Corn snow hasn't motivated me, but getting out in June has. Blair and I headed to the Going to the Sun Road on Sunday, complete with passports, but they weren't open all the way up. The info center suggested an alternate spot short of the summit where they thought we could find turns, but without being able to see the area in question, coupled with an almost pure south aspect, we decided to bail on the 3,000 foot climb and headed back into Canada.

We narrowly avoided cavity searches after telling the friendly border guard that we'd been out of the country for about an hour or so after a failed attempt at riding. We elected to check out Summit Knob and found the parking lot full of mosquitoes and even more summer tourists. Funny looks were plentiful as we suited up. Neither of us had thought to bring bug spray, so I elected to go full winter with hood, gloves, vents zipped, etc. Blair toughed it out and bare armed it. Once you got moving the bugs weren't too bad.

We had to follow the summer trail through the 3 switchbacks before finding enough snow to chart our own course. We soon found ourselves on the top of Summit Knob and looked across the valley to find Galloway Bowl looking enticing yet again. The snow was all gone for the descent into boundary creek and it was far too late in the day to consider a repeat. We took our descent off the northerly corner of Summit Knob and found a nice open gully that we rode as far as we could.

The snow was decent considering it is June, but it was icy in some spots. A single lap was plenty so we bush whacked our way back to the vehicle. I enjoyed a well deserved ice cream cone in the bustling town site and we called it a day.

Next stop NZ? Chile? Argentina?

While not quite as prestigious as a photo in backcountry magazine, I am still very stoked to see myself in the latest issue of Snow Action. It is distributed in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The photo was taken by Chris Hocking during my trip to Japan this past winter.