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Day 2: Snow
Bowl
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Day 1: Snow Bowling In Montana |
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Gia, the Snow Bowl marketing director, was a pleasant person to deal with on the first day of our journey. Marketing Directors can be less than enthusiastic when a pack of six snowboarders show up at there resort groveling for tickets. Fortunately we had the corporate push of SOL backing our venture and six eager smiling faces. The daily report said the base was sporting a 64 inch base depth, which apparently is pretty impressive for this part of Montana. Our local guides Ross Peterson and Boards Of Missoula employee Wright Hollingsworth told us that this was more snow than Montana has seen in a while. The Summit had over a 100 inches and five inches of dust lay on top of a thin layer of crust. The temperature was a balmy 30 degrees and the winds were silent. A little cloud cover rolled in and out of the top of the mountain, but this was a good thing, as we were ducking in and out of the backcountry for shots and the clouds hid this fact from ski patrol. By 10:30 we were hitting our first run on an empty mountain.
Snow Bowl boasts two archaic double seaters, a rope tow, a bar, a nice A-frame lunch lodge no bigger than a Vail vacation home, and a newly built lodge for those interested in over nighting it at SnowBowl. From the two chairs over 30 trails are accessible with a good 40 percent of the mountain boasting expert terrain. So what? Well, basically this meant we followed Wright and Ross all over the mountain for the next few hours just barely tapping into the "30 trails," but, fully utilizing the 2,600 feet of vert just off to the side of the trails. We found trees, rocks, chutes, and even a natural gully halfpipe called Grizzly Chute that could've been sick with just a little more snow. For those of you that know Mt. Baker, this gully has the taste of the Canyon floor minus the sheer cliff walls.
After a few runs though a mellow cliffy area which led into some trees and ended up in Grizzly Chute, Wright led us under a rope to a beautiful powder covered rock in a small clearing surrounded by trees. A photographers wet dream. Either no one had been there this season yet, or it had snowed so much in the last few weeks that no one had had a chance to track it up. Josh looked at it a little apprehensively and asked Wright where the line was. "Straight," he said smiling at the discovery of this rock. Apparently it's usually not covered enough to drop it, however, this season the heavy snowfall so far had opened up a lot of terrain that was normally bare. Everyone hesitated for a moment and so with an eager Jimmy Clarke below the rock Wright dropped and launched a perfect method off of the rock drawing the first line in the pristine landscape. Ross was quick to follow with a spin and Josh pulled a nice 360 indy after him. Billy followed launching a double grab backside 360 indy and Bobi pulled a clean spin behind him. The landing was still good so they all hiked back up the hill for seconds. After the hit was thoroughly used up and Jimmy had burned through a sufficient amount of black and white film, Wright decided to lead us out to another area of the mountain called Hour Glass. From the summit we pulled a nice bomb the flats to a spot where we ducked a rope into the trees and came out over a chute. Unfortunately it had been avalanche bombed that morning and all that was left for us was the icy gray residue of dynamite. We traversed across to Hour Glass and found the same thing, so our only option was to ride the big open powder field and perfectly spaced trees below the chute down the mountain. No one was disappointed. It's always nice to take a run and not pull out the camera. At the bottom of the run just before we were getting on the lift Josh discovered that his bindings had cracked. Bummed and a little pissed, he and I decided to head back to Missoula. The day was almost over, anyway. We had gotten a great taste of Snow Bowl and were satisfied with what we had heard about it. While Snow Bowl is a small and somewhat rustic resort, it's an easy fifteen minute drive from Missoula, has excellent light Montana snow, a friendly bunch of people hanging out there, and is what resorts were in the 60s. Snowbowl hasn't seen the technology advance of quads and cappuccinos, but it's perfect for anyone who doesn't want to wait in lines, is willing to hike for extra turns, and doesn't miss the hub-bub of destination resorts. Check us out tomorrow when we visit Lost Trails, another unknown Montana secret spot. |
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