Ward Mountain (Bitterroots) - January 25, 2025

Participants: Kimberly Meade-White, Paul Jensen, Ted Kays, Rupert Williams, Taryn Brahmsteadt, Dori Gilels, Eli Kruse, Sean Parslow, Ben Bagniewski, Susanna Phillips, Forest Dean (Leader)

This was the ‘Solstice Trip’ originally scheduled for December 21 but delayed due to lack of snow.  Things were a fair bit better a month later- still not much coverage on the lower part of the mountain, but just enough to make it mostly skiable back to almost the start.  The top was excellent!

Our large group of 10 started out at about 8:45.  We were able to skin from the parking lot.  We followed the summer trail for about half mile then cut straight up into the burn area.  Eli was our designated trail breaker.  The group managed to all stay within 10 minutes of each other all the way up.  The day was cold but lots of sunshine and we all topped out around 1:15pm (roughly 4900’ of climbing over 4.5 miles).  A total lack of clouds, moisture, pollution led to some fantastic views from the top and we lingered a bit taking it all in.  Sean (our token splitboarder) arrived at this time too after a late start.  We transitioned and began the descent about 1:45.  The upper 2000’ was quite good, the next 1000’ was fair, the 1500’ was survival, and the last 500’ was hiking.  We finished a bit after 4:00.  8 of us made our way to Bitterroot Brewing to celebrate ‘Solstice + One-Third’.  Fun day with a really great crew!

Forest Dean