Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Ruby Mountains Day 1

Road trip!  I am on the trail with the Tetons as my destination, but decided to break up the long drive with a couple of days skiing in the Ruby Mountains. By most accounts Lamoille Canyon is the place to hit in the Rubies, so that's where I went.

I drove up the road over a couple of patches of snow finally halted by a deeper drift just up canyon from the Right Hand fork of Lamoille Creek. I had the good fortune to meet another skier there as he was finishing his early morning tour. He reported that the main road was nothing but icy snow mobile ruts which made for tough going, so I inquired about the attractive bowl seen directly from the road. He thought it would be good, maybe a touch wind affected.

This is the view. The Right Hand fork, with Mt Gilbert and the obvious skiing attraction in the shade.

There were numerous pretty ice flow. This was one of the largest.

Up in the bowl the views opened up. My starting point down lower right.

The lower slopes were steep with some short spicy sections, but up high the terrain mellowed and I was easily able to reach this notch.

The view south from the notch. An inviting couloir.

The terrain at the head of the Right Hand fork looked great.

The skiing was good. A touch wind affected lower down, but by carefully choosing the right aspect I had fun turns all the way down.

Full disclosure - there is a pretty stiff bushwhack to get up out of the main canyon. I found a faint track where someone was trying to get a snowmobile up the canyon which was ok going up. For the return it seemed best to take the summer trail since the snow was more consolidated up out of the bottoms. Not for those who aren't up for some whacking!

Probably the sketchiest move of the day though was crossing this rickety bridge!

Apres ski nap time!

Took a short drive to check out Lamoille where there was cell reception. Beautiful ranchland with several large deer herds.

Heck of a fun day in a an amazing range.

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