Sheephead and Invisible

Spring is a great time to visit the Lost River range, but snowpack is always a big question mark. So for reference, here's what things looked like the day we left. From the picture and fresh reports on the Idaho Summits forum, snow level was about 9000'. The weather report had improved from 20-30% POP to 0, but we expected a too-warm night and possible high winds.

It was 47° when we left the DK Motel in Arco. Much too warm for good snow conditions. And we would be thinking about avalanches all day. But for now, we were loaded and on our feet at 7am (a little late, considering).

Looks like a quick warm-up!

We had chosen the sagebrush hillside on the right of the headwall. This went well until we got to the top and found ourselves in Mahogany Hell.

After going back and forth and around in circles trying to get through the mahogany, we finally broke out to what the map shows as a lake. Now a former lake. Views.

After that section, we eventually broke out of the trees into the upper canyon. Here we were relieved to see that we could find a safe path away from likely/possible avalanche run-outs.

The snow wasn't quite frozen, so I had put on my snowshoes. Meanwhile, John and Michael were booting.

As you progress up the canyon, it turns. And just past what you see here, it turns some more.

About here, John went all the way in. He says it's easier to reach the straps this way.

Now all on snowshoes, we continued up the canyon. Too bad the weather wasn't better.

Actually, it was pretty dang hot for 9am.

Keep on truckin.

Well, it SEEMS closer.

We still couldn't see the saddle. But this looked like a viable shortcut.

Note: It is much steeper than it appears in this photo.

Looking down the shortcut.

As we got near the ridge top, the angle began to ease off.

Note the thinness of the snow.

It had taken us about 4 hours of steady work to get here.

Summit.

By this point, a breeze had built up. But it was still really nice. We had a leisurely lunch and named some peaks. Then it was time for decisions.

When we got back to the saddle, we were a little confused. Where was Michael?

I climbed to a vantage point to look down the canyon for prints: nothing. So John climbed back up to the saddle to see if Michael was on the leeward side, hiding from the wind: nothing. Then John found a large, well-executed arrow point down the valley. Well, okay. But we still couldn't find any footprints. What kind of voodoo had Michael pulled? Slightly lower down, we finally found that Micheal had gone down a different gully.

Then, a little lower we heard the roar of an avalanche and saw the huge debris load pouring over a cliff lower down the canyon. It didn't get near our route, but we were concerned that it might have given a heart attack to Michael, who was down there somewhere.

Map

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