March was a snowy month in the Sawtooths. For the month, the mountains picked up 6-8 ft. of snow – almost doubling our snow pack! This made for some incredible powder skiing in the backcountry and helped fill in the coolies and chutes in the alpine. All the snow tempered our alpine ambitions, but will make for some great April and May spring skiing and glorious descents. This is getting us excited for our spring ski mountaineering courses in April. We are on the northwest flow powder train right now and we’ll enjoy the ride as long as it lasts. The Sawtooth Mountain Guides “Chute Patrol” did manage to ski/board the north face of Decker Peak ( 10,701), which will now be known as the “Black Dog Face”, for reasons my dog Gus, Clark and I would like to soon forget. Just heed these words of advice – keep your four-legged friends in the deep, not the steep.
Also in March, my brother Brad Hatch and several of his B-town Boyz made a weekly pilgrimage to enjoy the Sawtooth goods. They managed to luck out – powder, powder, and more pow! Cheers to the Greenwood’s crew for motivating many early mornings to make the drive and suffer through numerous face shots!
In March, the SMG crew along with Zach Crist, took a nice circumnavigational tour around Mystery Peak. The snow pack was a little touchy, so we stayed to lower angled terrain, but the views were awesome. We scoped out numerous lines and hopefully we’ll scratch some off the list in April. Zach loved the tour and is thinking about giving up steep skiing for gentle tours through the woods.
In the middle of March I had the pleasure to guide Jay Stevenor and his fun group up at the Williams Peak Hut. We found some nice snow over in Marshall Basin. Tad Jones, a fellow knee-dropper, put together a nice slideshow and video of their trip. You can check it out here at : http://www.jjds.net/outdoor/w_peak/index.html