I exchanged working Friday for Saturday, and joined Casey for the long Bitterroot classic of Gash Point to Sky Pilot. After whiteout conditions on top of the primary objective and an epic midday bonk made last year's version of this tour less than ideal, I was looking forward to a shot at completing this in better time and better style. We left the truck at 6:36, and quickly reached the upper Gash Creek trailhead on the icy boot pack/skin track (depending on the time of day). Above this, icy conditions and sparse coverage made skinning the (lack of a) skin track frustrating until reaching the Gash Point approach ramp. Once upon level ground, the firm snow made for fast going, and we summited Gash Point just over two hours into the day, stopping for a moment on the ascent to admire the sunrise over the Anacondas, far to the Southeast.
On the route to Bear Lake, we decided to traverse only when the fall line riding was not good (though generally tending west), which turned out to be an ideal tactic, as there is an abundance of south facing glades that empty upon a low angle bench that delivers the careful rider directly to the lake with a relative absence of calf burning sidehilling.
From Bear Lake to the base of the North face was strenuous, involving alot of steep and icy sidehilling with harscheisen. This tour would have been miserable without them. I advise all objective-minded splitboarders to pick up a pair (the Spark R&D model is great). They really weigh nothing and have turned extreme frustration into mild inconvenience a few times for me now.
Slush on ice approaching Sky Pilot's N. face. |
Looking back at the Sweathouse/Bear Ck. divide. Gash Point is just off image to the right. |
Casey sky piloting. |
Just above the choke of the North Face, managing some weird sastrugi conditions. |
The 2300' skin back up to Gash Point was like sitting inside a snowy, slippery oven. We managed to do it in just over an hour.
As a bonus, we decided to take advantage of the stable conditions, and ski the short couloir that drops from the ridgeline into North Bowl. I've been wanting to ski this line for years, but hadn't gotten around to it. We booted the 150' chute Junior High style, snowboards assembled and used as pseudo-ice axes. The ski down was steep and chalky. Including this line greatly increases the satisfaction of skiing North Bowl, and comes highly recommended. Watch out for the man-eating void at the top.
Looking down the obvious couloir above North Bowl. Does anyone know if this fine fellow has a name? |