Ward Mountain, Bitterroots, BC Ski

Date: April 6, 2019

Trip Leader: Susanna Girolamo Phillips

Participants: Minot, Mick, Jenica 

On Saturday four of us adventured out before an other weather cycle rolled in. We meat early in the morning to start our day and carpooled all together to south Hamilton. We were able to leave the Ward Mountain Trailhead at a good time. The mountains welcomed us early with sunshine. We found the lower part of the mountain trail (south and east aspect) dry and muddy. During our ascend, earlier in the day, the upper part of the mountain was easier to travel. But as soon as we hit 8’000 ft wind and snow restricted our visibility. We made it to the summit just before noon. We retread below the top and enjoyed a short lunch break before making our way back down the mountain. The skiing down to 6’000 ft was on snow dust on top of snow crust. The snow crust didn’t start breaking until we reached about 5’200ft. Soon we found our self’s punching through rotten snow. We then decided to pack our skies on our backs an hike the rest of the way out. We made it back to the car at 3ish PM.