Yet Another Snow Sport...XCountry

Today we headed out in bright blue skies to try x-country skiing.  Our first attempt and it went pretty well...only 2 falls for one of us.  No injuries to report and tomorrow we're heading on a snow coach tour of West Yellowstone.  The plan is to take a more adventurous tour on skis through Biscuit Basin to Old Faithful.  We have 2 1/2 hours to make the 2 miles...we shall see how it goes.

Heading up the hill

How much further?

Yeah I like it

Things got hot...

The trail ahead

Beautiful views were everywhere

Making stairs using a 'small' piece of equipment

The Bridger Range

First fall...

Moving along now

More of the Bridgers

Almost done!

Our Powder Day in Pictures

Cindi holding the Go Pro

 

Bill kicking it up

Bill riding down Emil

Cindi traversing Sluice Box

Top of Avalanche Gulch

Top of Bridger Lift

Bill finding more powder

Looking out over Avalanche Gulch

Trying to breath and not panic

Avalanche drop in

Cindi starts her run through Avalanche

Powder Runs and Trees...Oh My

Yesterday we had six inches of fresh snow to ride.  We headed out earlier than normal and actually ate fast food for breakfast so we could try to get ahead of the Bridger Train.  The train is a large number of vehicles heading out to Bridger...our train had almost 30 cars all spaced out evenly for the 15 mile trip out of town.



We weren't the first ones on the mountain, but it is amazing how fast the 'line' moves...four to a chair and suddenly no line.  Since there was so much fresh snow we decided to break our tradition and head to the top of Bridger rather than Powder Park.  New snow in Bridger Bowl seemed too good to pass up...although I was a bit apprehensive.  I have a love/hate relationship with the top of Bridger Lift.  I love the views, but don't like the steepness and riding down the road.  At least I have improved my gliding skills.

Off we headed down the road until we dropped into the bowl  For the first time I was able to drop over the edge without a conversation with myself...which never ends well.  My brain keeps telling my legs that 'no you will not turn down this insanely steep slope...you will die if you do'.  My legs have always listened and I head on down the road.  However on this day the brain said 'drop in' and the legs listened.  No panic and off we headed down the bowl into lots and lots of powdery snow.  No falls on the steep...cannot say the same for the flats.  Bill had a nice tumble looking back over his shoulder.

After our little warmup in the Bowl we headed to Avalanche Gulch.  Wow, amazing powder in the Gulch, but it isn't as easy to get back to the proper lift...need to take a rope tow back up to get on the Bridger lift, ride back up in order to do the run again.  Since there was fresh snow we decided to save some time and head over to PK (Pierre's Knob) for a few runs through the trees and down a few chutes until lunch...if our legs would hold up.



Avalanche Gulch was the run of the day...numerous times until our legs said enough.  Our
day started out with snow falling and ended with bright blue skies and sunshine.  Stunning!  Tomorrow we are going to try cross country skiing.

Bill Made Me Carry the Big Stick

I was 'forced' to carry the Go Pro camera on the mono-pod...while riding on a snowboard.  I really did not want to carry the pole.  There are times I have trouble getting myself down the mountain much less a camera, a stick and me.  Anyway the video isn't the greatest...it seems I don't hold my arm out straight enough or something along those lines.  In my defense my poor thumbs suffer from arthritis and don't much care for holding on to the 'heavy stick' while wearing mittens.

Enough whining...enjoy the videos.

Wow

Today we headed downtown for a bit of retail shopping and of course coffee.  While I was getting my latte' at Leaf and Bean Bill and Cooper headed over to Chalet Sports.  We had a good time talking with the employees and a few other customers... Coop brings the crowds to us.

Chatting about our time in Bozeman and boarding at Bridger we mentioned the 'white out' yesterday.  One lady asked if we had seen the video from last month's wind when Bridger shut down... nope we hadn't.  We are very glad we had not seen this one while we were on the chairs yesterday.

Take a look... you might want to hold on to something.

