Bass Peak(ish)

On January 24 I toured up Bass Creek along with Kaleb with intentions of skiing low angle pow in the Lappi Lake area. We left town at the leisurely hour of 7:30 or so and began touring right from the car less than an hour later. The touring went very smoothly and quickly and along the way we shared conversation about how we were both feeling quite "un-ski-fit" and other various topics. As we moved along the trail we both "ahhh-ed" and "oooh-ed at the frozen Bass Falls and other various frozen water flows we could spot high and low on the canyon walls. Eventually we passed the point which one turns to get to the Bass Crags, which at that time was the furthest I had ventured down bass creek. 

Bass Falls 

We were expecting the weather to be bad that day and so we were both surprised when around 11 o'clock the sky was blue and the breaking clouds were allowing the sun to peek through. Soon we crossed the creek and were right below the Pinball Wizard gully, which I had tried to ski two years ago with some friends. It was cool to see it for the first time and to see the other cool gullies that cam off of it. The further down the canyon we got the more I realized just how incredible Bass Creek is. It seemed like there was endless opportunity for skiing in there. One could find everything from low angle glades and meadows, to steep and complex chutes and lines. Big open faces and long steep slide paths as well as small hidden gully's and couloirs. And these are only the things one can see from the trail. Kaleb was telling me about a couloir above Lappi that that we could potentially check out and from the trail it was not visible. As we got to the turn off for Lappi it was relatively early in the day and the weather was still surprisingly really good. 

"Dude, the weather is really good," Kaleb said to me. 

"I know right, this is pretty sweet," I said.  

"Would you maybe want to change plans and go to Bass Peak?" He asked. 

I thought for a second. Bass peak is around 10 miles down the drainage, which is quite far. The weather is still really good and my legs, body and excitement to be exploring Bass were all feeling really good too.

"Hmmmm." I thought. 

"Dude, I'm down." I said. 

Beauty further down Bass Creek 

With that quick decision made we continued up the trail past the turn for Lappi and at that point the skin trail ended. This excited me because I was thinking that we were the first ones to venture that far this winter. As we moved along the trail I spotted more and more cool looking lines, each of which I was making mental notes about how and when I would ski. We got to right below the south face of Big Joe and stood there admiring how actually "Big" Big Joe is. Further up the trail the Joes meaner brother, Stormy Joe became visible and so did his complex south face. Chutes and couloirs crissed and crossed all over that face and I was feeling very inspired by what I saw. After gawking at the mountains around us and taking a quick snack break we continued up to the frozen Bass lake. 

Kaleb Pointing at the nice lines on Stormy Joe 

Kaleb eating an egg 

Here we drank some more water and then started moving over the frozen lake. We toured side by side across the lake and at this point Bass Peak, or so we thought, was sitting right across the lake. More cool looking lines and chutes towered above the lake and all around us was the backcountry skiers paradise. We got across the lake very quickly and began making our way up to the top. The beautiful weather we had been basking in was now starting to disappear and replace with wind gusts and snow. 

"There goes our nice weather." I thought. 

Making our way across the lake 

Working our way up 

But as we got higher up the mountain the weather broke revealing the lake below us and the blue sky that was still visible through the thin clouds. Then 5 minutes later it was back to snow and wind and cloud. This game of cat and mouse with the weather continued on during our journey to the top and when at the top it was obvious that the good weather was really gone this time. I stood on the summit and took it all in, looking at the stunning landscape I was able see from there. I noticed that close behind me was a rocky ridge line that lead into the clouds and I figured that it was just another obscure bitterroot peak, however I learned later that day that it was actually the proper Bass Peak. 

Bass Peak proper 

We transitioned, decided what aspect and slope we wanted to ski, and began our descent. Right as we did something rare and very special happened. The clouds and snow disappeared and the sun shone down on us. It was incredible. We stopped, looked around and laughed, took some photos, and skied down the SE face of what we thought was bass peak. The skiing was great, we went one at a time making big turns down the virgin slope and then cut back across the face and made our way down the east facing slopes we initially toured up. We got back to the lake feeling good about what we had skied. 

The weather Cleared

Kaleb tearing it up 

Our turns down a nice little gully 

"Well now the question is, do we do another lap?" Kaleb said to me. 

I laughed and thought about doing that. 

"Yea, I mean it is 4 o'clock." I said. 

We decided that we would cash in our awesome day and head back to the car before it was too dark. We cruised from the lake to the creek crossing with skins on (which I think now would have been much faster in ski mode) and then transitioned and blasted down the trail all the way back to the car just before it was completely dark out. Very happy with our day and feeling pretty tired we drove back to town. 

Looking back on our way out