Bass Bowl Bounce 2016

(Note – I’m behind and out-of-order on write-ups.  This tour occurred on Jan 24). 

perfect powder deep in the bitterroot wilderness (photo: brian)

Bass Creek is stacked with tons of great ski terrain, is close to town and has a nice trail for easy access/egress.  Perhaps the best long tour up bass creek is the bowl bounce tour, which involves climbing N bass peak above the lake and then skiing and climbing a series of bowls to the E all the way to lappi lake.

upper creek crossing

passing through pinball meadow (photo: brian)

Brian, Jeffrey and I set out from the bass TH by headlamp and with a few short breaks, reached the outlet of the lake in the typical 3 hours.  We were blasted by brutal winds while crossing the lake but persevered and continued up the gladed N face of N bass peak (great moderate run).  The summit was socked-in but fortunately after a few turns down the moderate E face, we slipped below the clouds and enjoyed a nice view of the striking Spurge couloir while skiing all the way down to a bench slightly below the bass-kootenai saddle.  

spurge couloir, drops W from pt. 8285

From there we climbed the N gully of pt. 8285 to the top and skied the next bowl to the E, down to about 7000ft, enjoying the great boot-top powder conditions. 

closing in on pt. 8285, pictured is the steeper NE face that we did not ski

can you find brian in his dark apparel? 

jeffrey bowl bouncin'

Another climb to the E put us atop pt. 8145 followed by another great 1300ft of mellow pow skiing.  We fueled up for the last big climb E to lappi point (pt. 8524), from which we descended the NE ridge for a bit before hanging a L into the lappi west bowl, which again held great mellow powder skiing down to bass creek and an easy ski out to the trailhead. 

pointing 'em home

Stats:  approx. 9200vert in 10.5 hrs car-car

Thoughts:  this is a spectacular tour and could likely shortened by 1 run by exiting to bass creek via the moderate E face of smoky joe or better yet, lengthened by adding-on the spurge couloir or skiing any of the W aspects you climb

Rose: catching this bitterroot classic in such great condition

Thorn: brutal winds while crossing bass lake

Bud: returning in more stable conditions for the Spurge