The January Thaw

Laura got me a book for my birthday called "Downhill in Montana." It's a history of skiing in Montana and focuses on ski areas.

(Lower Lolo Canyon)



Like many states in the U.S., Montana is peppered with ski areas that opened in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, operated for a few or 10 years, and then closed up. Many of these ski areas opened during periods of unusual snow and cold only to find that when conditions returned to normal their once-great ski season had shrunk from five months to two, or less. The author interviewed one former ski area owner who noted that no matter how warm and snowless a winter can be in Montana, there was always one thing he could count on: the January thaw.

(Crystal Theater)



While we've had our moments of snow and cold here, it's been overall a dry and warm winter. Such winters are particularly frustrating when we are new here, excited to get out and ski peaks only to be confronted by brownery.

(Lolo)



My first winter in Salt Lake City was the same way, as was my first winter in Tooele, so maybe we can write this off to a sort of first-year phenomenon.

(Crystal Theater)



So, the thaw is on. Missoula is about to totally melt out, which means lots of puddles, mud and piles of melty black snow. Apparently it also means lots of fog, which we've had almost every day for two weeks.

(Looking to Idaho from Lolo)



The Clark Fork and Bitterroot rivers are now wide ribbons of flowing water edged by ice and stranded bergs. South faces above the valley are snow-free. Jumbo has two wild ribbons of snowing arcing up the west face where south winds deposited drifts; elsewhere on Jumbo, the winter elk herd has all the grass it can eat.

(Fresh lines in the Crystal Theater)



(I'm not the only one making tracks here)



Of course, though we are in thaw there is still snow -- just much less of it.

(Laura at Lost Trail)



(Lost Trail is great, but it sure has a lot of flat spots. Every snowboarder needs a telemarker, if for nothing else than to loan poles.)





Let's hope winter resumes before spring begins.





(Stevensville)