Going Down Big In Red Lodge, Montana

I'm going to tell you about the easiest accessed, best-kept back country skiing secrets anywhere in the United States called the Beartooth Pass, so hang on to your hats and get ready to take notes. It pays to call the Montana Department of Transportation ahead of your trip to make sure the Pass is open because several feet of powder can fall up there well in to June. They can be reached at 1-800-226-7623. [I:0:J] [I:3:J]

About a 10 minute drive south of town the road bends upward finally cresting at just less than 11,000 feet of altitude at the West summit. It is real big vertical considering that you get to climb most of it in a car and access dozens of different big mountain lines (check out the photos). There are even places like the saddle approach down in to Gardiner head wall that are easily skiable by a skier of intermediate ability but make no mistake, most of this is big mountain expert terrain. If you can't ski Corbett's at Jackson, the Couloir at Big Sky, or Great Scott at Snowbird then you probably should not be skiing most of this terrain.

The night before we crashed at a friend's in this really cool, new real estate development called The Spires at Red Lodge and watched the sun set against the 12,000 foot peaks to the west. We couldn't believe that in a ski town where they bordered an 18 hole golf course that they were selling complete cottages for under $200,000 - in this day and age who has heard of anything that affordable in a Rocky Mountain ski town.

The sky was crystal blue as we headed out for Glacier Lake Road where we would drop off our first vehicle at the base of the famous Reefer Ridge. You need two rigs for this trip if you want to have a chance to ski the good stuff. Just drop the car at the monster-sized boulder at the 4 to 5 mile point up Glacier Lake Road. It's not a bad idea to gain some bearing on your surroundings and the various reference points. They will come in handy later on as you ski off the ridge.

Our pick-up taken care of we headed off in to the heavens and the jaw dropping scenery that is the Pass. Just the car ride alone makes this whole trip worth it and the skiing is a bonus.

We pass the climb out (about 500 vertical feet) from Gardiner Headwall near the top of the west summit. Gardiner is about 1,000 vertical feet at anywhere from 35 degrees to 45 degrees of pitch depending upon which side of the head wall you select to ski. If it is spring corn then no problem but always be on the lookout for wet slides, they don't go to fast but they are hard to get out of and potentially dangerous. Gardiner gets skied enough that the likelihood is less but you always want to stay alert.

It is so good that we are all hooting it up half way down like a bunch of owls. After a brief hike we are back at the road and decide to have lunch on the exposed rocks. This had nothing to do with the scantily clad young women who were soaking it up there, honest. It's about a mile drive over to the ridge and then we are looking down at all kinds of sweet big mountain drops that would make the Warren Miller boys salivate.

We actually skied to the base of Gunsight Couloir and were able to ski across the creek and right down to our car with only a couple of brief ski removals. We did kick off a big wet slide at the top of Gunsight. We always make sure we skier cut the top of everything we ski and rope the skier in that is making the cut just to be safe. You can see a copy of the photo of our line which is pretty radical for being road accessible.

We chugged back up to the west summit to retrieve our other vehicle and plunged down the 2,000 vertical feet of the Rock Creek head wall on the way back to town for good measure. We had a few cold ones waiting and we hadn't seen anyone else all day long, except for at the Gardiner head wall and marveled at our great fortune to be living in the last, best place.