Skiing Big Blue off Schweitzer Mountain

One of the aspects I love about Schweitzer Mountain is the great side-country/backcountry ski terrain that is accessible from the lifts. We all know that we haven't had a whole lot of snow since early January, but I was amazed at how good the powder was off 'Big Blue' today. Its pretty cool to be able to find face shots right now, even if you do have to work a bit harder for them.

I got to the mountain around noon today, hoping the 3 inches from yesterday would have blown in nicely on the North Bowl. Seeing that this last little storm is still on top of crust in most places, my pal Travis let me know that Big Blue had been good a few days before. We hiked the T bar, headed out of bounds and charged up Blue. We came down skier's right, and kept cheating more to the right.

As these pictures show, we actually had a pretty epic run today! We had large untracked lines, some face shots, pillows of snow, great trees.

I should add the caveat to this post that anyone not familiar with the area shouldn't just go out and ski out of bounds without proper equipment, knowledge, and a skiing buddy. My friends and I plan to spend quite a bit more time in the backcountry over the next few months, as this is really where its been happening these past few weeks.