(Please wait for the 20-photo slideshow)
With the conclusion of the winter trips of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness in 2008, the Continental Divide seemed like a fitting end to the winter expedition trips for this aging adventurer. In 2010, I woke up and realized I needed to become serious about taking the trip soon or give it up.
What immediately became obvious, besides the overall impossible look of the trip, was what was waiting for me at the northern end of the 990-mile route near the Canadian border. Inside Glacier National Park, described as inaccessible in a winter setting, lay Hole in the Wall, a high mountain cirque whose steep and cliff-like walls squeezed up against the western side of the Continental Divide. Warned about it years before, studied on the topographic maps, it occurred to me that if I could get through this area, it might be possible to undertake the Continental Divide winter trip.
This is the story and photos of the four trips that ended with my accessing Hole in the Wall, but at a cost. Inside a La Niña winter with record-breaking snowpack was 48 days that included subzero temperatures, snowpack-shaking avalanches, near fatal falls, building snow caves to stay alive, a greeting by a sow grizzly bear and her cub at the entrance to Hole in the Wall, and more.
These trips shook my core beliefs in what I believed I could accomplish in Montana’s backcountry, perhaps changing the entire route of what remains of my life.
This book is 203 pages in length and has in it 44 photographs. Available in a hard or soft cover, the book is on the shelves of numerous bookstores including the Internet with stores such as Amazon. In addition, you can purchase Inaccessible on this website.
