Holland Peak to Holland Lake Ski Traverse

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. 

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.  

picture doesn't do it justice.  alpenglow on the missions

lower rumble lake - we gained the ridge via looker's L couloir 

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. 

brian on the ridge

nasty glide cracks/debris just off holland's S ridge, easily bypassed to the E

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.

a nice depiction of how small and insignificant we are in the mountains.
brian and jeffrey below the N face of buck mt.  

brian leading the charge down buck's SE face

NE face of pt. 8450 - we skied the open portion on looker's R

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.   

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. 

view from the highway - holland is 2nd from L and holland lookout is far R 

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)