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Spring weather is a crazy mofo. Unsettled days provide one of the best chances for a big tour, but then again pulling things off in that weather takes a bit of luck and a lot of stubbornness. Yesterday we were mostly unlucky with the weather, but we had just enough stubbornness to pull off a really nice ski tour.
We started from the Missouri Gulch trailhead, then made the extended approach to Huron. The weather did not look promising, but maybe there are enough rocks to get some contrast
Stability looked good, and we were pretty sure we could find the entrance to the run. Nonetheless, when we reached the summit it was rather intimidating dropping blindly into this:
We still managed to make due
The weather wasn't getting any better, and morale was lacking a bit. Luckily peer pressure is a strong tool, and once E signed on for another mountain, A followed suit. With that, we headed up towards Missouri. Weather was in and out and the terrain was beautiful. Good coverage allowed us to skin high on the mountain. By 13k or so, things were feeling pretty tough. What looked like a single kick turn away turned out to be 10. Vert is hard sometimes. We reached the summit just in time for another squall.
This run looked much less intimidating, and the snow turned out to be perfect. Fun was had:
Now was time for another sales pitch if we were going to ski another mountain. Luckily I had math on my side, and a short lived sucker hole in the weather had opened up. Basically, we could either ski low angle terrain down to treeline, or a short 1300' climb could get us up Belford where a 2400' fall line run might be waiting. Things started out beautiful.
But keeping with the theme for the day, we were soon in the worst squall yet. The whiteout continued to the summit, and it looked like we were going to be reading by Braille on a long and potentially rocky descent. Just as we resigned to our fate, the clouds parted to reveal a beautiful run with amazing snow.
The stellar conditions didn't last, but we still managed to keep skis on all the way to the bridge.
Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):
Looks like some good snow! Stable? I was up on Bross/Dem/Cameron Saturday as well and it was similar conditions (less powder) with going from white out to clear to white out. How much time did these summits take? Mileage? I’ve been considering heading up to Missouri or Belford before the snow disappears.
No signs of instability, with the new/old interface seemingly gaining strength (ct28 after a week of only light snow). It is a deep interface though, (50–100 cm) and a slide in some of this terrain could be really bad. If this recent storm delivered more snow, it may need time to readjust.
Yikes, I’m not sure I’d like to drop the east face of Huron with such low vis! It was hard enough with the mostly flat lighting I had. You are certainly crushing it with all that vert this season.
Was quite glad to have recently read your TR, so I had some idea which line it was from the bottom and the top! The middle 800’ are mostly just the details...
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