It’s late May in Montana which can mean only one thing – it’s time to go backcountry skiing in the Beartooths! In what’s now become an annual spring trip, six good friends, two dogs and I threw together camping gear, a bunch of great food and lots of beer and headed for Red Lodge, Montana. We left Bozeman early Friday, drove the 3 hours to the Beartooth Mountains and pulled into our usual camping place part way up the Beartooth Highway. As the pass had just opened that day, we quickly dumped our gear and continued up to the Montana/Wyoming state line, almost at the top of the pass. To our delight, the one mile traverse of tundra to the Rock Creek Headwall was still snow covered and we were able to skin/ski across the plateau. This made the access much better than usual and we made it to the top of the chute in record time. Although the snowpack is above normal this year, as you’ll see in the pictures, huge winds had recently been blowing in the highcountry, depositing a layer of dust on the snow surface. This made for some quirky ski conditions at times over the 4-day trip, but we’ve learned to consider most anything acceptable when it’s almost June. That same day, after skiing Rock Creek, we drove up to Gardiner headwall and made 2 additional runs in that cirque at 10,400’. 

 

For our second day, we drove just across the pass, parked and skinned up to what’s affectionately known as Reefer Ridge. This is actually another high sloping plateau, an alpine feature somewhat unique to but common in the Beartooth Mountains. As dp can attest from our Granite Peak trip of 2006, these high plateaus can be deceptive. Although gently sloping, they’re often cut by steep canyons and numerous couloirs offering outrageous ski lines… if you can find the entrance to get into them. Over the 4 days, we all made at least one Reefer Ridge descent, some of our group made a second. A “typical” run consists of skinning up to the plateau and ski-traversing to the spot you’d scoped the day before. Dropping in puts you into the first of what is usually 4 or 5 different faces, separated by packing your skis over glacial moraine, skinning or boot-packing up other sections and inevitably, crossing fast running water. On the second Reefer Run, the group had the pleasure of skiing under a sizable waterfall! Eventually one ends up crossing the Rock Creek, often after skiing across sections of a still-frozen lake and packing gear down to the gravel road. From there it’s a 2-mile hike to the shuttle car left that morning. 

 

One of this year’s highlights was skiing a variation on the Gardiner Headwall known as the Hourglass. This line funnels down through a pinch in the rocks before opening up to the main Gardiner Cirque, ending up above the frozen lake. 

 

My bg control was adequately maintained this year by using my Continuous Glucose Monitor with my Medtronic insulin pump. I used it constantly, relying on occasional blood tests only to calibrate the CGM system. It’s much easier to glance at your pump 3 or 4 times/hour, see the bg trend and value, then it is to stop, get out of the wind and draw blood for a test. My infusion sites and sensor – both worn on my abdomen – never interfered with my pack straps or dislodged from sweat. Although my bg control was tolerable, not great, I always knew where I stood and avoided surprises (and hypos) completely.

 

Rather than upload photos, I’m listing links you can click to view full resolutions images. Thanks to Thomas Naberhaus for uploading them and to Phil Hawkins and Greg Nelson for the images.

Jeff

 

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/180/_original [1] (small skier, big mountains)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/165/_original [2] (happy faces)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/171/_original [3] (Rock Creek Headwall)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/187/_original [4] (a line we skied)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/135/_original [5] (another line)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/133/_original [6] (creek crossing)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/155/_original [7] (Phil with the Hourglass in background)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/110/_original [8] (crossing the plateau – Tom, Bret & Me)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/80/_original [9] (Greg & I, on the rocks)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/82/_original [10] (Great view of the Bear’s Tooth, the range’s namesake)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/78/_original [11] (Bret, Phil, Greg & Me)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/101/_original [12] (Are we having fun?)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/99/_original [13] (Another frozen lake)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/98/_original [14] (Great view of Pilot Pk)

http://bsi-director.msu.montana.edu/example/image/view/92/_original [15] (Greg about to descend in front of another boring backdrop)