Lolo Pass Snowshoe- March 23, 2025

Participants: David & Julie Kahl

With temperatures in the 50’s/10c predicted for Lolo Pass the following week, and a fresh dump of snow expected at Lolo Pass Sat. night, it seemed like Sun. would be a chance to get in one more snow play day. It was snowing as we left Missoula, but was dry when we turned up Hwy 12, all the way up to the magic last three miles (the “S” curve, where Snowshoe Falls is). There were vehicles at most of the road side parking areas, people with the same idea. When we parked in the parking lot I tested the snow -it was that strange combination of dry-wet, it was light and powdery, but the slightest bit of extra energy would turn it sticky and wet. Tire tracks had slush in them. It was suppose to be above freezing in the afternoon. We weighed our options and decided to snowshoe rather than start out skiing in sorta reasonable conditions to fight sticky snow later in the day. Most of the people going out had very skinny skis -like those skate skiers will ski in any conditions. We opted to ski up the State Line Ridge Road. The road that leaves the snowplow turn around area, by the camera, and switchbacks up the ridge to the south of the actual pass, where the state line runs on the ridge top. (Some people have a different name for it, that I don’t recall it at the moment.) We carried our snowshoes over and found a high plowed snow berm to get over. The sign said there was 7 feet/2.2m of snow. David climbed up before putting his snowshoes on, but advised me to put mine on before climbing up. We have first generation MSR Lighting Accents - the cross straps are thick and stiff, and it’s hard to get the tongues into the holes, especially standing up (just a few years later MSR had thinner more flexible straps on the LA’s). I tried to sit on the edge of the berm, only to have my seat collapse under me. I did get situated and struggled to get them on, located in the actual pass, the pass wind was at full force. Behind the berm we got to the base of the road, and the companion trail that people use to, pretty much, go straight up the side of the ridge. The road was tracked by what we presumed were wide skis, and wide enough for our snowshoes to move comfortably. As we went up we encountered many trails where people had come down from above, some stopping on the road, others continuing down the slope to the very beginnings of Lolo Cr. below.  Every time we passed one of these spots the trail got less defined, and around 3/4 of a mile/1.21k the trail stopped at the bottom of a decent chute. I broke trail for about 100 yards/100m, my snowshoes sinking in knee deep most of it, to another decent chute trail. We followed it a short ways until it went around a big tree and down the slope. Snow covered, untracked road ahead of us. Just short of a mile/1.61k we stopped there and took pictures, then headed back. We decided to go back to the base of the road and maybe try doing some through the trees trekking down there. We had barely got beyond the big tree when we encountered, Randy, an old telemark skier who had come up on his skis to try and find a slope to practice on, but he was dubious of the conditions. We visited briefly, then went on.  It had been snowing the entire time, and the snow was melting as soon as it hit our jackets and we were getting wet. Now the wind was in our faces, but, though the snow stung a bit, the wind wasn’t really cold. At the base of the road we went up the “up” trail a short ways to see if it had an intersecting trail that came in from the road by the Visitors’ Center. There was none, so we just started cross country, quickly sinking in knee deep in most places, towards the edge of the parking area. We saw a spot where we could have gotten down, but it was at the very end of the snowplow turn around, and we stayed up. There was a trail of sorts on the edge above the parking lot, but in places it was obscured by the snowblower snow. On the other side of such a heap there were narrow deep ruts in the snow that we figured were made by a motorcycle-snowbike. Had to walk one snowshoe in the rut the other on the rut edge, but they made an easy route that sloped down to the side road by the Visitors’ Center. Back at the pick-up we had done 2 miles/3.22k. Randy stopped by us, to tell us that he hadn’t gone much further than we had, went up the hill to find conditions not good for telemarking, and had just come out. No one really cared, it was just a wonderful last harrah. It was above freezing, there was no accumulated snow on the pick-up, more slush in the tire tracks. More people with skinny skis just going out. We ate lunch in the Visitors’ Center, and as we drove off I saw a party going up the State Line Ridge Road - or what ever it is they called it. I hope they had as good a time as the rest of us did.