2026 Bob Marshall Wilderness Open

One more – Looking West

Unlike last year, not a good year to leave your snowshoes behind

What pass is that Mike?

I was up falls canyon and Camp Creek a ways but didnt’ get to snow line. Looks like Camp Creek ?

Blow down seemed a little more than average but not horrible.

Yup Camp Pass. Blowdown was pretty bad, but considering the wind event we had—could have been worse.

Hey Rob, I sent you a dm, not sure if you saw it but I’m still interested in those seats!

Is anyone considering crossing over the scapegoat mastiff? Seems like the most direct route…

I’m spinning my wheels on snow shoes. I climbed up Spread Mountain last weekend and found mixed conditions. The wind blown stuff on ridges was supportable, but north facing terrain was thigh deep post holing. That said, snow line is still quite high. I’m taking a direct, high route but most of my time will be spent on bare ground. I’ll probably bring snowshoes to the start and look to be persuaded by whoever puts forth the most convincing argument. I’d really rather not bring them

Here’s my link. I plan to be at Trixies around 6:30. So stoked!

https://share.garmin.com/RobertsonBMWO2026

Looks like Rob will be done by noon today. Great job!!

Thanks Tom. I pulled an all-nighter and finished at 11:45 today (27hrs, 45min). My route was 63 miles. I’ll post a proper trip report once my tired brain recovers

Congrats Rob!  Absolutely amazing accomplishment and very impressive route.  Can’t wait to hear about the conditions you encountered, especially up on the Scapegoat Plateau!

Awesome hike Rob. Congrats.

Rob, I can’t even begin to comprehend how you did that. It looks like you were 2 hours ahead of me to the top of Camp creek pass and 4 hours ahead down to Dry fork where I set up shop for the night. My pathetic pace of 1.4mph was way off my target. Blow down got the best of me both mentally and physically and I bailed to N. Fork Blackfoot

Thanks for the kind words guys. If anyone is interested, my trip report and route info are below. Yall should post about your experiences too. I have only heard from Kyle and Jeff, who finished around Midnight on Sunday. Does anyone know the final count on how many people showed up?

Report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fMaJN2FsEdnvbMlG8F32A_xhs-eumPwQzfukCJQhGs4/edit?usp=sharing

Route: https://caltopo.com/m/D2FS2CF

Here’s a video a slapped together. Enjoy the surprise in the middle :)

C’mon dudes, what happened out there? Share some story.

Nice video Rob!

Our “crew” varied between two and six guys. We opted Limestone Pass over Camp Pass as it mapped out 2 miles shorter and 200′ less gain—really a wash, so we flipped a coin.

Monture Ck was too bad for blowdown, save two 1/4 mile stretches of what I consider real jackpot. We ate lunch at Burnt Cabin before heading up the trail. A couple of guys were sporting two lb burritos (no exaggeration!)—I tried one a couple of years and was too much for this guy.

We got into snow quicker than I thought, the trail was shaded and mostly north facing.

We ended up going several different ways to the pass, but everyone made it.

The other side of the pass was less friendly. Lots of blowdown in the trail, so we just took the cleanest route down, which wasn’t very clean. We finally started to run out of snow and made our way to the trail, where the blowdown also became less of an issue.

Some us arrived at the Danaher just at dark, others were a little ahead and crossed an went down stream a bit to camp. Everyone woke up to completely frozen shoes and socks Guessing low to mid 20’s), stoves made them pliable enough to don.

Those of us who didn’t ford the Danaher the night before were surprised to see the ford was 3-4′ deep due to a beaver dam. We wasted two hours finding a more suitable crossing, only to find out that the beaver dam spanned the entire length and could be crossed that way from the guys ahead of us. Although there was ice built up on the dam that morning, so maybe not.

We headed up Rapid Ck for Observation Pass. Quite a big blowdown to negotiate until you got high enough to run out of trees. Like Limestone the final approach to the pass was steep, but we made it w/o much drama. The other side of the pass there was plenty of drama. It was late afternoon and the snow was mush, so even w/ snowshoes lots of post holing. That was bad enough, but eventually we got into a lot of blowdown below snow level, so we were post holing and fighting downed trees. It took us forever to get off that mountain.

Snowshoes should not look like this and trekking poles should be just one piece.

When we got to the upper reaches of SF of the Sun, we had another surprise—there was significantly more water than what normally there is. The guys who weren’t rafting had planned on following the Sun to Benchmark (the guys rafting were headed for Straight Ck) but having done the next ford (about 6 miles down stream) several times AND w/o the flow we encountered when reaching, we decided to play it safe and a few miles (and another pass!) to go Straight Ck.

Paul and I didn’t make it to Straight Ck until 11:00 PM. We both decided that we’d reached our level of fun and we’d bail at Benchmark the next day. We slept in and I had epiphany that in my pack was a biscuit and gravy that was a planned supper, but quickly became a breakfast.

We met up w/ the rafters, who obviously had also slept in but were close to putting the rafts in. We wished them well and continued down. Constant blowdown, but not terrible. We did have one full on jackpot that reinforced we were making the right choice bailing.

Almost home, sweet home—the only reason for the smiles :)

We found out later the rafters had a couple of spills (no dry suits) and the fear of hypothermia was a real concern, so they bagged it as well.

Two of the guys continued on foot, discarding our original plan of going over Sheep Shed and opting for a longer, but less arduous, route via the SF to Gibson and around. The finished later that evening.

We shared a few beers last night and Dave dropped by as well, reliving what was definitely a tough Open.

Epic adventure Rob, congrats! Awesome trip report and video.

This year was my second attempt and Tom’s first. The week prior we switched our route plan multiple times as conditions changed. We ended up starting up Falls Creek to Camp Pass. The blowdown and snow were manageable and we made it to the Dry Fork around 3, just a bit behind schedule. We crossed the Dry Fork on a mix of beaver dam and willows to avoid the surprisingly deep ford. After a long break, it was smooth going on cleared trail up the Dry Fork and down the Danaher through beautiful country. We passed on some tempting campsites and made it to the junction with the Alloy Creek trail where we set up for the night, 27.5 miles in.

After a cold sleep we put on our frozen shoes and headed for Observation Pass. We had originally planned for Stadler, but audibled due to projected blowdown and snow levels. Observation went similarly well to Camp. The snow was generally supportive with occasional waist deep postholes thrown in. We were happy with our decision to leave snowshoes in the car. By 1:30 we were down and across the South Fork of the Sun. We hit the worst blowdown of the trip along this stretch and combined with the heat of the sun, energy was low. But from the second South Fork ford near Hoadley Creek onwards, the trail had been cleared which provided a momentary boost. Once past the Packers trailhead we were limping along. We stopped early at 24 miles for the day and camped at Deer Creek, slightly behind schedule, but set us up to finish the following afternoon.

Monday was smooth sailing following the swollen South Fork to the Gibson Reservoir. There were plenty of elk, sheep, and deer along this stretch to keep us company. The trail along the reservoir drug on, but after a break at Gibson boat launch the end was in sight. The remaining 5 miles to the finish were surprisingly pleasant as we were able to combine trails, side roads, and ditches to avoid the pavement. We finished with 76 miles at 3:30 on Monday.

Overall it was a great trip and I hope to be back next year!