Thursday, February 14, 2013

Whitefish MT

Here We Go!
Whitefishes New Residents

Leaving Utah's Suburbia alpinist training ground was not as easy as it sounds. Its was a long drawn out process that had me leaving and always returning when the Wasatch got its first deep winter coat. Something about the people, the mountains and the dependable conditions to ski and climb over 100 days a year each made me itch to be apart of. Man we have it so good!

Perhaps it was something dropping with the fallout and getting into my mind that kept me there for so long. Could I be happy recreating in another mountain range where I can't see metropolis no matter how far and high I climbed? I had blinders that it cant be better any where else. Man was I wrong!

I have moved on. Returned my Salt lake serious card. Cured from the powder panic plague. Up here in Montana life moves a bit slower for everyone. There are areas within miles from my home in Whitefish that people haven't skied. I have three majestic ranges that I can see from my front porch, Whitefish, Flathead and the Swan Ranges. The Flathead range receives almost 600 inches of snow annually.

I would have never thought that I could move from Salt Lake and feel that my urges to get out in the mountains and ski and climb would be satisfied. I feared that when moving I would checking out the Wasatch avalanche report daily, figuring it must be dumping where I'm not. That has not been the case. It must have been time to leave. If anyone decides to visit I promise to buy ya a Kokanee ($2 at The Northern). Did I mention we live 60 miles from Canada and Ovando, pick your poison!

Gaelen boarding the Half Moon
Whitefish Resort Slackcountry


Truck Approach to Spider Bowl
Swan Range

Funky Trees
Gae Putting in the Skinner
Above Marion Lake
Essex

Vast Landscapes
Top of Mt Essex
Flathead Range

I may be an environmentalist...
Its just too hard to resist the access advantage you get with a snow machine.
Plus there is no metropolis or fallout



Standard Peak
Whitefish Range
Snowmobile Approach

Trackless Bowls
Standard Peak

Are You Serious?
You can actually see this shot from the parking lot and it was Untracked
Backdoor Chute
Essex Mt


Nothing but Powder... Everyday!
It snows a trace a day in these mountains and without crowds that actually adds up.
Crown Bowl
Jewel Basin
Swan Range

The 1991 Indy 500 we bought for 650 bucks!
Just add oil and gas and it goes
Makeshift ski rack
First Pitch of the New Year
Cripple Crack 5.7
Lake Koocanusa
Eureka, MT


Skiing the Checkerboard
Jewel Basin


Fun Terrain
Tower Run
Mt Brown
Glacier National Park

-Kid Bufo Hucks with Whippet
Jakems