Strumming, Running and Sunning: LONE MOUNTAIN RANCH - Day 3

BLUEBIRD MORNING, BLIZZARD AFTERNOON, IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

We woke up this morning to blue skies and relatively mild temperatures. Karen stayed snuggled under the covers in preparation for her mid-day massage and spa treatment in Big Sky Village. I grabbed a quick breakfast to get ready for some backcountry skiing.

Down at the Outpost I met my guide, Randy. He’s worked at the ranch for more than 20 years and he’s a native Montanan and an experienced outdoorsman. The third person in our group today was a fellow guest of the ranch, Alexander. Alexander is a medical doctor from New Jersey.

We jumped in a pickup truck and went a few miles down the road to the Porcupine Trailhead. Our plan was to ski a few miles up into the hills and do some exploring.

The trail was pretty much snowed over from the storm on Monday - except for the fact that some horseback riders had gone up (probably yesterday) and made a real mess of things with their large feet leaving big holes in the snow. This meant we’d be breaking trail through fresh snow adjacent to the trail. It also meant we’d be going slow.

Meanwhile, the wind was picking up and our blue skies gave way to dark clouds and blowing snow. Along with that, the temperature began to drop. There’s nothing like skiing uphill against the wind.

A couple miles in, it was really beginning to storm. I had a chance to split off from the group long enough to climb a nearby hill and try a downhill run through about three feet of fresh powder. I was doing great until I did a face-plant into the soft snow. When I got to the bottom, Randy complimented me on my ‘Wide World of Sports’ performance.

As the weather continued to deteriorate, we decided to turn around and head back to the trailhead. Randy suggested we ski into the more wooded areas in order to avoid some of the wind.

We got to a small dip in the terrain where a creek flowed under the snow. This is a pretty routine occurrence when you’re skiing in the backcountry and Randy led the way down and across it. Alexander was next, and he got off to a good start until he inexplicably veered parallel to the creek. This caused his left ski to plunge downward through the thin layer of snow and ice and into the frigid water. As this was happening, his right ski went into the air and right leg crossed over his left leg. This left him flat on his back against the creek bank with his arms and legs all (as they say) akimbo.

Randy felt bad that he had led one of his guys into this situation and jumped into action to extricate Alexander. It became clear pretty quickly that this was not going to be that easy to do. Alexander’s left ski was submerged and wedged under snow and ice that covered the creek. The right ski was buried under snow on top of the creek. Alexander could not reach either ski to release the bindings. Randy took off his own skis to get down to Alexander but got his own right boot into the creek and couldn’t get to Alexander’s skis so he went behind Alexander to get ready to pull him up onto the bank.

I kept my skis on and made a little bridge for myself near Alexander’s feet. This allowed me to reach down into the creek to feel around for the binding release. Just as I was losing feeling in that hand I got the boot loose from the ski. Then I found the buried right ski and got it loose. Randy pulled Alexander up the bank and we began the search for the left ski. At first, we thought it had flowed downstream with the current because we couldn’t see or feel it under the water. Finally, Randy spotted a glimpse of some bright colors and brought the wayward ski back to the surface. Twenty minutes after his fall, we had Alexander back on the trail.

The wind and snow were really blowing by this time. Alexander’s left boot and Randy’s right boot were full of creek water and I could tell they were anxious to get back to the truck. Randy had Alexander and me go up ahead so he could keep track of us. After awhile we looked back through the blowing snow and could not see Randy. We waited for several minutes until he appeared. He had somehow caught a ski edge, lost his balance, and tweaked his ankle. Fortunately, we were less than a mile from the trailhead and we made it back in short order. I must say that there were a couple of times during all of this that I wondered how Karen was doing at the nice warm spa getting ready for a massage.

The drive back to the ranch was done in whiteout blizzard conditions, but it seemed rather tame to us intrepid backcountry explorers.

Back at the Outpost, Alexander shared some of his ‘Georgia Grape Moonshine’ from a very cool vintage copper hip flask, and Randy told the ski shop staff about our adventure. This was a great way to start the day.

After a quick lunch break, I headed back out to the ranch trail system and skied for the rest of the day. The blizzard blew through and the sky began to clear.