Bob Marshall Open 2019

Good deal!  Look forward to meeting you :)

I would venture cost being one issue- the Shift’s can be found on sale pretty cheap :)  two they have more grip- if it’s steep and icy, Shift’s would be better shoes to have on, the additional flotation and lighter weight definitely has appeal though

James,

Is the orange item on the back of the Porter a helmet? If so, what brand and weight?

We just got back yesterday from a good trip from swan lake into the south fork. There was little to no substantial accumulation of snow and we found lower elevation snow deminishing quickly. Spring runoff is what I would consider normal and the major creek crossings we encountered were completely manageable. Friday the higher elevation snow was consolidated and made for somewhat easy travel with some areas prone to post hole mainly on the east side of the range. The route I’ve chosen has a few sketchy traverses but we’re minor with the aid of traction devises. We made camp in the south fork off the main west side road. Saturday we backtracked the route to find Grizzly tracks in our tracks in the lower portions of the drainage. Then I tried I more direct path to the pass to find the worst kind of fresh grizzly tracks…..big with little. Made the pass and started the first traverse to find the snow had turned into 3″ of mashed potatoes. This made for a white knuckle methodical crossing. We then ran into more fresh grizzly tracks in ours on the way down. I’ve been hiking, backpacking, and bow hunting these areas for almost 30 years and in scouting for this challenge has brought back some of that excitement. Thank you Dave for putting this together. I will be scouting a different area next weekend.

James,

I would agree with Mike M and add that those shoes will have a tendency to wash out on traverses without the metal side bars and shoveling molded into the msr shoes. I have my shifts modified to 16oz.

NIce set up James. 4400 is a LOT of gear! lol but if it all gets used its worth it.

I search far and wide for something lighter than the Swift and didn’t find them two years ago. Thanks for the heads up on those NL Elite race shoes. Those look comparable as far as tracktion. Durability will be tested.

I would call spotted bear ranger station before making the drive back in there. There is a chance that the road is still gated off / snowed in, heading up spotted bear and you may not be able to get much beta on it unless you wanna hike it and then float down.

SHuttel Option: Tommy at 4 Rivers Shuttles 406-370-5845 will shuttle a vehicle around the bob for a price. We did Logdepole to Meadow creek ( floated youngs down the south fork) and it was about $400. Expensive, but if a few people pitched in it could make for a reasonable option.

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What?

Mike and Tom – thanks for the feedback. That all makes sense to me. I’ll consider some modified shifts for future outings. 16 oz! That’s light. Are the cleats still steel on yours Tom, or did you switch them out with aluminum?

Richard – No, it’s not a boating helmet. It’s a climbing helmet, the Petzl Sirocco. The smaller size weighs in at 5.4 oz, but it doesn’t cover the lower head or ears like a whitewater helmet does. No bill, either, but a baseball cap underneath seems to do the trick there as long as the water’s not too powerful. It’s the best I’ve got for now, so I used it on that trip. I haven’t banged my head on anything for testing yet. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Scott – thanks for the info, I hadn’t considered the road might be closed. I may need to hike in and float out then. That pack has some extra stuff in it that I won’t be carrying for the Open, but yeah, my total pack weight is still gonna be around 29 lbs, probably. Heavy stuff for the distances involved.

Also, to Scott who asked for river beta and everyone else, the absolute best online source of information I’ve found on packrafting info for the area is contained in the first result from a google search that looks like this:

Packrafting the crown of the continent

It’s very much worth it if you’re even considering a packrafting trip anywhere in the Glacier/Bob area. It has already saved me from getting in over my head and risking my safety with several of my potential routes, which sound like they would have been way too difficult for me after reading that resource. It will become ever more important as this event begins to include people who’s packrafting experience is primarily outside of the western U.S.

James,

I did not change the cleats. The weight savings was acquired partially by accident trying to make the binding more comfortable when using trail runners. The gate on the east side road opens on the 15th and the road is clear. I can’t remember what m.m. its at but if you look at your map it’s right at the border of the spotted bear district. I’m planning on being up there that weekend after the gate opens.

