we ascended. Emigrants SW bowl has a cornice that appears to be the size of a school bus atop it.

The descent started out well through some trees but once we came out into the chute we'd ascended in where the sun was working its hardest the conditions became utterly crap. The wet snow was so grabby that I found myself having to stay in the very backseat and point it to maintain enough speed to go downhill.

Upon reaching the jeep trail we found that during the few hours we'd been out the sun had melted the snow off hundreds of feet of the trail. We were still able to skin 90% of the trail out that we'd skinned in but for those contemplating this area in the coming week(s) keep in mind there will be a lot more booting (or if you have a high clearance vehicle you can drive in even further).

View of Emigrant from unnamed peak we summited:


Click for higher res version.

yeah we headed back to Black mtn on 5-14. ended up hiking the fisrt set of switchbacks to where the summer trail crosses the creek until we hit enough snow to skin and then it was lots of wet slide debris. Due to insane winds and snow we bailed on Y-couloir but the snow in both forks looked pretty good albeit windloaded. got good turns down the bowl from the NW ridge though. gotta buch of crap to deal with otherwise the beartooths are calling my name.