Left early for a trip up to Mark's Butte/Freezeout Ridge outside of Clarkia, Idaho yesterday. With a dusting of snow in Moscow my hopes were high for some fresh snow in the mountains. After a short talk with some loggers about truck traffic and road condition in Clarkia they advised me to park closer to Clarkia that I usually do. This ended up adding about six extra miles to the round trip. The road is pretty easily drivable to the real start on Forest Service road 301. The fog was thick and I was unsure about the conditions up high. I was in the fog most of the morning until I started to break out of the clouds.
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| Mountain Springs |
My feet were hurting pretty bad as it was the first time I had been out on the telemark gear this year. Its wierd because my Garmont Excursion are usually my most comfortable boot set up. Either way the boots were not packed out enough for all day comfort. I started out with moleskin but devolved to layers of duct tape. I wasn't going to let some blisters deter me but I was moving slowly while my one o'clock turn around time was approaching quickly.
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| Powder on Freezeout |
After a few short runs from the buildings/boxes about 3/4 of a mile from Mark's Butte I was hosed!
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| Looking back towards Point 5880 |
After a quick lunch it was time to head back. My feet were hurting so bad that I was sure there would be some blood so I decided to just be tough (stupid) and let them be till I got back down.
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| Self |
As always the ski down was quick. It took just over an hour to ski all the way out to the pickup. It was just me up there all day. A real blessing. I've never been up Freezeout in the winter without at least a few sled. Powder, on Solstice, in the sun and by myself. I just couldn't get over it and snapped this photo in case it never happens again.
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| Only my tracks. My own private Idaho |
After I got to the truck I was very curious as to the condition of my feet. Here is the before I removed to moleskin and tape.
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| Ouch! |
And after! (WARNING GROSS SKIER FEET AND BLISTERS)
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| Blisters with a side of bruising |
The snow was great and the coverage even better. At least 3 feet in most areas and as much as 50 inches in some spots. Snow was generally stable as the recent load was small. Next chance of snow looks like early next week and could be rain/heavy snow that could push the snowpack past its breaking point.
The total trip was in the area of 21 miles of skiing and about 4000 feet of elevation gain/loss. All in all a very good day trip!
Be sure to read the latest advisory from the Idaho Panhandle Avalanche Center and remember you can submit condition reports or quest trip report to
palousebackcountry@gmail.com and I will gladly publish them on this blog.
Thanks for reading and if you get out this week be safe and have fun!
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