Skiing in June / Beartooth Basin

Beartooth Basin, summer ski area.  
Can't get enough of this mountain air in my lungs! 

So recently I went skiing! Can you believe it? Ya can't beat June in Montana. I enjoy getting out, & having adventures, & I absolutely love skiing. I went with a friend this past Thursday & Saturday - skied Beartooth Basin & Gardener Headwall. Here's some iPod photos! 

Beartooth Basin. 600 acres of skiing terrain that varies in pitch from 15 to 50 degrees. (That's pretty dang steep!) 
Top elevation is 10,900ft. with 1,000ft. of vertical lift serviced terrain. Two high-speed puma lifts & quick laps make for legit leg burn. 

I skied trails 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, & 9 multiple times.

This is a ticket office for Beartooth Basin. Parked just off the road, up top. $45 for a full day lift ticket. $35 for half day. $20 power hour. There is no shelter out here, other then this, & an outhouse.  It's basically backcountry skiing, with lifts. At 10,900ft. the weather can change in an instant! While I was out here, the temperature was around 45'f, but later it dropped to 34'f & started spitting snow. (This pic by Jamie Schectman)

Shreddin' the gnar, at Gardner Headwall. Ski down, hike out.

The cornices were anywhere from 15ft. to 30ft. tall! 
This ski area has some amazing steep headwall & cornice skiing - 
Check it out at http://www.beartoothbasin.com/about.html 

I spy a skier, do you?  

Gardener Headwall. Ski down, hike out. It was actually pretty sweet - we parked the vehicle up near the top, hiked a short distance to the snow.. Skied down & hiked for about 20 minutes out the other side. When you have to hike out, (backcountry style) you really savor skiing down, by taking in the views & making each turn count. After we hiked out, we would hitch a ride with whoever had room & was driving our way, back around towards the top.

This is me skiing down. The snow was so cool; heavy & soft, but totally fast. Gardener Headwall.

I had a fantastic time, & am hoping to get back up there at least a time or two more, before the lift operated area closes mid July.  The Beartooth Mountains are so amazing.

Here are more links to other blog posts on summer skiing:

http://gracierb.blogspot.com/2014/07/flying-by-skiing-in-july.html July 2014 

http://gracierb.blogspot.com/2015/05/beartooth-mountains-skiing-in-may.html  May 2015

-GB

Currently Spinning —

I've been listening to the BROODS 

Here's their entire album on Soundcloud - 19 minutes of groovy chill music. 

I like it a lot. I actually LOVE it, & have been listening to this non-stop for like the past couple weeks. It's been the soundtrack to my June. Give it a listen! See if your ears like it!

Craft Art Project —

Soooo, for a fun "crafty project", I had two students (ages 5 & just-turned-7) work on mixing primary colors. We used different sized plastic cups as stamps to create circles with black paint, then painted the insides with color. It was so much fun, & great practice for working on "painting inside the lines". We also tried to use complementary colors to paint around the inner circles.

The finished pieces were pretty cool - looked like modern art you might see hanging in a museum somewhere. ;)