Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness

Winter Crossing

February to April, 2008

During the winter of 2005, I got reacquainted with some serious winter backcountry travel, by way of the Swan Range of the Bob Marshall Wilderness. That little venture opened the door wide for the winter of 2006, in Glacier National Park for 36 days. Now very much in love with winter travel/survival and photography in the backcountry, I took several trips into the Anaconda-Pintlar Wilderness during the winter of 2007. Then June came around, along with the summertime backcountry travelers. A very nice time of the year, but I still found myself tapping my left foot in anticipation of the next winter.

The winter of 2008 is here, and with what appears to be a fairly nasty attitude. Where to next? Well the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness is one of the biggest, while perhaps being the most remote area in the lower 48 states. That abandoned (during the winter) chunk of real estate is just sitting there, beckoning to me that it is time to come back to where wilderness travel all began for me in 1965.

So, let’s see if I have this right: for the winter of 2008 my goal is to cross the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. I will go up Blodgett Canyon, over Blodgett Pass, travel on the ice of Big Sand Lake and on to Elk Summit.

You know, I have run into people who think that's quite a trip; Elk Summit to Blodgett Creek Campground . . . during the summer.

But wait, there is more: from Elk Summit I will continue on to Moose Creek Ranger Station, hang a left and go upstream along the Selway River. When I finally arrive at Paradise, which like Elk Summit, has a road to it; I will turn left again.

Then with much foolhardiness: I will go upstream on White Cap Creek in an easterly direction until I get to the mouth of Canyon Creek, which is also the location of Cooper Flat. From there I will continue on to the headwaters of Canyon Creek and go over Canyon/Boulder Creek Pass.

Finally the route will be all downhill and pure gravy as: I will complete the last 10 or so miles going down the Boulder Creek drainage, coming out at the Sam Billings Memorial Campground near West Fork Ranger Station and on the West Fork of the Bitterroot River.

Simple . . . hmm.

Would somebody please pour me another cup of stupid?

Click here to see a mostly non-winter photo album along this tentative route.
Click here to go to the overview map and the consequential more detailed maps, which in turn, not only shows the route, but where the photos were taken inside that non-winter album of the last paragraph.

Click here to go to the preliminary photo album of the March 6th, 2008 scouting trip inside the Blodgett Canyon. This trip says I can go ahead with the three-week, 125 mile crossing, which will be happening during the latter part of the month of March.

Click here to go to news release of the March 18th, 2008 trip.
Click here to go to second news release.
Click here (Password access only) and go to March 18th, 16-day crossing, which was between Blodgett Canyon and onto Elk Summit, then Lochsa Lodge. This trip also includes the crossing of the perilous Blodgett Pass on March 21st and 22nd during a heavier than normal snowpack year. Like the Glacier National Park trips of 2006, where the goal was a winter crossing, this trip has gone down as my first attempt. Unlike the six Glacier trips, I will not be repeating the crossing of Blodgett Pass, but will instead continue on from Elk Summit and a completion of the remaining 85 miles, which includes Boulder/Canyon Creeks Pass. Based on what I now have experienced, I am anticipating the travel time to be, like the original time frame, three weeks from Elk Summit to Sam Billings Memorial Campground back in Montana.

One more item about the 16-day trip/crossing of Blodgett Pass: I now possess photos no one has of this area, just like the Glacier National Park winter photos. The reason is simple. These 16 days of travel were incredibly dangerous and extremely trying physically. I lost at least one pound of body weight per day, and I was a long way from being overweight before the trip started. Make no mistake, the remaining 85 miles will be at least as trying and probably substantially harder to accomplish than the March 18th, 16-day crossing.

Click here to go to third news release concerning the completion of the trip.