Beehive to Blaze link-up

Shuffling cars up to Spanish Creek TH I got to see my first wild wolf. The photo doesnt do it justice at all but there is actually a GIANT jet black wolf in the grass. 

The always beautiful Beehive basin as the sun is coming up.

After booting up the 4th of July couloir, we scrambled to the summit. Zero potential to drop in off the summit. Checked out the top of the Bowman couloir on the way up; cant wait to climb and ski that! 

There was so much dirt and rock at the top of the E Twin couloir that I thought it all melted! I couldnt believe that a nooked, N facing shot was melted out cause the S facing one we just booted up was far from gone. When I started down climbing it, I post holed through atleast 4"-6" of dirt and rock to the snow beneath. I have never been in conditions like that. About half way down we traversed W into the W Twin and skied what was left of it past Beehive Lake to the base of Blaze Peak.

The N face of Beehive. Twin couloirs are not really visible. 

You can just see where the Bowman couloir opens up at the hanging snowfiled on lookers left. You can imagine where the Twin couloirs are lookers right of the peak.

We skied to the bottom of a W facing gulley coming off the S ridge of Beehive. We scrambled up it and then traversed the S ridge to the summit. We encountered class 5 scrambling but I think if we did it again that it could be avoided and just be stellar, exposed class 4.

Blaze Peak summit photos! 6 hours and 1 summit later. 

Nick Truax and I got to put the first tracks in the Blaze. As we were having some lunch, the people that camped in Spanish Creek were just showing up. 

Umm, thats me anyway.

I think a couple days later and the pinch is melted out and the descent would be a couple hundred feet or so shorter. 

Can just see the Blaze. 

Think what you will about Ted F-ing Turner, but the conservationist ideas he employs on his ranch make for a beautiful and pristine chunk of wilderness. 10 hours later we reach the beers, I mean car. If I ever wanted to ski the Blaze again, and I do, I would do the same through style hike; twice the summits and skiing and less time!