I went out for a short, two day road trip east of here. The first day I toured up on the east side of the Schell Creek Range. Studying maps I noticed a road that got pretty far up a canyon with apparently good ski terrain. The road was north above the creek, so I figured it got pretty good sun exposure.
Sadly a short section still had not melted out. Might have made it through this drift, but there were two deeper ones just above.
Parked it there at about 7000'. Too bad because I ended up hiking a lot of this.
After about 40 minutes of walking I got to continuous snow and a decent view of my objective. Took a stab at crossing the creek and bushwhacking in around here, but the crossing was too gnarly and the brush too thick.
Found a decent crossing and a lot less forest/brush a bit higher. Still a lot of dense aspen, but fortunately there was a clear little corridor in the creek bed.
Springs
Clouds rolled in as I got up near the base of the chute.
Skirting the edge I was largely able to stay out of the huge aspen grove.
Got up to the throat and started feeling a little concerned about heading up the chute. I knew the high terrain had gotten over a foot of snow with strong winds - which were still blowing up there and being in the chute would leave me totally exposed to avalanches.
Turned around at the throat, just above here.
Impressive runout zone!
Good skiing for a bit. Especially along the edge. Then a good dose of tight "jungle" skiing.
The line is a beauty though. Hope to be back someday when access is better and avalanche danger lower.
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