After a solid few
hours of sleep at the trailhead, the usual trio of Brian, Jeffrey and I set out
from the cooney lookout/holland peak TH at 5am, excited for a day of skiing
adventure along the swan crest. Our
destination was holland lake, where we had dropped a vehicle the previous
evening.
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| jeffrey on the swan crest, holland peak in the distance |
The climbers trail up to rumble
lakes is steep and direct and we soon found ourselves at the lower lake,
admiring the pink alpenglow on the missions across the valley. We opted to forgo the buried summer trail to
the upper lake and instead boot up the L of two N facing couloirs from the lake
to the ridge.
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picture doesn't do it justice. alpenglow on the missions
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| lower rumble lake - we gained the ridge via looker's L couloir |
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A remaining short climb put
us in the sun on the crest of the range where we transitioned and skied a short
run E to the bottom of holland’s SE face, so as to avoid the nasty glide cracks
that form along the summer S ridge route.
A straightforward boot up the SE face put us on top, which I was excited
to visit with skis for my first time.
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brian on the ridge
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| nasty glide cracks/debris just off holland's S ridge, easily bypassed to the E |
|
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| skiing holland's SE face (photo: brian) |
We were a little early for corn
but the face skied well and from the bottom, we made a long sidehill traverse
to the S to gain a small but obvious break in the lower E ridge of Buck
Mt.
I slapped on skins for the first
time of the day and Brian lead the way wrapping around onto the SE face of Buck
and up to the summit.
We skied the SE
face in good corn conditions down to upper terrace lake and discussed our next
move.
We opted to bypass the next
highpoint of the crest on the E side and re-gained the crest slightly N of pt.
8450 before trending S to the summit.
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a nice depiction of how small and insignificant we are in the mountains.
brian and jeffrey below the N face of buck mt. |
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| brian leading the charge down buck's SE face |
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| NE face of pt. 8450 - we skied the open portion on looker's R |
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| jeffrey dropping in and headed to woodward lake |
With adequate time for another
long run, we decided to ski the aesthetic NE face of pt. 8450 to woodward
lake. The upper half skied well however
the latter thousand feet to the lake was heavy mush and a real workout on my
skinny skis. After an exciting but
successful water refill (another great use for the whippet), we climbed W to
the obvious break in the cliffs before making a long traverse to the S above
necklace lakes and ultimately back onto the ridgecrest to the holland
lookout.
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| closing in on the holland lookout (photo: brian) |
We skied down the W ridge before
nosing our way into the SW bowl and continuing down til we ran out of snow,
luckily a mere 10ft from the summer trail.
We transitioned to shoes and embarked on a surprisingly fun 3ish mile
run down the trail. Despite having to
drive N back to cooney lookout to get my truck, our early start and strong pace
throughout the day put us back in town in time for dinner.
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| view from the highway - holland is 2nd from L and holland lookout is far R |
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| rough breakdown of our route |
Thoughts: I seem to easily
forget how great the skiing is in the swan.
although the drive and access is a little more than many
bitterroot/rattlesnake/mission options, it’s certainly worth skiing in the swan
once or twice per season. there is a lot
of good ski terrain around lower and upper rumble lakes with easy access via
the bushwhack-free climbers trail
Stats: approx. 17mi/11k vert in
11:20 point-point
Splits: 4:15 holland, 5:45 buck,
7:30 pt. 8450, 9:45 lookout, 11:20 holland lake TH
Rose: the remoteness and beauty of
skiing in the bob marshall wilderness
Thorn: knowing this is likely
one of my last ski outings of the season
Bud: I’ve done holland peak and
a holland lake to sunday mt. traverse in the summer but am excited to return
this summer for the full smith creek pass to sunday mt. outing (30+mi/14k vert)
