TR Sawtell Peak, ID 6-29-06

[woodi]

This reports a bit late...but i figure this time of the year it's better late then never. Gotta keep the dreams of turns alive. Last week Louis of telebulldog fame came out to visit and we decided that some binding testing was in order. Chris and Collins thought we were crazy (Louis and I) for thinking we could find something to ski this late in the season but we were determined and off we went north. After a good bit of driving we arrived at the summit of Sawtell Peak. The view was spectacular (as long as you were looking away from the radio towers)

 

We were originally planning on hiking a few miles to get to a bowl on the next peak over but after some looking from the summit we found a line with much easier access.

 

We parked down next to the radio tower in the picture and climbed over to the line right below the tower. The snow was a bit heavy but not bad for early afternoon in the end of june. The run started open then choked and got pretty steep before opening up a bit again. Here's me coming through the choke (click on the picture to see an animated version, the files are a bit big so it might be pretty slow for anyone on dial-up).

 

After that run we had to scramble back up to the car for a binding repair and found our next run along the way. After swapping out my binding we headed down for our next run.

 

We skiied that once and the corn was so perfect we had to go for another run. Louis snapped a few more pictures of me on the second run (again click to open an animated version).

 

Then we passed the camera off and I got a few of Louis near the end of the run (again clicking on it will load a moving version).

 

After the third run we were both feeling the elevation and decided to call it a day. So we headed over into Yellowstone and did a little sight-seeing and had a nice swim in one of the lakes. We then grabbed some dinner on Jackson Lake and eventually got back to Driggs around 11. It was a great day of skiing and exploring. Gave me some hope for July turns.