The winter of 2008 brought the heaviest snowpack to the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness (SBW) in eleven years. When I was making the plans for the double crossing there was no way I could have predicted what was coming. Nor am I sure I would have altered the plan much anyway.

Actually I did alter the original plan of crossing the SBW. I was going to start the trip from Wilderness Gateway on Highway 12 in Idaho, rather than Blodgett Canyon near Hamilton, Montana. Logistics with resupply changed my plan though. The U.S. Forest Service takes a rather narrow view on having a supply cache in the wilderness, including Moose Creek Ranger Station.

The Selway-Bitterroot Trip included a double crossing of the spine of the Bitterroot Range, which meant a crossing of Blodgett and Boulder Passes. I was able to stick to the plan, but only when I included a side trip out to replace a busted snowshoe. My three week planned trip, plus a four day scouting trip, turned into a 40 day trip with approximately 150 miles of distance traveled, not counting the back and forth building of trail through the fresh snow.

The storms continued to hit me one right after the other, particularly during the Blodgett Pass crossing. For every mile I went forward I had to travel three miles to accomplish the forward progress, all due to a heavy and ongoing building of the snowpack. In the end the Selway-Bitterroot crossings easily became the most grueling trip I have taken to date. And no winter trip is easy.

This presentation has approximately 200 photographs, and takes approximately one hour to complete. Samplings of the photos are in the albums below.

Please note important information on the main Presentation page.

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Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Crossings; Winter of 2008
The Scouting Trip		Blodgett Pass		Boulder Pass