2020 Bob Marshall Wilderness Open

<p style=”text-align: left;”>Scott,</p>
Thanks for the info.  Near me, there’s a good 12-24 inches at 7k still. This surely won’t be my first time in the backcountry, spending nearly all my trips in the backcountry of the Beartooths, but it will be my first time more than a few miles into the Bob.

In planning my route, I chose to attempt to take the fewest number of passes and climbs in exchange for a bit of monotony of FS road hiking while keeping the mileage to a minimum. We’re honestly planning to take 3.5 days to do this and know it won’t be a race for us, but a good challenge to push ourselves.

NOTE: Likely leaning towards snowshoes. We won’t be doing any sort of water based travel.

Anyway, here’s the link for any/all input.

https://caltopo.com/m/3D5R/8KK6P89T866488P1

Thanks from a BMWO noob.

Route looks good to me. I’d flag a couple potential sticking points to think about as you monitor conditions.

If the water is high (above 10-12k on the forks of the flathead maybe as a quick and dirty rule of thumb) your ford of the upper reach of the white river might take some searching for a suitable spot, and your ford of Moose Creek might be scary. If I remember right Dan D’s crossing of Moose was a very scary sounding swim in 2018 when the forks of the flathead were both above 20k. You can find his TR at intocascadia.com, or he might chime in here. That kind of water is statistically unlikely but is burned into my memory since that was my first open, and its always a possibility. So might be worth thinking through backup plans there.

if snow conditions are bad your route from black bear to where you leave the Chinese wall could be quite slow, even with snow shoes. It took two friends and I about six hours to climb three quarters of a mile and the 2000 feet to a turnaround point 2/3 of the way up the pass below junction mountain last year. The friend who had snowshoes on fared better than we did, but the snow was such isothermal garbage that he was pretty damn slow himself. This was the week before the open, and the snowpack changed enough that folks seemed to do pretty well on snowshoes the following weekend.

looks like a fun route! Cheers.

Moose is usually a deeper ford than expected.  It was chest deep in 2013.

If the South Fork is really high the Mid Creek ford can be sporty as well.  Ditto the crossing of Bunker Creek (the old road bridge doesn’t exist).

Dropping east from Inspo Pass nav will be tricky.  The “trail” gets lost in alpine fir and catching the fire road down low is tough to do dead on.  Descending out of the snow is almost always the nav crux on a Bob Open route.  At least dropping to the White you’ll have a handrail.

Is anyone worried about a gorge creek ford? I was in that zone a few years back in late June and thought that the ford was sketch.

Hey all, looking to launch this Saturday a.m. since there’s no longer a mass start and the timing works out a little better. And of course, looking for some assistance with shuttle. Regardless if anyone is available, I am available memorial day to help anyone shuttle. I’m based in Missoula so just shoot me a message and you can store my number for an emergency pick-up or help with a vehicle drop.

Shoot me a message if you’re available at all this week near Missoula or if you need a ride Memorial day.

I won’t make the Open this year, at least not in the heart of the date range for open-like conditions. I’m sad to miss it but another trip calls; I’m looking forward to next year when hopefully we can resurrect the mass start.

Aaron – I had been planning on taking the ridge above Lost Jack into the Silvertip drainage. Looks like a fun way to get in there, although I have no idea how far up the ridge that trail really goes and it looks like there could be some scambling at about 6700 feet. The bit on the bench above the wall creek cliffs is an awesome area, I would have planned on that route if I hadn’t been up there last year.

Just a heads up for folks still planning on heading out next week, NWS Missoula has issued a hydrologic outlook warning for this next week you should probably take a look at.

https://forecast.weather.gov/showsigwx.php?warnzone=MTZ005&warncounty=MTC063&firewxzone=MTZ108&local_place1=Missoula%20MT&product1=Hydrologic+Outlook&lat=46.8722&lon=-113.993

Don’t cross anything you wouldn’t be comfortable crossing twice.

We dodged a bullet yesterday pushing a pass in the swan range. This was a 30 degree east slope, mid day, cloaked cloud cover, and temps around 35-40. The avi danger is definitely still there with a base like concrete and a new layer of wet heavy on top.  Upon our excite clouds lifted on the opposite side of the basin showing all south facing slopes had recent slide activity. Please use good judgement and stay safe out there.

Appreciate the info guys. In an effort to reduce weight, I’ve been thinking it best to try leaving the drysuit and the Alpacka seat and backrest at home (I have a 2019 expedition). Today I did a test float with these modifications and found that the lack of seat and backrest definitely sucks, yet concluded I could do without them. I came to the opposite conclusion with the drysuit. I was very cold after the first big wave to the face and was also sitting in pool of water because of the seat-less setup. I was curious to ask the group how you all pair down your boats for Bob Open-style missions and if you think drysuits are mandatory. I’m pretty sure I’m bringing my suit but this will be my first Open using a packraft. Thanks!

Rob, I think I may be the only person who’s used a drysuit during the open, although earlier participants may want to correct me on that. So I’m probably on the conservative side of the Open spectrum when it comes to this question. I weigh the environmental hypothermia risk (time of day, temperature, precip, fire resource, etc), my paddling skill relative to the difficulty of the rivers, and the weight savings payoff. For instance, I took one on the Middle Fork last year. I figured I was gonna be paddling three sustained miles of class III/IV- at the end of a cool day forecasted to rain, and since nearly half of my total miles would have been on the water the weight penalty of carrying it was acceptable to me. If, on the other hand, I was planning to paddle the W and S fk Sun midday on a day forecasted for good weather, I felt comfortable on class III, confident in my packraft self-rescue, and the trip had me hiking four times the distance I was paddling, I would probably leave the drysuit at home.