Peak 11,930 Wind River Mountains

Sedgewick Meadow and the mountain in the distance!

I grew up in the Wind River Mountains in the summers and ever since I can remember I have always wanted to ski in the Winds. The problem is the approaches are long and nothing is very accessible. So it figures I decided on the biggest snow year in 20 years that I wanted to ski either Temple Peak or Peak 11,930. These peaks are both near the Big Sandy entrance of the Winds. On Friday Brian and drove up the Big Sandy Openings road from the ranch and were stopped about 4 miles from the ranch my a huge mud hole. We brought our bikes to scope out how far we could actually get up the road. We were able to bike another 2 miles to the Dutch Joe Guard Station. The station is still about 3 plus miles from the turnoff to Sedgewick Meadow, so we knew we had our work cut out for us. Regardless we were still more than excited to go.

Summit view of Temple Peak, Tip is ready to ski!

On Saturday we awoke at 345 am and headed up to the mud hole and parked the truck and biked for about 20 minutes to the snow line. I have never seen so much snow up in these mountains, it took us about 2 hours to get to Sedgewick Meadow where we finally had a view of the mountain. We had decided to ski Peak 11,930 because it was a little closer than Temple. The sun was just shining through the mountain when we arrived in the meadow and it was so peaceful and such an surreal feeling knowing that no human was anywhere near us. It took us about another 2 hours of skinning and crossing creeks to finally reach the base of the mountain. We reached the summit around 1030 and took in the views and let the snow corn up a little and then had an amazing 2000 vertical foot ski down. I finally had my first ski descent in the Winds! The trudge out was long, but we finally made it back to the car around 3 pm.The day was about 11 hours car to car, but it was all worth it in the end. I ended the day with some inner tubing back at the ranch staring up at the peak we had just skied! Great day and my leg felt strong!! I can't wait for the next ski adventure. Tetons next weekend anyone?

Tubing Squaw Creek with dog at the end of the day!