The Cold Awakening On Bell Mountain

A Winter Backpacking Journey to an Unforgettable Adventure

Project Adventure Recall is a series of new stories of old adventures. Some are being shared publicly for the first time, while others may be republished or "resurrected" from the archives.

It's wild to think that a decade ago was my FIRST backpacking trip... In February... In Idaho. Jeremiah and Rob invited me to tackle Bell Mountain. I had no idea what I was in for, not any of the necessary gear, but I said yes. They loaned me a pack, a big down puffy, an exterior shell, a sleeping bag, an ice axe, water bottle koozies... Everything.

Photo: Rob Ashley

The first night at base camp I slept in my own bag rated at 50°F... And followed advice to strip down to my base layers (little did he know what I was sleeping in). I shivered all night.

Jeremiah and I at Base Camp / Photo: Rob Ashley

The next morning we set out to hike most of Bell Mountain with the goal to summit the next morning. I lugged my borrowed backpack, including 8 pounds of trail mix in a gallon-size Ziploc bag, up into the alpine terrain. There was no trail. We traveled cross-country through the sagebrush and snow of the open slope.

Leaving the high-desert valley below, the terrain transitioned from open sagebrush sidehill. We moved into the treeline. I remember walking right up on a snowshoe hare nestled in the shelter of a spruce.

As we covered miles and gained elevation into higher alpine terrain, we moved out of the treeline and conditions drastically changed. Winds picked up, ripping across the mountain. Snow got deeper and drifted. We began post-holing through waist-deep snow around 9300 feet... Just a couple hundred feet below the summit. We were so close.

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This halted any progress. We dropped back into the trees for cover and protection, dug a pit and set up camp, and slept there for the night. This alone was such a great experience — I learned how to dig a snow pit and situate a tent inside. I learned about boiling water and melting snow to make more water. I learned that water inside of a non-insulated metal bottle, will freeze and expand and bust open the bottle making it a useless weight to pack out.

The next morning we weighed our options — to continue to the summit or head back. We opted to head back to the base where we started the day before. There was no way we would be able to make it to the summit of Bell Mountain and back down with the gear we had.

While naive about a lot & relying on Jer and Rob for not just gear, but their knowledge and wisdom, this trip gave me a taste of what adventure really is — never perfect and hardly predictable, despite your preparation and how much trail mix you bring.

This trip changed my life and set me on a path seeking more self-supported and human-powered adventures in years to come, as well as the constant challenges and adversity that I met in everyday life along the way.

The following year (2016) I would take on several solo trips: a remote backpacking in Capitol Reef, a 50-mile overnight trip hiking the Grand Canyon rim to rim to rim, the full Teton Range (80 miles) over 4 days, and bikepacking the Maah Daah Hey Trail 160 miles in November, among many others (those were just the highlights).

I'm not sure I knew what I was doing during those first trips — I got quite lucky on several occasions, but I'm glad I made it through to learn the lessons and gain the knowledge.

We can never quite be sure how adventures or these incredible wild places influence, prepare us, or shape our future, but I'm convinced that they deeply change us at our core — which they have been doing for humans since our existence.

These places are critical and of deep importance for all of us, regardless of how we attempt to explore them. They cannot be tamed and should not be exploited, but rather regarded with the highest reverence and allowed to remain their wild, natural selves.

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For the full gallery, head to DestinationReroute.com

All photos of me taken by Rob Ashley or Jeremiah Hermance.

📍Land and home of Lemhi-Shoshone, Shoshone-Bannock, Cayuse, Walla Walla, Umatilla peoples