TGIF...Our Legs Need a Break

We headed out to Bridger for the 5th day in a row...the first time that has happened since we arrived in Bozeman.  One thing or another has gotten in the way...temps dropping to -32 degrees for three days and then Bill decided he had a cold so we didn't head out to the slopes.  Maybe we were on to something since both of us now have some very tired legs.  Too bad we have stairs up to the apartment.

On the other hand we would not have missed the last four days of powder...Tuesday's 1 inch which doesn't sound like much, but it makes the board run so nice.  It was followed by 3 inches on Wednesday and then a whopping 10 inches on Thursday.  Which really brought out the powder hounds and created a mass of happy people at the start of the day.  We actually made the 'rope drop' at 9:00 AM.

Today's 4 inches wasn't quite as grand, but we had a full fledged whiteout to ride through...WOW!  As we headed up the lift with some fairly heavy snow falling we made the comment "how nice it would be to have snow falling all day".  By the time we reached the top of the lift the wind was blowing pretty darn hard...with the snow flying and blowing off the trees it created a total whiteout.  We decided to head down through what we thought would be a more protected chute.  It certainly wasn't clear, but we could see well enough until we reached the bottom...then nothing but white swirling around us.  We made our way back to the bottom trying to see any objects that could be in the way...trees, lift poles, people.  Not a comforting feeling at all. 

Once we made it to the lift we decided to bail and wait it out in the lodge.  We were not alone.  One of the Ski Patrol guys walked in after us and stated the obvious "Holy crap"...within 10 minutes the lifts where we had been all were on wind holds...which lasted until after 1:00 PM.  Thankfully other lifts on the far side were still running and basically wind free.  It ended up being another terrific day on the slopes. 

Crossing our fingers that the 'big storm' being forecast for Sunday and Monday occurs...we  may have become Powder Hounds.
 
Another short video of Thursday's boarding....

Powder Run at Bridger

Yesterday we woke to the news of 10 inches of fresh powder at Bridger Bowl...Bill has never driven as fast as he did to get there.  We actually made it before opening.   The ONLY line of the season so far...

Powder Day at Bridger Bowl

A week or so ago we broke out the Go Pro for a run through of fresh snow...beautiful day.  

Yellowstone at Minus 14

The Gardnier River

When Bozeman hit their record lows 2 weeks ago we decided to skip boarding in minus 20 and head out to Yellowstone.  We enjoy watching the animals in any weather and since the sun was shining we headed out to Yellowstone.  The low for our trip hit a minus 14...yeah it was cold enough to freeze    "your nose hair" and standing out taking pictures was a wee bit frigid.  It was a beautiful day even if we couldn't stay outside more than 5 minutes at a time.

Enjoy...

Black Tail Deer

What's up?

Bison

Big Horn Sheep...always on this hillside

Cooper watching bison

Frosty mugs

Paradise Valley- Absaroka Mountains

Pawing for lunch

Buffalo watching Cooper

Cooper watching Buffalo

Elk

Scratching an itch

Buffalo tussle in Mammoth

Triple stare...more elk

 
*click any picture to enlarge

Just a Few Trees

 Presidents' Day we had a bit of sunshine so Bill broke out the camera...for a bit of boarding between the trees.

Video of the Day

Thought y'all might get a kick out of this one... Bill loves it.

One Dog and Lots of Snow

We decided to take a short drive out to Hyalite Canyon on Sunday.  We spent over a week camping and hiking in Hyalite this summer, but winter is more spectacular.  The added benefit of snow measured in feet and cold weather made the day about perfect. 


Cooper REALLY enjoys being out and about when there is snow.  He figured out last winter that it is really hard work to move in deep snow... so he chooses to follow our foot steps.  Most of the time.

Ground Squirrel?

Gotta run!

Uh Oh...deep hole alert

What?

I'm coming...don't leave me!!

On second thought...ground squirrel!

I'm coming...again

...as fast as I can

I love SNOW

Leaping is fun

so is digging

Ice crystals

I may be stuck

Wow what a leap

Almost frozen

Hip deep snow

The boys

Squirrel?

*click on any picture to enlarge