Bass Creek Ice Waterfall

Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, Montana

Ice fog in the Missoula Valley and northwards led me southward to explore the north side of the Bass Creek valley. I wanted to check on the waterfall that comes down from Little St Joe to Bass Creek to see if it was a winter icefall and then to see if I could find a route to the top of the ridge. The route turned out to be really icy and my better judgement made me turn back prior to reaching the ridge.

I did make it to the icefall and worked my way directly below it and along the side. What you can't tell from the picture is the scale of all this ice. The ice in this photo is over 120 feet tall and the base was easily 8 feet thick. I felt dwarfed by it. It also got me to thinking that if it collapsed while I was standing there it wouldn't be such a good place to be.

The valley bottom had lots of animal tracks as there were no human tracks but the ones I was leaving.  This critter had a nice consistent path with evenly spaced tracks that went on for quite some distance. No human tracks but mine once past 3 miles up the valley.

In January I will go to Bass lake and spend the night and try for a winter summit of Smokey Joe. Somehow I think I will have the head of the valley all to myself.