Notice to anyone considering the most epic skiing trip of all time: look no further than northwest Montana.
The shuttle takes about 20 minutes to get to the GNPG base of operations.
Everybody there was friendly and down to business, we didn’t waste much time in the office.
It took us less than a half hour to leave the base and arrive at our first skiing site.
Over half the terrain we skied on during our two days had yet to be skied this year.
I’ve never had such a luxury, and neither had most of the Untrackedguides.com group I was with.
To get that opportunity on a day with excellent stability and good visibility was gift from the powder gods.
Our pretty large egos from the morning quickly retreated and there were no early takers on the big line.
My only advice is guard your brownie if you decide to save it for the end of the day.
Brownies that excellent lead good people to make tough decisions, I’ll leave it at that.
Eventually the light started to fade and we jumped back into the cat and returned to the base.
Word over the radios was that the snow was coming over the top of the cat’s windshield.
This was not one of those times.
Exiting the cat, we measured 16" of fresh snow on top of the previous storm layer.
It’s tough to even put a price on the experience we were offered on these two days.
Most importantly, we had tremendous guides that let us think about skiing not about logistics or exit routes.
Thanks have to go out first and foremost to Great Northern Powder Guides.
I hope this was just the start of an annual visit to GNPG and the northwest Montana area.
Will, Jay, Evan, Tarn, Dane: Thank You!
Thanks to everybody on the trip, Lisa Gover for shooting stills and Tim Engel for filming.
Eric for sending the big cliff and setting the tone for the two days.
Garth for spending the first day with us.
Regan Teat at reganwideopen.com for shredding and documenting it.
Teo for being Swedish and having an epic beard.
James for tolerating my music and driving.
Photos courtesy Lisa Gover and Regan Teat
