My primary goal for the winter of 2011 was behind me. Before beginning the trips, I had found no evidence that accessing Glacier National Park's Hole-in-the-Wall through the eastern approach would be anything less than a first. Nor had the Park service countered that assessment.

I was at the end of the 16th day of the fourth trip. The extreme danger of traveling on the nearly 200% above normal snowpack was five days back. I was also five days overdue with my Park trip permit. My present location, planned in my last camp the evening before was but one mile from the dirt trail near Upper Kintla Lake. It was also just short of the final avalanche zone between the lake and I.

Scouting the route
Autumn Scout		February 2, 2011		March 22, 2011
The fifty mile circuit
April 8, 2011		May 10, 2011
Previous Winter Trips
Glacier National Park		Anaconda-Pintlar Wilderness		Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

Counting the eight-day scouting trip in the latter days of September and the four trips beginning February 2, I had spent 55 days in the Park getting to this spot. All that remained was 27 miles and three to five days of travel on a mostly dirt trail with a 100-pound load.

I was almost finished building my eleventh camp in 16 days when I heard the sound of a helicopter to the east. Then the rotary wing craft came into view. One thousand three hundred feet above me, it swung over the lip of the western approach to Boulder Pass. The aircraft was moving slowly over the area I had traveled through several hours earlier. There could be no doubt they were searching for me.
Reality set in as disgust and defeat settled on my tired frame. The trip was finished. All the precautions I had taken and near misses I experienced in the most grueling and dangerous trip of my life had come to this.

I will respond later in detail on the final trip, plus the preceding trips when I get the photos in order and the stories written. I will say this much: where just this trip was concerned, I fell twice on the approach, hanging upside down, the second time while wearing the large pack. Then there were the avalanches, too many to count on any given day. Additionally while on the approach, I spent two nights in a snow cave while a snowstorm held me down and another two in a dugout granite cave. The one-third mile took six days to complete.

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There were complaints concerning the government paying for my "rescue". On August 26, 2011, I donated $3,670 to the helicopter rescue fund in Glacier National Park, which was the total cost for the extraction on May 25, 2011.

News article on Selway-Bitterroot winter crossing

Montana Magazine article on Glacier National Park crossing

Montana Headwall: The Trouble with Ingomar