Hey BMWO crew! Kyle here. Not gonna be able to make a run, err, long walk at it this year as I have some family coming to town. I’ll be watching the forums intently. Be safe out there and I’ll be looking forward to next year. The Bob is a special place and the route this year has a ton of cool routes. I’ll be excited to see what direction everyone heads!

Kyle- nice seeing you in Missoula; hope to see you at the start next year!

Mike

Glad everyone is having fun and doing their due diligence; approaching this with the proper trepidation.

I’d like to direct everyone’s attention to the Dupuyer Creek and Waldron snotel sites. Generally not worth much interest, but relevant today because they’re at 250 and 360 percent of average SWE, respectively. Why is this important? They’re both mid elevation sites that generally (due to aspect) melt off quickly. The low average SWE figures skew those percentages high, but the big picture they reveal is nonetheless important. There is a ton of water still out in the hills, hiding in the extensive mid-elevation slopes. We haven’t yet had a serious warm snap. We might get one this weekend, but if a bigger melt holds off a bit longer the potential for creeks and rivers to get huge is very large. If the melt holds off even further, the potential for lots of mid elevation snow travel is also large.

The next 10 days will make a very large difference.

Went out for a good 7 mile, 2.5 hr, leg burner today (+4000′, -4000′). I’ll hopefully get in a couple more over the next 2 weeks for my conditioning crash course.

Conditions are certainly looking interesting.

We hit the east side of the Bob to scope out a possible alternative route.  To reinforce what Dave is seeing on Snotel, there is still a LOT of snow mid-elevation.  We are expecting several warm days (supposedly followed by a cool down) which will rid some of the snow, but definitely not all.  I wish I could say all of the snow was nicely consolidated/firm, but it wasn’t.

Anyways, a good training outing w/ lots of snowshoe time.

Definitely a lot of options to pick from this year.  Just to confirm, all the roads near Spotted Bear and around that portion of the Hungry Horse Reservoir are improved dirt road only and not paved, right?  Part of me wants to use those roads as little as possible even if they are fair game.  But I have a feeling they will look more and more appealing!

James – for what its worth – 2 years ago i tried the open on northern lites -like Mike and Tom said, the traverses were a problem, twice i ended up in tree wells when they let loose – this year I’m using the shifts —-

Matt- correct; gravel roads around Hungry Horse

We had a productive weekend and learned a ton about the conditions for the first 25 miles of our route. Went in at swift TH Friday and hiked to schafer  meadows then got up Saturday morning and hiked down big river then out to the skyland road via morrison creek trail. FYI if you decide to use this as a throw in the towel exit bear in mind there were a series of drifts that create an impasse for vehicles in the first couple of miles of the road. We ended up hiking the entire 9 miles of the skyland road to highway 2.

If anyone needs a ride, there is a fellow giving me a ride to Dupuyer on Friday leaving Swan Lake at noon. He’s got room for 2-3 more.

I may take you up on that Dan, assuming I can get to Swan Lake in time.

But with the timing of my trip right beforehand the easiest thing for me would be to drive straight to Dupuyer/Swift and then come back to collect my car- is anyone planning on driving from Swan Lake back to Swift after they finish?

well it appears w/ the long range forecast we certainly won’t be sweating much :)

Here’s my mapshare page:

https://share.garmin.com/mlockitski

And for Inreach users, feel free to add my email to your device:

mlockitski@inreach.garmin.com

weather still very iffy; flows are slowly deceasing w/ the colder- not sure what effect the rain will have on flows, hopefully less than warm & sunny weather

my mapshare page

https://share.garmin.com/MikeMoore2

Its still winter up high with fresh snow from Friday night above 5500′ and was snowing Saturday. The streams and rivers in the spotted bear area running typical for this time of year. S.F. was muddy and bank to bank. Cable car at tin creek is being repaired so thats out. :)  I may have one seat available from swan lake to the east side Friday due to my partner being out with an overtraining injury. I will be leaving Kali around 2ish. D.M. me if interested.

Tom m- are the shifts providing enough floatation ? Or will we probably want more? Considering current weather pattern —