May 14, N face Mt. Cannon, Glacier NP

I just moved to West Glacier, MT which is about a 2 min drive from the national park, and am trying to take advantage of the insane skiing possibilities while the snow is still around.

We rode our bikes in a ways, on the Going-to-the-sun road, then started our approach. With our early start, the snow was way to firm to skin. Also we were climbing up a debris field and there was not a very smooth surface to skin on. So we booted our way up to the face. Once we got to the face, the snow had softened but was now way to steep to skin, so it was more boot packing. Everyone had one whippet or axe but 2 would have been a lot more comforting for the last bit of the climb.

Once at the top, we snapped some pictures and headed down. The skiing was incredible! About 45-50 deg of "no fall zone" for the first 1000ft or so, then mellowed out to to a more relaxing pitch. And at the bottom, all of the debris had softened up enough to plow through it. A quick bushwack/log crossing brought us back to the road and our bikes, we we cruised back on the closed road in the sunshine to cold beer at the car.

A fantastic first ski trip in the park, which is now home for the summer. Pictures might come around one day...