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Well looks like the old thread got deleted and i'm a moron with computers so i dont know how to copy/find the old thread. Anyways figured I'd throw up a new one.

Went for a lazy tour up to the northern bridgers with the dog yesterday(3/8). Snow was pretty sun/wind affected on the S and SW aspects in the basin north of frazier. While I didn't check the more northernly aspects they were looking pretty fresh. Dug a few pits on a S and SW aspects since I planned on skiing a protected chute that was SW facing. Found great results and on multiple columns my weakest score was CT18 with Q3 shears despite an ice layer buried 35cm down and losse facets near the ground. However the winds were howling pretty good, esp on ridgetops, and from multiple directions. So I ended up just having some fun split skiing some 35deg gullies. If anyone was watching they would have gotten a good laugh when I almost buried a tip after forgettting to put a riser down! There should be some good skiing on north faces as long as these freaking temps calm down. I might just have to roll the dice and head into the northern absarokas sat for an extended head clearing session

Damn forum software deleting our threads. Your results in Frazier were similar to what we experienced at Ross Pass on Sunday also. I got no results out of my ECT other than the freshies that slabbed off the top.

Toured Ellis late in the day today. Skin up was in slop in the sun and icy in the shade. Toured up to a few hundred feet below the summit and all three of us had untracked lines from top to bottom. The top 2/3 was in really nice snow (I banged our ECT pit to 30 with no real results). The bottom 1/3 was getting pretty fuct by the sun but still had some pushiness to make turns in.

On the 29th me and southparksplitnek got out an ripped the Butt Crack Couli off Middle Peak. We found a fairly well consolidated right side up pack that wasn't breaking in our pits. At about 9000ft on a Eish aspect we did find a weird ice crust about 2ft down that was capping a facet layer. While this layer wasn't breaking in our ICT's we were able to get it break clean when poked, prodded and pounded well beyond the average test. We rode but I will be keeping an eye on the layering.

Which gets me to the reason for the post.... What the hell is happening out there? This is certainly unusual weather. Weird freezing levels, obscure wind patterns and more Fing rain. I have noticed weird loading patterns in the spanish peaks and these slabs haven't been warning when they want to pop because in my opinion of the density of the new snow.

Guess i'm holding off on getting some more big lines for a little bit until I can get a grasp on these patterns Has anyone been out in the N Gall's or Bridgers? Wondering if it's mostly snow in the Bridgers? Also it would be nice to know if anyone else has been seeing strange loading patterns. Downright ugly out.

POW

During the week of my previous post I came across a lot of activity down low and on shaded aspects at all elev. Two slides buried the road up to dudley with 2ft deep crowns spanning 150ft across at least. Lighting sucked so no pics that justify it.

From what I can tell most instabilities have settled out well. Most trails in the SP are still covered and mostly ski/skinable from the canyon...

Bridger Bowl was pretty good yesterday. Skinned along regular track under Bronco and up good track to Ridge, then continued North to Hidden Couloir. A bit punchy up high but nice and soft all the way down to the Alpine lift. Stayed in board mode 'til a little bit above the lower Alpine terminal and then switched to ski mode and rode in ski mode (no skins) down to parking lot. Was even making some tele turns along the way!


View of B-Gully from skin track. Photo taken near "Sometimes/A Great Notion".

Glad to see your still out there killin' it Sam.

Cheers

Just need to get turns in June 2011 and I'll have 12 consecutive months of at least one day per month of riding. w00t!

Picked up my first splitty this Dec. and I have yet to put it down!

samh, im looking to get at least 1ride/month this summer-fall.
Did you get your 12 consecutive months within MT?
If so, any tips for July/Aug/Sept?

THX!

Yeah, got all my turns in Montana.

July - Black Mountain - Absarokas
August - "The Great One" - Bridgers
September - "The Great One" - Bridgers

Went out last weekend into the Gallatins and got June turns. 12 months consecutive is complete!

The riding and coverage are both unbelievably good out there right now. Some select pics from June:


Blackmore NF on May 31


The Crazies, June 4th


The Crazies, June 10th

Pics are broken but can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nickstayner/

Anybody planning on riding in the area the next few weekends?
If so, I would love to join.

I've found the most challenging aspect of splitboarding is finding riding partners. All of my comrades are in summer mode by now, unfortunately!