A Fitting April Fool’s Trip

The Bass Creek area of the Central Bitterroots offers an incredible array of backcountry skiing. Skinning up the creek accesses an unbelievable amount of terrain and skinning up Little St. Joe accesses low-angle powder bowls, tree skiing, and a few enormous peak-to-creek lines. A small rustic backcountry ski hut built and maintained by the Rocky Mountaineers allows for days of exploration on the upper flanks of Little St. Joe, and I have spent many nights there enjoying deep powder and glühwein in the small hut.

One well-known line called the Pinball Wizard Gully drops off the ridge in between Little St. Joe and Saint Joseph peak all the way to Bass Creek. I had never skied it but had heard legend and was dying to give it a go. Sam was game, and we set out on April Fool’s Day to attempt our first Bitterroot peak-to-creek classic!

We set out early and were hiking the road before sunrise. We found the climbers trail at the first switchback of the road and made good progress on dirt until we hit the summer trailhead and Bass Creek Crags Overlook at 6,000’. We had a gorgeous sunny spring day on our hands and were loving the big views of the Bass Creek Crags and snowy bowls up the drainage. The gully faces south, and the early April sun was already hot on our backs. The snow was getting sticky early in the morning and we were beginning to think that skiing a massive south-facing avalanche path required an even earlier start.

We pushed on, and shortly above the summer trailhead we hit consistent snow and started skinning. We made it to the cabin and popped in for a big breakfast of Mountain House. Having already hiked 3,000’, it felt amazing to take off our ski boots and rest before we pushed another 2k verts up to the summit at 9,000’.

It was at the cabin that we decided to put our beacons on, knowing that we would spend the rest of the day in avalanche terrain. And it was at the cabin that I realized with horror that I had left my beacon in the car. We debated what to do next, either turn around and save ourselves the rest of the climb, or push to the top and ski the whole way down on our skin track. We opted for the second option, constantly evaluating if we should just risk it and ski the massive avalanche path without avalanche gear… but thought better of it. We were treated to excellent views from the summit and just turned around.

(L) Bass Creek Crags with fresh powder. (R) The Little St. Joe bowls above the cabin.

The way down was enjoyable at first. We made quick corn turns down an open bowl and then dipped into the trees to find our skin track. We skied the skin track down until we hit snowline and hiked the rest of the way down.

Though we didn’t ski the line we wanted and were incredibly frustrated that the reason we couldn’t ski it was because I was an idiot and left my beacon in the car, we also didn’t start an avalanche and we didn’t die. There’s always next year. And wouldn’t you know it, I returned a year later and skied it with Calvin in unbelievable conditions. I didn’t even forget my beacon, and we skied the glorious Pinball Wizard Gully in safe powder. The ski out the creek was completely filled in and we skied to the car in a long push. Sam and I could have skied the gully and there’s a good chance nothing bad would have happened, but we made the safe call and were rewarded with years of continued backcountry exploring!