The freak spring storm continued and next thing you know there's 4 of us standing at the upper gate. It was of course locked again with the road plowed right to the lake. After a few minutes we decided to make an attempt on the bowl we'd scouted from Moose Peak

Adam and I walked the pavement to the edge of the lake, while Troy and Blair skinned it. We gained Summit Ridge, toured around to the back and dropped a slide path down into boundary creek. The snow was light and dry on top of a wetter crust. We saw some sluffing, but made it down to the valley below. Crossed a couple creeks and wrapped our way into the entrance below the bowl. After some fiddling with coordinates (my gps doesn't have American data - and while we looked for a border services agent, we couldn't find one to ask for directions or to get our passports stamped) we managed to get onto the right track. We climbed up through some nice trees until we stopped for lunch just short of our objective. Bellies full, we pushed on for another 15 minutes and found ourselves at the base of Galloway Bowl. It's a tight little spot, with a small lake and massive rock walls on the lower ridges. Climbing to the top was going to involve some exposure. There was evidence of natural activity in the previous days. Blair and I stuck our noses in a bit and found that there was an old slide path with only a couple inches of new on top of it. Once we gained the ridge above the rock, it was an easy skin across drifts of snow over scree. There is a buttress at the top of the bowl that halts your climb. We stopped maybe 50 feet short of this due to lots of shark fins.

The sun had been poking in and out all day. Blair and I waited for about 2 minutes before it poked back out. We scrambled to get ready and Blair let me have the first descent ever (A warden with 20 years of service at the park says it's never been ridden). Amazing snow for any time of the year, but for April 26th? Wow. Light, dry blower powder about a foot deep up top. It's pretty much a pure north face that tops out close to 8,000 feet. Troy and Adam had waited at the bottom to take some photos. I could barely contain my enthusiasm on the way down. Troy thinks I might have had a snowgasm. He was probably right. This was a big goal for me and to get it with conditions like this....Stoked!

Blair and I chilled at the bottom while Adam and Troy skinned up for their turn. The sun didn't cooperate quite as much and they descended in lower light than we had. With the goal crossed off the list, we toured over to the ridge to scope out some chutes. We couldn't tell if the rock walled one went, so we moved over a bit and took the treed route. It had been soaking up some westerly sun and was kicking off sluffs, but it was still a fun ride. Back down at the bottom, there was one more long climb to regain Summit Ridge. Slowly but surely we made it and then it was all downhill from there. Found some more powder turns on the way down and then walked back along the road to the gate. A very long day - almost 15 miles covered and 6,480 vertical feet. Adam's biggest day ever along with the biggest day ever at Waterton for Troy and I.