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Rad, thanks for posting that up. I know the spot. Good low angle playground for sure.

I guess I can join the SW Montana party too . Went to Bear Basin last Saturday and had my funnest day of the year. The snow pack WAS really stable, but after this week it looks like it might be a little while before I go back. Here are a few pics of the day.

A panoramic of Lone Peak behind us. If you look really close you can see a Presidents weekend 2 hour tram line.

Riding it out

Amazed I landed a cliff drop

Before

After

Had a super fun day up Lick Creek this past Monday. First time I have gone up that drainage... a great place to bang out a bunch of small laps, as I had heard.

Found a sick igloo to take breaks in and a massive booter somebody built up there.
Definitely the best snow I have had all year too, with many many face shots to be had.
Plus I got to take my mom's dog with me, for his first splitboard trip. He loved it.

GREAT DAY!

Hey acopafeel, is there much touring up near helena? Considering Helena as a possible spot to move to.

Glad everyone had a stoke-filled weekend. Today served up some great snow and few people at History Rock. Seemed to be bonding pretty well. Uncle T:

Glad to hear the bonding comment.

Six mile tour on Ellis today. Amazing results in the snow pit. Never expected anything to be solid but got no propagation in two pits at around 7500 ft North aspect. A storm was rolling in and put down over an inch of heavy snow just while we were hanging out (we spent 45 minutes in one pit doing an in-depth study). We ended up Riding a conservative line on a ridge that allowed easy exit onto either a NE or SE face in case something broke off. We however didn't get anything more than minor sloughing in terms of potential danger. The freshies made for a super fun "louge" run back to the car which we did probably 1/2 of in one-foot mode.

For the two or three people who shred in the Beartooths this time of year, here's a report from East Rosebud
Left the car and immediately noticed powerful WSW winds at all elevations. No recent slides, cracking, or collapsing of instability on the approach, even on obviously windloaded tester slopes, but the conditions there are always so variable I take that with a grain of salt.
We bailed on shredding our destination couloir due to finding some rapid loading of the new snow that had fallen on Wednesday or Thursday, low vis, and scary pit results. In our pit near the base of the couloir, we found a dense 8" windslab breaking easily (ECT 7) but not propagating. While this hazard possibly could have been managed, after cleaning off the windslab, I continued the ECT and the column broke powerfully/propagated at the ground (which was about 4.5' below the snow surface) on depth hoar (ECTP17 Q2). Touchy!
What a sick zone though! Can't wait to get back.

I've eyed up that couloir in summer. Glad to see you were out there investigating. Can you drive a vehicle all the way back to E. Rosebud in winter?

We got to w/in .5 mi of the summer trailhead in a lowridin' Subaru wagon with pretty low clearance.
It is truly awesome back there. Lots of couloirs and projects really close to the trailhead, esp if you're willing to climb a bit of ice and rap over it on the way down. Let me know if you want to head over some time!

I've never taken the leap into true ski-mountaineering so probably wouldn't join you on a rap mission but I absolutely love getting into deep, remote wilderness and in winter-time methinks East Rosebud is just that.

i've actually not done much around Helena, I have only lived here for a couple of yrs... I've been up near Lincoln, where there is a lot of nice terrain, and its a pretty short drive. I grew up on the Front a couple of hours northwest of here and end up doing most of my touring there.
Kind of a bummer though... I always end up driving a couple of hours for a really good trip, whether it's home or Bozeman.

I took an avy course last month and met a few who gave up some local spots around here, but ive yet to check them out. Most consisting of smaller runs, requiring a decent amount of touring to get there...

Helena's not a bad spot though. Most of the stop lights start flashing yellow at 5pm on weekends, if that's small town enough for ya

Seems like the faucet has been turned on a bit... or at least it's leaky . Ellis rode very well today. Still a big spooky facet layer though...