The Big, Bad Beartooth
Go to: Previous Article Next Article
Folks for those of you adventurers I'm going to give you a photo chronicle of one of the hippest, coolest places to car accessibly ski anywhere on the planet. That place is the Beartooth Pass in Red Lodge, Montana. It opens on Memorial Day but check with MDOT at (800) 226-7623 because two feet of powder have been known to grace this area even in June.
Ten miles south of Red Lodge is where the Beartooth Pass begins its climb to the sky. It offers 4,000 vertical feet of big mountain lines when it first opens (check out the photos). If you can't ski all of the steepest stuff that the big names resorts offer then this probably isn't the best place for you. There is a little run off the shoulder of Gardiner headwall that is fairly intermediate but that is about it.
The night before we crashed at a friend's in this really cool, new real estate development called The Spires at Red Lodge and watched the sun set against the 12,000 foot peaks to the west. We couldn't believe that in a ski town where they bordered an 18 hole golf course that they were selling complete cottages for under $200,000 - in this day and age who has heard of anything that affordable in a Rocky Mountain ski town.
The sky was crystal blue as we headed out for Glacier Lake Road where we would drop off our first vehicle at the base of the famous Reefer Ridge. You need two rigs for this trip if you want to have a chance to ski the good stuff. Just drop the car at the monster-sized boulder at the 4 to 5 mile point up Glacier Lake Road. It's not a bad idea to gain some bearing on your surroundings and the various reference points. They will come in handy later on as you ski off the ridge.
With our drop complete we take off up the Pass and are more amazed by the incredible high mountain scenery. Journalist Charles Kuralt called the Beartooth the most beautiful highway in America and we all agree that he got it right.
We pass the climb out (about 500 vertical feet) from Gardiner Headwall near the top of the west summit. Gardiner is about 1,000 vertical feet at anywhere from 35 degrees to 45 degrees of pitch depending upon which side of the head wall you select to ski. If it is spring corn then no problem but always be on the lookout for wet slides, they don't go to fast but they are hard to get out of and potentially dangerous. Gardiner gets skied enough that the likelihood is less but you always want to stay alert.
The corn snow has us giggling half way down it is so good. It is a short 500 vertical foot hike out which takes about 20 minutes and we decide to have lunch at the rocks along the top by the highway. This had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that there were five 20-somethings in bikini tops sunbathing. From there we headed to Reefer Ridge where there are many lines to get you back to your morning vehicle drop. These are all 3,500 vertical foot big mountain lines and some of them cliff out so choose your lines carefully or you'll be doing some hiking.
We actually skied to the base of Gunsight Couloir and were able to ski across the creek and right down to our car with only a couple of brief ski removals. We did kick off a big wet slide at the top of Gunsight. We always make sure we skier cut the top of everything we ski and rope the skier in that is making the cut just to be safe. You can see a copy of the photo of our line which is pretty radical for being road accessible.
The headwall was about the size of most ski areas and dropped straight down to the third to last switchback on the Pass. Cold PBR's were waiting for us and on the trip back we just sat there in stunned silence because we hadn't seen a sole all day long accept for our first descent.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
- Credit Cards A big selection of Cards in all flavors: Bad Credit Cards, Secured Cards, Prepaid Cards, Credit Cards for Canada, Low Interest Cards, etc -
Word Count: 711
Reduce Your Debts Without Bankruptcy. See How Much You Can Save. Free Debt Analysis
