Little Saint Joe's Peak and Ski, Bitterroots

Looking off into the Bitterroot: Saint Mary and Heavenly Twins are on the horizon.
All photos were taken by Matt Roscoe

This past weekend, I went backcountry skiing for the first time in a long time, and for the first time with my new backcountry gear. Matt Roscoe, Paul Jensen, and I skied up Little Saint Joe's, which is on the east-west facing ridge, also containing Saint Joseph Peak, just south of Sweeney Peak in the Bitterroots. We had great skiing and a rejuvenating mini-vacation. I'm stoked to get out into the backcountry more this season and hopefully bag a few peaks along the way.

So far it's been a great ski season. During the week before last, we had a two day storm, on a Monday/Tuesday, yielding a fantastic couple of Snowbowl days. I extended the great powder skiing into the following weekend by hiking TV Mountain a bunch of times. TV is my favorite area at Snowbowl to ski, but it gets good only when it stays cold and snows, as it has this year. The last time TV skiing was any good was three seasons ago.

Anyway, I've been doing my best to enjoy the pleasures of winter.

Morning skinning.

Paul Jensen, a Missoula backcountry skiing/climbing legend.

On the summit

Great snow in the Little St. Joe east facing bowl.

Matt, the photographer, under a bluebird sky.

Missoula Area Peaks

I gave a talk at the Rocky Mountaineers meeting on January 11, 2017. Here are the slides:

Missoula Area Peaks from Johnathan Bardsley