The snow is going fast, but we got great turns.
- March 24, 2010
- Team: Ralph
- No summit
- Car to car: 10 miles, 2800' gain, 5.5 hours
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
Ralph agreed to play hooky, so we were off at 4am, heading for the Lost Rivers. Out by Arco in the dim light we spotted something sticking up on the eastern horizon. The original plan was to ski McCaleb, but before we even got close we ran into a series of drifts that stopped the Suby. It looked to be 3 or 4 miles just to get to the base of the final road, so we changed plans and headed north. sigh |
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As we cruised north we weighed our options. Lost River seemed to have a lot of avy debris in the gully, so we decided to try something on Dickey. We found out later that some friends skied it the same day. After a brief discussion, we turned around and drove up Doublespring road for a bit more adventure. The road was dry to the earthquake turnaround, where the road was signed 'Closed'. We parked, loaded up, and started hiking. Almost immediately the road was covered in snow, but with dirt showing through sporadically. A few more days like this one and the road will melt out. |
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We walked up the road a little more than 3.5 miles. For the most part, it was easy going because snow machines had packed it sometime in the past. As we walked up the valley, we admired a number of possible shots. Ralph spotted a cool chute on the extreme right, so we set our sights on that. |
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As we climbed up above the mahogany, we gained the gully leading to the chute. But the hidden left side looked better than the cool slot we had been shooting for because the slot appeared to have bare spots and debris while this one was well-filled (if only thinly so). |
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As we neared 10,000 feet, the views were getting better and better despite a high haze moving in. North face of Borah. |
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Doublespring and Horseshoe peaks. |
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My skins were icing and it was getting progressively steeper. Ralph tried booting, but went in to his knees with every step. And the clock was winding. So short of the ridge top, we decided it was time to head down. Yeehaw! |
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For the most part, the snow was awesome. We hit a few patches of breakable crust, but they were short. Down low, we tried to avoid the dark patches in the snow: it was less than a foot deep. |
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| Although our uphill bushwhack had gone really easy on some sort of old cow trail, on the way down we skied to the bitter end of the chute, leaving us some truly heinous mahogany to thrash through. Doing this with skis on our packs definitely put the Whack in bushwhacking. But as soon as we hit the bottom, we were back on our skis. |  |
Thanks to the steady grade of the valley, we were able to cruise back to the car at a steady 4-5 mph, arriving right at 3pm after only having to walk about 100 yards. From there, we completed the loop drive by going back through Stanley. These are the Twins just above Challis. Ralph's trip report (with video) We also found out later that other friends were on King Mt. |
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