Flathead Traverse (V2)
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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2M ago
Even though my 2020 Flathead traverse outing was a success, I had hankering to return to try it in a single push.  The line itself is inspiring, and I was excited for the novel challenge of pushing through the night deep in the wilderness.  Anticipating an early fire season, July seemed like the best bet for good conditions. I got enough early season run specific training to feel physically prepared(ish), and jumped when life logistics aligned in July.  In accordance with tradition, I biked the 40-mile shuttle the previous evening and tucked in for a short night of sleep ..read more
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Mission Traverses V 9 - 10
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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5M ago
Mission traverse South to North - 4/29 Duncan skiing the East face of McDonald peak. A primary goal for the season was to do the Mission traverse in the unconventional direction from Sheepshead to East Saint Marys with the intention of skiing different runs, and dropping into Lake of the Stars.  When a 1-day weather window finally arrived, Duncan game.  We got a properly early start, and were shuttled and walking up the Ashley lakes road at 3:15 am.  It was nice to have a partner to take the sting out of the dark hours.  We did manage to break a ski basket early in ..read more
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Bass Ultimate Ridge Link up (BURL)
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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9M ago
I was intrigued to try for a big traverse around the entire rim of Bass creek for a couple of reasons.  It follows a natural high ski line, it seemed like a logical extension from the Bowl bounce and Super bounce, and I had enough local knowledge to have confidence in avalanche conditions during a fickle avalanche year.  Most importantly, I was also inspired by the line, and I wanted a big physical and logistical challenge. On the point above West Lappi, ready for a day. When conditions finally, finally, finally came together, I set out from the Bass creek trailhead on Apri ..read more
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Pyramid Butte (x 2)
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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11M ago
1/15: After a bit of a slow early season, Jeffrey and I finally felt like conditions were set for a bigger tour.  After making most of the normal Pinball approach, we skied a gully on the eastern edge of the Big Saint Joe northeast cirque, which I remembered being pretty good.  To our surprise, the snow was really thin and weak, and we struggled to find even descent, rock free skiing.  We also bungled the section above the South Fork of Sweeney creek by attempting to traverse too high.  But we kept plugging and were below Pyramid Butte by late morning.  Climbing c ..read more
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East Saint Mary to Greywolf scramble
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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1y ago
Looking along the ridge from High Park to Greywolf.  I took advantage of mid-September snow free conditions to scramble around the head of the Dry Lake Creek and link up East Saint Mary, Lowary, High Park peak, and Greywolf.  I parked at the Riddell lake trailhead, ran roads to the East Saint Mary trail, and spent the morning in familiar terrain ascending ESM and bumping over to Lowary.  I descended to Freeman Pass, and then made the easy scramble to High Park Peak.  From there, I covered new to me terrain along the interconnecting ridge to Greywolf.  I tried ..read more
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Heavenly Twins, complete North ridge
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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1y ago
 I devoted one of the many dog days of summer 2022 to make an attempt at climbing the North ridge of Heavenly Twins from Kootenai creek.  The line is intriguing, climbing 4,000 feet from the banks of Kootenai creek.  A moderate amount of internet sleuthing and inquiring among friends didn't really disclose any good beta, so I went into it without much knowledge of route or difficulty.  Fortunately, giving it a blind go didn't feel reckless since bailing is possible for the entirety of the route. I dropped a bike at the Saint Mary trailhead the previous evening, and and roll ..read more
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Mill Creek, 3 to 1 bounce and attempts
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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2y ago
Great skiing on Mill Point. 4/2. I set out on a blustery spring day with high hopes that the third try would be the charm.  Approach shoes ended up being the right choice, because I walked all the way in, prevailed in the re-gen battle, and climbed well into the Mill 2/3 basin before transitioning to skis.  The first run was down a nice ramp at the toe of the North Mill 3 buttress, which was an excellent addition to the day.  During the climb to Mill 3, the steep short crux pitch directly below the upper hanging larch ramp ended up being surprisingly stout, but I was ab ..read more
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Ninemile ramble, 2021
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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2y ago
Fall splendor from Stark. My longest fall outing was a link up of Ch-Paa-Qn, McCormick, and Stark mountains, each human powered from the Ninemile valley.  In order to get it all done, I was biking a very respectably early 5 am from the base of the Butler loop road.  The ride up to the trailhead was cold, slow, and included a (not scary) moose spooking in the dark.  The walk up Ch-Paa-Qn was nice.  There were a lot of down trees on the trail, and snow covered talus slowed progress, but it was spectacular to top out shortly after sunrise.   Early morn ..read more
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Pintler ridge loops
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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2y ago
I had two really nice summer days in the Pintlers that were quality enough to merit documentation.   Cutaway to Warren loop Closing in on Cutaway pass. July 18th.  Right at the beginning of fire season, I rallied early to link up the ridge line between Cutaway Pass to the Porter Ridge.  I was also curious to suss out the route over steep terrain on 10,259.  The morning was delightful, and even with meager running volume under my belt, I was able to run the immaculate trail most of the way up to the crest of the range.  The ridge to Beaverhead and beyond h ..read more
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East Pioneer traverse
MT Adventures | Brian Story's account of skiing and more in Western Montana
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2y ago
Sunrise on the Pioneer crest. My big summer outing was a traverse of the East Pioneer range.  Having not spent much time in the range, I spent the week before the outing scouring maps and Google Earth, planning out a feasible route with contingencies, and psychologically bouncing back and forth between excited and intimidated by uncertainty with the terrain, the elevation, the smoke, potential injuries, and the overall magnitude of the outing.  I didn't think that a complete traverse was realistic, so I left the car at Mono creek campground, with plans to traverse about 2/3 ..read more
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