Home > Trip Reports > June 21, 2012, Cabinet Mtns, ID, Round Top Mtn

June 21, 2012, Cabinet Mtns, ID, Round Top Mtn

6/21/12
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Posted by The Snow Troopers on 6/26/12 7:27am
video of trip @ http://thesnowtroopers.com/2012/round-top-cabinet-mountain-range-id-pend-orille-vantage/

Northen Idaho native Cassidy Higgins and myself spent most of the first full day of Summer (June 21st, 2012) driving around the Southern Cabinets trying to find a decent ski with a short approach. Not having the heavy population of rando skiers up here posting trip reports all over the web, it€™s a little tougher finding a F.S. road with out a band of snow that keeps you 7 or so miles from your target. If you had an ATV of some sort your options would be much greater. The day started out with some not so perfect info from two weeks prior, telling us a drive with in apx 3 miles of Lunch Peak Lookout was possible. This info lead me to believe now we might get right up to the Peak. However, Trestle Creek road (located just outside Hope, Idaho) had a good sized snow band in a hair pin turn 7 miles before Lunch Peak Lookout. Only having a map for the zone we were going to ski, we knew our €œeasy€ ski day had just turned to a mapless recon adventure. On our way up Trestle Cr. earlier, we noticed a bunch of sweet North facing shots off of the ridge line to our East that separated Trestle Creek and Lightning Creek.

looking across Trestle Creek at Round Top


We headed back down the road to see if would could get access to this sweet zone. A few miles back down Trestle Creek road we noticed a bridge to our East which crossed the creek just under the bowls. The road was also labeld F.S. 275, but had a locked gate just a few hundred yards past the bridge. Being bummed that we were still too far from the snow line, we let the dogs out at the gate for a break. On our break we noticed a freshly posted advisory from the F.S. to move though this area and be aware of recent brown bear sightings. After our break, we chose to stay in recon mode and headed back down to Hwy 200 so we could roll to Clark Fork, Idaho. Once in Clark Fork we could access the back road to our original target via Lightning Creek road (F.S. 419). On the way to Clark Fork Cassidy mentioned the road and bridges being all wiped out not too many years ago and still were out last year, but to our surprise the road was freshly paved like an interstate with all bridges complete too! Our goal now was to get towards Trestle Creek road via Lighting Creek. However, a snow band stopped us 2-3 miles short of Trestle Creek road. On our way up we had notice another bridge halfway to the Lightning/Trestle junction that crossed the creek and headed West towards the ridge line we were looking at earlier from Trestle Creek. We decided to give it a go, wondering if a locked gate up the road a bit would end the hopes for a ski day there. No locked gate, but it was a rough rocky road for the AWD mini RV, taking 1 hour from the bridge to snow line. Success!!! Skins on from the mini RV (actually the road was running as a river, so I backed down the road 100 yards for a dry patch).

skiing the N.W. face of Round Top w/ the pups.


Having burned all the day we didn€™t have time to ski the North Face off Round Top, but hope to hit this upcoming week. We did get a 1,200 foot solid pitch ski off of the S.E face along with a shorter ski off of the N.W. face. Amazing views in the Cabinets! Give it a try sometime.

last 200 ft. of good steeps on the S.E. face of Roundtop.


hey, Troop, sweet vid.   your Jamaican swing works fine with the N. Idaho glide...

don't know where you are, but council mtn, sw of mccall, should grant some fine turns right now.  won't be over there for couple of weeks yet, but the backside (east aspect) will be putting out..   check it out, if you can.    d

Thanks for the TR! Good recon mission. IMO, the Western Cabinets are a little hard to access, unless you hit the western flanks; i.e. Scotchman, Bee Top, etc. Looks like you got a variation of that! I have also reconned that area some, but end up elsewhere, as it is a pain. Further south, in the main Cabinets, the Rock Creek area has some good stuff: i.e. Chicago/St Paul, Engle, etc. Should be still somewhat ripe for the pickins'. I am going up to do the Selkirk Crest this weekend...Twin Peaks/Beehive Lakes/ Seven Sisters area...still should have a deep snowpack (skied it last July!) Will be camped up the Pack River, probably at Beehive Lakes TR, or further up, if not. Interested?  PM me, as I am always looking for company. Gonna try to explore from Twin Peaks to Harrison Lake...as the whole crest in that section is uber sweet and great for touring, not to mention some really aesthetic lines in the bowls along the crest...
Here is a YouTube video of the Twin Peaks area I am talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rok27A0m1HA&feature=plcp

Might have to meet you guys out on the Upper Pack... Thanks for the info & Scotchman 1 & 2 are on the radar.

btw, it looks like Myself and a couple of S.Point locals were up at Bee Hive a couple of days before your Hans Solo 7/1/11 trip.
http://thesnowtroopers.com/2011/beehive-lakes-northern-idaho-late-june-pond-skim-62911/

author=bcjunkie link=topic=25222.msg106588#msg106588 date=1340809262]

Here is a YouTube video of the Twin Peaks area I am talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rok27A0m1HA&feature=plcp


Very cool & @ 9:32 in your video from last year you guys are about to ski across our tracks (wild!?! not Silas... Just WILD) that lead us down the steeps to Little Harrison Lake for a little pond skim.

Nice one! Nice video, also! You guys got the goods and had a nice route going.  There are some really good steep lines off of that ridge! The cold spring we had last year really made access and options optimal. Last year, we skied all the way down Little Harrison side; which was quite the haul back...because of not being able to cross the Pack River (way to big, and no logs crossing to aid). Then, we ran into a Grizzly about 1/2 mile before the bridge. Luckily, he caught wind and heard us before we saw him, and he darted off across the clearing at an alarming rate. Second run-in, I believe, with that same Ursus, in 2 days!  Great to see him retaking some ground in the Upper Pack River...Sweet place!

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The Snow Troopers
2012-06-26 14:27:21