Washington! The first pass we came to had a hard 2 inch layer of crust on top, and we felt as if we were in the east again! We still decided to take a run as the sun was shining and the skys were blue.
Day 20, was short, sweet, and fast. We toured for about a mile up one skin track, then did a high speed low angle run down, which was kinda like a luge course.
We continued driving after our tour, through a town called Leavenworth where all the buildings were styled like a Bavarian village. Sorry we didn't take any pictures there, however, here is a Google image search link... "Leavenworth, WA"
Thursday, January 26, 2012
We arrived at Lolo Pass on the boarder of Idaho and Montana in the afternoon on Monday. We met a couple nice folks in the parking lot who told us a little about the backcountry and ended up following them out for a quick afternoon run. We only went about 1.5 miles rising about 500 feet, but it felt great to be out snowboarding again. The snow was deep, 6ft on the highway sign, but it had had time to settle and the Avi danger was finally dropping. Although while at Lolo we did stick to low angle terrain.
Tuesday we toured in the same area as the day before but did 3 laps, covering about 5 miles in 4 hours, a cold and windy day brought us back to the car ready for warmth!
The next morning we woke to four inches of heavy snow and 20-40 mph gust of wind. Trees were falling and snow was blowing everywhere. We decided that we best not go out, so down into Missoula we went…
Where to next? We’ll let you know when we get there!
This last video is of Whitney and Pablo, it is her first time on her Splitty! Way to go girl!
On Saturday we got up to Lost Trail Pass and the Avi danger was exceptionally high so we went to see if we could find any low angle runs at the Chief Joseph X-country Area... unfortunately the snow was to deep on the low angle hills, but we did go for a 4 mile tour. We did get to experience "wumphing" and feel the snow collapsing that day however. May I never experience it again unless on flat ground!
We crossed the boarder into Idaho just in time to watch The Patriots destroy the Broncos, paving their way for the AFC Championships. To top off the night we found a wonderful campsite along the KootenaiRiver. The next morning as we drank our coffee we watched a Bald Eagle fish for its breakfast. So neat!
From Idaho, we continued into Montana again where we spent the week with friends, resting, watching movies and playing games. It was so good to see all the Montana friends again!
After the Splitfest we headed south to the hotsprings again, and then on to the-pass-that-must-not-be-named. Eva and Gary, our new Split friends told us about this beautiful place, but also requested that we don't blog the name. It is a secret stash that we were lucky to learn about. We arrived at said pass on Tuesday and didn't leave until Saturday.
The first night was so cold that when we tried to cook our dinner the regulator on our propane stove stopped working and we ended up eating par boiled rice with dinner.
On Wednesday we did 3.5 miles, which included... 3 laps on a thinly forested mountain side gaining only about 500 ft for each lap. The parking area had a little warming hut where we were able to start a fire in the woodstove to dry out our gear that evening and it was also a nice warm place to cook and eat dinner. While we were in there another couple (Ryan and Cass, from Montana) joined us with wine and beer and we got to know each other over a game of Settlers of Catan.
Thursday, we toured with our new friends, going to the other side of the road we headed up to the ridgeline and continued up to our first peak this winter. As we got closer to the top the wind started to howl and it got cold quick, but thankfully we all had the right gear and as soon as we dropped off the south side of the mountain we were back feeling the sunshine. The ride down was oh so fabulous! We then headed back up to the ridgeline where we had lunch at a little cabin that you can stay in, it had a woodstove in the main area, a loft, a mud room and a porch, very cozy indeed. Then back up the ridge, we hiked to the false summit where we dropped off the north side back to our cars... although we only did 4 miles that day, it took us 7 hours. A long day, a great day.
That evening we drove to the closest town and did some laundry, as there are only so many days one can wear polypro! Unfortunately, the laundromat and the gas station were the only places open, so the food we stocked up on was far from quality, but thankfully, they did have bananas! At the end on the night, we finally fell asleep, back up on the pass...
Friday morning we headed out again on the trail that we had taken on the first day. But this time we headed towards the peak... when we got to above tree line we decided to dig a pit. Although the failing layers were deep and hard to trigger we chose to stick to the safe side and drop from that point instead of going up to the top where there were huge cornices hanging over the aspect we wanted to drop into. We dropped into the bowl one at a time and then headed down into the trees. We could have continued down to the road, but decided to stay in the forest for a little longer and hiked back up to what we started calling our little knoll (cause we were the only ones laying tracks on it) for our last run. Only a 3 mile day, but gaining 900 feet left us tired and in dire need of rest.
The next day Eva and Gary had us over for lunch before we headed back to the states and it was great to see their home, which was decorated in photos they had taken while splitboarding. Very inspiring! Thank you Canada for having us! We truly had a wonderful time!
