The Winter's Gift

The winds turned cold and the leaves fell from branches as the masks of the season changed to fall. As the first snows came to the nearby peaks of the Beartooth mountains, our nearby ski community was blessed with ample snow. Early storms blanketed Red Lodge in beautiful veil of white. Meanwhile, in Billings snow was more or less a fleeting beauty. As winter's cold grasp came to the land, it came to pass that my ski's lived perpetually in my truck. On every opportunity I could muster I found myself on the slopes and often meddling in the side country of Red Lodge.

Watch my winter of Red Lodge side-country!!!! 

The winter depths of snow came to be a welcomed friend and the mountains loomed with adventures. I became addicted to tight powder filled trees; dodging their trunks at high speeds. I came to understand the addiction that is powder. Amongst my most memorable days of skiing came from my day of back country skiing and skinning in Cooke City. There we climbed and nearly 5000 vertical feet of untouched powder. The winter was a transition, as nordic skiing was largely unobtainable in any reasonable quality. If I were to exert myself on skis then it may has well have been in the interest of powder turns. And so skinning up the mountain and working for my turns slowly took the place of nordic racing this year. But the winter only seemed moderately cold to a harden Minnesotan and back in Billings I found myself commuting by way of bicycle nearly year round.

With each season comes a renewed thankfulness for its gifts and yet a longing for the next. The warmth slowly crept back to the land. As the winter's grasp loosened, I came to be grateful  for the meditative silence of winter and the lightness of powder under foot .

Spring Break: Red Lodge

As I found myself on a plane out west, I found myself thinking of all the adventures of past spring breaks. At this time last year, I was 800 ft off the ground aiding up moonlight buttress, and the year previous found me 9 pitches up trad-leading Crimson Chrysalis in Red Rocks, NV. This year was going to more tame, more relaxed, and less about adrenaline.

I arrived out west with the primary purpose of visiting my significant other and had a glorious time relaxing as spring was hitting the front ranges of the Rockies. Apart from relaxation, I did get to spend a great day at Red Lodge ski area in Montana....

In the morning, I awoke to snow covering the foot hills. As the car struggled to climb the icy roads up to Red Lodge, the snow continued to fall thicker. As we arrived, the quaint ski area lay ahead with it's slopes climbing into the obscurity of clouds and falling snow. After spending a quite moment taking in the scene before, I strapped on my telemark skis and headed up the mountain before the parking lot could fill.

It was a beautiful powder filled day with 5-6 inches of fluff under foot. I skied nearly non-stop all day long, skiing the full spectrum of runs. From fun gently sloping easy runs to charging tree filled mogul fill goodness, it was reminder of what skiing out west tasted like. By the end of the day, I was nodding off on the lift up the hill out of beautiful exhaustion and felt a healthy burn of fatigue in my thighs.

After ending my day of skiing and finish round of experimentation with my taste buds at the local sushi bar, I went to bed content and fulfilled. It was a day well spent and one to be remembered.