Adventures in Candyland.

Yo -- cheapest gas in the nation! And the cheapest prices are in ... West Glacier?

Low vis in Cascadilla, on the edge of Glacier.

I climbed for two hours thinking there was someone else in this canyon, and sure enough there was: two guys from Whitefish.

Marias Pass food truck: breakfast burritos and black coffee on the Continental Divide.

I skied to Marion Lake, then to a cute little peaklet above it.

For years and years, backcountry users basically had two tests to gauge slope stability: the stupidly time-consuming and stupidly complicated Rutschblock test, and the plain old stupid shovel shear test. In the past few years those two have been augmented by a few new tests, including the extended column test, which produces a lot of data and geeky technical apres-ski bar chatter ("Yeah, it had an ECT-24 Q2"). Beta-tested in the past few years primarily at the University of Calgary but just really released for pedestrian use this fall is the brand new Propagation Saw Test. I've done a dozen or so pits using it and in general like it, especially the fact that it results in a yes/no reading with a bit of room for analysis if you want it; the main downside is that you really need a saw to to it right, which is not a huge expense but a bit of a pain to lug around and not something most casual skiers stuff into their packs each morning. I think a final verdict is still out, though; my gut so far is that it's going to produce a lot of false-negatives, but I have to use it in more delicate conditions to see for sure.

Here's an isolated column from midway on Elk Mountain:

And fooling around with the slab:

Two weeks earlier, on Lockwood, Scott and I cut the slab 80 cm and got this weird fracture. (I know, I'm using my probe and not a saw.)

Back to the narrative: brief sun at Marion Lake.

Back at home, low tide in Pattee Canyon.

Christmas Eve.

A sunny drive down from the Montana Shot, AKA Hangover Hill.

With Scott and his pup on Lockwood: the first really good day of the season.

Laura and I had a baby-free ski day at Lost Trail.

Nice! (You'll notice she's sporting her new $14.99 Kinco all-leather ski gloves. That's right. We get our ski gear at Ace.)

A nice spell of cold weather. (That's the window inside our home.)

We made what's become an annual New Year's trip to Whitefish and went skiing. I made Laura pull the Chariot though all the scenic parts.

I could use some of that.

(These hidden trails are below the Willow lot at the ski area and are ... free! This is decidedly Montana's best deal.)

Jeez this kid sleeps a lot.

The baby behaved, so we took him to the train station.

And as Ed Abbey would say, "Holy faith!"