Bass Bowl Bounce 2017

Jeffrey and I were able to get out for a full day back in late January for one of our favorite tours in the area – the bass bowl bounce.  After the typical 3 hour approach to bass lake, we continued up north bass peak under unexpectedly beautiful conditions.  The top two hundred or so feet of the E face had been hammered by the wind but we soon hit great boot top powder and continued down to below the bass/kootenai saddle. 

NE face of smoky joe

a beautiful morning at bass lake

From there we climbed north to the saddle and then up the groove tube, to have a look at the striking Spurge couloir.  After skiing the upper hundred or so feet, we didn’t like what we were seeing and feeling (the recent storm snow readily sluffing with some propagation on a more pronounced crust than we had yet seen that day) so climbed back out and continued east on the more moderate terrain of the standard bowl bounce, finding mostly good powder conditions on the next two runs.

spurge couloir from atop N bass peak

stormy joe and big st joe from N bass peak

By the time we crested the last climb atop lappi point, the forecasted storm had arrived with howling winds and low visibility.  We dropped into the lappi west bowl from the top, largely by feel in the flat light conditions.  All was going well on the egress til a snowbridge broke below me over bass creek.  Fortunately I was unscathed but one pole and both of my skis just behind the heel pieces broke in the fall (dynafit denalis, a ski with known breakage issues).  With a branch in one hand and my remaining pole in the other, I was lucky enough to be able to snowplow and ski out the remnants of my skis (with a whole bunch of extra tail rocker) the  ~5miles of remaining trail to the car.

this tour largely consists of thousands of feet of mellow pow skiing

the S face of big st joe holds several quality 3000ft runs

We briefly crossed paths with brian who was egressing from a speedy go at the pinball wizard and was nice enough to wait at the trailhead to make sure I made it out safely on my compromised gear.      

Obviously a bummer to break a pair of skis but flukes like that do happen I suppose.  Thankfully I had put a lot of days on them over the last two and a half seasons so no use being too upset.

Rose: catching this awesome tour in mostly powder conditions for the second year in a row

Thorn: breaking my skis!

Bud: returning for the Spurge

Stats:  about 9500vert in 11.5 hours