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Deep in the Idaho Backcountry | UNITED STATES, IDAHO | 03/02/2008, by snowNinjas
Skinning into camp.
Our objective was a ridge on the SW shoulder of Mt. Zumwalt, a 2400' climb straight up from the river. We started strong and finished weak, as the full weight of a 4-season tent, four days worth of sausage and a full bottle of whiskey took their toll. Luckily, the snowpack was perfect spring corn, so busting trail was more akin to strolling down a sidewalk than the heavily-weighted Cossack dance it usually is. The day was cool and sunny, and when we hit the ridge at 7200, we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the Sawtooths all around us, and the Boise mountains far in the distance. Fantastic!
Home sweet home.
We stomped out a nice platform for the tent, set up our temporary home, and changed into dry jammies just in time to watch the sunset, steaming mugs of alcoholic cocoa in hand. We congratulated ourselves on our total solitude, the successful climb, our resistance to carrying lightweight gear at the expense of comfort (whew!), and the sheer, staggering amount of skiing on all sides of our new home-away-from-home. Hurray!
Gearing up for a great ski day!
After a staggeringly peaceful night's sleep, we awoke to...snow. Lots of it! Fresh powder, ensconced in wind and fog that limited visibility in all directions and hid both the tops and the bottoms of the runs that we'd been eyeballing the night before. Accordingly, we were super-cautious when we went out on our first reconnaissance mission to the top of the ridge. According to our much-creased map, there were fluted ridges descending from the peak to all points of the compass, most of which were between 30-34 degrees of slope, but....that also meant terrain traps aplenty, especially if the new layer of fresh snow decided to slough. So we checked out lots of small shots, especially on the north faces, and had a fantastic day traversing some high terrain. Swooping back into camp that evening, we finally ducked beneath the cloud layer and had a chance to dry out before supper in a brief calm between storms. Our legs were tired enough to really make us enjoy a hot supper and a reviving hot drink before bed. Again we congratulated ourselves on the sheer shivering fabulousness of getting away from it all....god bless the inventor of telemark skis! And poofy down sleeping bags, and insulated Thermoses, and wicking underwear, and closed-cell foam.
Not too bad of a view of the Sawtooth Mountains.
Again, we awoke to MORE SNOW on Day 3 of the Zumwalt expedition. Wowee-zowee! Unfortunately, the temperature was just barely hovering around freezing, so this second blast of snow was even wetter than the first. We lingered in the tent in the morning, enjoying that second cup of coffee and fingering the map some more, until we realized that it wasn't going to blow over (a serious inside joke for anyone who's ever spent five days trapped inside our North Face tent at 8,000', waiting for a full-scale blizzard to "blow over"), and got motivated to hitch up and go explore a little more. Alright-! The new fluff was delicious, but sort of scary at the same time. Again, terrain traps loomed everywhere, but as the temps stayed warm, and we could see and feel the new snow bonding to the bombproof base layer. We stayed cautious again, but had a better idea of what we were seeking after yesterday's test runs, and so got some blissful shots on the south side this time, and even tested the top of our steep route out, just to gauge how safe it would be in the morning for our trip home. Ken found himself a major face-plant and some tricky snow just below camp, so we set our hopes on having a warm, sunny morning to set up the snow on the west side before we had to negotiate it with our huge packs again. Luckily, the clouds finally blew over in the late afternoon, and we felt the temperature start to sink rapidly as the skies cleared. At last! That night, we sat out on our pads on our snow-couch on the ridge and watched the stars twinkling in a glass-clear sky. The silence was deafening. It was hard to contemplate going back to work, and we talked about all the possible ways we could quit our day jobs and ski full time without serious financial consequences. We almost had it all straightened out by the time we cleared the first half of the whiskey bottle, but bedtime interrupted our plans. Shoot.
One last ski before we head home.
As Day Four dawned cold and piercingly clear, we realized that we were facing going HOME on the day we'd been waiting for all along - crap! Overnight, perfect spring corn had re-emerged, and we had to slather on sunblock and put on our T-shirts in the hot glare of the mid-morning sun. Preliminary tests on all aspects showed perfect bonding - god, the miracle of snow! Pine marten tracks traipsed past our camp, followed by cougar tracks - did the cougar tree the marten? (We'll never know, we didn't follow them far enough...but I like to think he did. I also like to think that the marten got away - go, pine martens!)
Heading home.
We had to take advantage of the tropical sunshine to dry out all our gear before we packed up - our cozy little Swiss camp suddenly turned into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as we hung everything out to bake. Sure, we like to haul crap around like anybody else, but I'd rather not ski around with my own body weight in potential mildew stuffed into my pack.
After getting well and truly tipsy while finishing the laundry, we finally packed up and were ready to roll. After yesterday's face-plant, we were both nervous about traipsing through the crusty-fluffy minefield below us with huge packs on. We put on our suffocatingly-hot waterproof outers and took a few nervous turns before realizing that the minefield had vanished. Holy cow! Stops pulled out, we shot down a thousand feet before stopping to laugh, shuck our gear, and run back up the mountain for another go. Yes! Finally, the endless, fearless shots we'd been dreaming of...and we had to go home. Ah, well - Ken and I both agreed that there would be many future trips here, so all wasn't lost.
Skiing Mt Zumwalt Backcountry, Idaho
The trip out was nicely uneventful, and except for the last 200 feet of slush, pretty good skiing all the way down. The packs were lighter, our spirits were high, and by the time we got back to the car, we were already planning those future trips. If we could just remember our perfect plan to shuck our day jobs, now.....Let's all hope for more snow!
That's Our Opinion. What's Yours?
Andy Tretiakoff wrote on 03/03/08 at 06:38:56 am pst:
Thanks for sharing that video. Very well done!
Victoria wrote on 03/03/08 at 08:38:46 am pst:
What a great trip! Those are some huge packs... I think I fall into the sissy category!
Chis M wrote on 03/04/08 at 04:39:07 am pst:
You look very wet, but I'm sure that whiskey made it all okay... Does Idaho have an extensive hut system? Winter camping is rad, but it might be a little too rad for my girlfriend. We are headed out that way next month and might have time to explore. Any suggestions?
