Ward Mountain BC Ski - February 15, 2026

Ward Mountain BC Ski - February 15, 2026

Participants: Alex Karafiat, Haley Eakin, Luke Jacobson, Josie Mayhew, Francis Horton (leader), & Sean Colvin (leader)

With a bit of winter finally showing up, a crew of us decided to see what conditions looked like down the Bitterroot and give Ward Mountain a go. We set off on the summer trail around 8:30 with an intermittent light misting, but not the full-on rain I was worried we might have. After some hiking, we were able to put the skis on around 5600’ and start skinning up through the old burn area. The snowpack quickly piled up and optimism for good skiing grew and grew the higher we went, and the sun even burnt through the clouds to give us a bit of light for an hour or two.

We kept a steady pace up the mountain stopping a couple times for food breaks. As we got to upper elevations, the snow was quite deep and heavy. The skin track was plunging a good 8-10+ inches below the surface. As the going got more strenuous in the deep snow, we took turns breaking trail, but the true MVP awards of the day go to Francis and Luke who broke more than the lion’s share on the day.

Near the top we ascended into the clouds and were met with the usual strong ridge-line winds. We trudged on to tag the summit just before 2pm. Not a day to hang around the top though, so we snapped a quick summit selfie and skinned back to a slightly more protected area to transition for the descent.

Having been up Ward before, I remembered being able to ski easily from top to bottom in the past, but the deep, deep, heavy snow made it quite a challenge up high. With too low an angle to pick up any momentum, we plowed our way down the top ~2000’ leapfrogging each other as one person would use another’s tracks to build up speed before passing them to plow a track ahead for others to follow.

Finally as we got lower, the snow lightened and shallowed a bit and the angle got more favorable. The lower portion of our descent through the burn area was a welcome reward. We got some fantastic skiing through faceted powder down to only a few hundred feet above our transition point at the beginning of the day. We picked our way through the bushes and logs before finally taking off the skis and beginning the boot pack out.

Back at the cars about 8 hours after leaving, we enjoyed some parking lot beers and chips while the sun sank behind Roaring Lion. Just before full dark, the last of us climbed back in our vehicles and made the drive back to Missoula, tired and fulfilled.