On March 18th 2008 I left the trailhead at Blodgett Campground in the Bitterroot Valley of Montana, making my way up the canyon, with Blodgett Pass in the bull’s-eye. Sixteen days later, on April 2nd I reemerged at Lochsa Lodge on Highway 12, near Powell Ranger Station in Idaho. I had failed to make the double crossing of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness of Montana and Idaho.

The snowpack during the winter of 2007 to 2008 was incredible! Nor was winter’s accumulation finished. On virtually every day I was hit with more snowfall! Sometimes a 24 hour period would bring six inches or less. However, much of the time I would be pushing through anywhere between one and two feet of fresh powder that had been dropped in another twenty-four hour period.

With a backpack that started out at nearly 100 pounds and dropped by approximately two and one half pounds per day, the progress in the canyons could only be expected to be slow. However, the continually increasing snowpack had other ideas on what slow progress was going to be. Day One, part of Day Six and all of Day Sixteen were the only days I didn’t have to drop the pack, build a post holing trail, come back and pick up the pack, to continue on to the end of my newly made trail, and then do it again. In short, for every mile I gained forward, I had to complete three miles of travel. A good day of travel became a screamingly frustrating distance of three miles.

My five days of planned travel-time to get to Elk Summit turned into a reality of nine days. Consequently when I pulled into the winter deserted guard station and my first resupply, (transported on snowmobile nearly a week previously by Don Denton, owner of Lochsa Lodge, when conditions were temporarily good enough for the machines to travel on the deep snowpack) I was well into my emergency supplies. (Critical supplement in winter travel for just such a possible event) I was down to one hot supper/breakfast, one day of cold trail food and 11 ounces of Coleman fuel.

What I just described would not, did not stop me. On Day Eleven, after a day of rest, I built a trail from the station to the vista just over two miles to the south. I was headed for the East Fork of Moose Creek before I stopped myself with a moment of absolute clarity of the danger I was in. I suddenly recalled what I had agreed with myself to do back on Blodgett Pass some days before.

On the Pass I noticed the busted strap on my right Atlas snowshoe, which had the shoe pointing inward and threatening to get in the way of my other shoe. At that point the prudent course of action would have been to turn myself around and head back to the trailhead at Blodgett Campground. Instead I bit the bullet and decided to continue on to Elk Summit, where my first resupply was, and where I would try to make a repair of the injured snowshoe. If I was not successful with the repair then I would head down Elk Summit road and out to Lochsa Lodge on Highway 12.

At the vista, the huge view of what lay before me to the south for fifty uninterrupted miles brought me back to my senses. Being alone I got to bawl my head off with the failure. I also did the right thing to extricate myself out of there and even counted myself as fortunate that no other critical straps broke for the rest of the trip. Had that happened I would have had to been rescued or my body recovered. Travel out there is not possible without snowshoes or skis.

Let me be clear here with what I believe: failure is not really failure. Rather it is learning time. Failure is just one avenue on how not to do something; learn. For those of you, who believe I have failed, well . . . go have another doughnut and find another website. For the rest of you, learn with me.

I have not failed. I simply have been delayed and had my route altered a little.

Toward the end of the second week of April, I will again be leaving, weather dependent. A lot more winter is in the forecast as I type on Saturday morning, April 5th.  I now know, compliments of Jason Clinkenbeard, owner of World Class Outfitting Adventures, Inc., there is two feet of snowpack at Paradise, elevation 3067 feet and also on the Selway River trail. That translates into a three week trip from Elk Summit to Sam Billings Campground, at the mouth of Boulder Creek, near West Fork Ranger Station in Montana.

One more thing is my re-preparation for the upcoming trip. I will not be taking the tripod or the ball head. I am also leaving behind the ice axe and the crampons. I will be changing out the Mountain Hardware Kiva Lite tent for a smaller hoop tent, possibly my MSR Zoid 2, if I can get a fly replacement. The pads will also be exchanged out for Cascade Designs Zrest and a full length Therm-a-Rest. At the end of March I experienced sub-zero (up to approximately -20°F.) temperatures on multiple nights, with a chill seeping in through the three layers of pads under my torso. And of course there will be a snowshoe exchange.

About those Atlas snowshoes: First; the snowshoes (Backcountry 1033s') were 11 years old and had thousands of miles on them. Second; the three other straps stayed me through an exit point I should never have taken, precisely in a way that only quality equipment will do.
One of the things I want to mention concerns my participation with a seemingly natural propensity to go with what I think is a savings. However, where I go the only thing that needs to be saved is my life. Money (or plastic) has a value only in how much heat it is giving off, and for how long, after I have stuffed the worthless material in a fire while waiting (hopefully) for a rescue. As shown on Blodgett Pass, the quality of my equipment has only too often been the difference between making it out, or waiting for the rescue/recovery. When I leave in another week (April 12th, 2008), I will be taking another set of Atlas Snowshoes with me, either bought or rented, but Atlas.

Update, April 9th, 2008: My Atlas 1033s', good and faithful friend for the last 11 years, are now retired. On April 10th the Atlas 1235 will arrive and take the place of my old set. The word on the street about these new guys is how they are thoroughbreds compared to the pastured old plugs. I also hear they have some goat genes in them. Well, three miles past Elk Summit and near 6000 feet, I am suddenly going to drop to 3200 feet and into the East Fork of the Moose Creek Canyon. That ought to be a nice way to find out how much better off I am with Atlas's newest and best. Then approximately 40-50 miles further on, there are the White Cap, Canyon Creek, Boulder Creek Canyons and Canyon/Boulder Creeks Pass to really settle things out. I can hardly wait!

Finally: these trips are not the norm. For all of that, they are somewhat newsworthy. Already one article about the trip has been in the newspapers in this area (Montana). The second interview took place a few days ago, with me sending a number of photos to go with that interview, to the Missoulian (Lee Enterprises) of Missoula, Montana. I’m not sure when the interview and photos will be published, soon though. Click here to go to Helena Independent Record's article on the, at the time, upcoming March 18th trip.