COMMposition

I had a great time exploring Southwest Idaho’s ski areas with Travel Weekly airlines editor and ski beat reporter Robby Silk last week. We visited Bogus Basin, Tamarack, and Brundage, plus we got to treated to a bluebird pow day on Brundage’s snowcat!

The sixth and final day of the Ski Idaho Introduction to Backcountry Skiing press tour (Jan. 13) found us back at Pomerelle Mountain attempting to reach the chutes at Lake Cleveland despite 50-mph to 60-mph winds, near whiteout conditions, and windchill temps that plummeted to an estimated minus-34 degrees. I have zero video footage from the day and only a handful of photos from the experience taken while sheltering in some clumps of trees because I was focused on survival and every time I’d remove my mittens I’d instantly lose all feelings in my hands. Ultimately our group made the tough decision to turn back and return to the resort and ski inbounds, but that’s also the beauty of this experience, because by day six we were a fully functional backcountry ski team that could make difficult decisions in suboptimal conditions. As we were skinning across the turbulent tundra, it occurred to me that my old man would’ve thought I was b@tsh!t crazy, and I probably am, because I felt like Sir Edmund Hillary summiting Everest. Not only do I want to return when the conditions permit a trek to those chutes at Lake Cleveland, but I also want to return when the conditions are similar so I can better document them. Fortunately the few photos I did manage to snap were live ones so you can get a little taste of what we encountered. Many, many thanks to the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Forest Service-Sawtooth National Forest for allowing us to explore the area and document our experience.