Donaldson Peak - Fish Bone II couloir

[eagleskier]

Donaldson Peak in the Lost River Range has been on "my list" now for a few years, and specifically a ski descent of what is known locally as the Fish Bone Couloirs on the SE aspect. Wes Collins originally put me onto this line. He has years of experience in the LRR, and I consider him to be a valuable source of information. His advice and beta were key to making this a successful adventure.

Wes and others felt that this was probably a potential first descent, and that only added to the excitement and anticipation. Although steep, (we figured that it was in the sustained 45 degree pitch), it was not insane or very exposed. One of the likely reasons why this particular route has probably not seen a descent is more related to accessibility. All of the documented descents that I am aware of have been from, and into the north cirque. This area sees a fair number of descents in combination with Mt. Church's NE ribs. They both are accessed from the same basin on the Pahsimeroi side of the range. For the descent of the "Fish Bones", the access is a gnarly bushwhack up through Pete Creek. I suspect that the entry and exit protect these lines from very many descents.

My partner for this adventure was Paul Gilbreath, a young Idaho Falls transplant, originally from Houston Texas. We share a common passion for adventure in the Lost River Range, and although this was our first outing as a team, it probably won't be the last. We worked well together and had a great time. The photos are mainly focused on the non-skiing parts, and the video is primarily footage of the couloir descent and some of the interesting skiing on the way out of the canyon.

[claymond]

Good stuff.

You ever ski with Marc Ortiz? Guy who did all the 12k peaks in Idaho. Heard him on Cripple Creeks podcast, funny guy

[eagleskier]

thanks claymond.
Never skied with Marc, but I did follow his 12K peaks adventure last year. Pretty cool and it was a major accomplishment! In my opinion it kind of got topped by a couple of guys this spring that did an unassisted traverse of the Lost River range on skis and hit summits on 6 of the 7 12ers in the range. The only summit that they missed was Donaldson. So, they got 6 of the 9 Idaho peaks over 12K in one 4-day stretch.

Also, postscript: One of the local Idaho guys posted on my FB page and said he heard that there had been multiple descents on those couloirs. So probably not a first descent, but that doesn't take anything away from the adventure. It was still a helluva good time!

[Meadow Skipper]

Looks like that was a real nice day.

[mtnjam]

Nice job Cody. So which coulie is actually the FishBoneII in the photos. There's so many of them on that wall, but some of them don't go.
That mountain mahogany is one tough plant/tree. Nasty stuff bushwacking through that.
We just got back from that area too. We couldn't get through DoubleSprings Pass (almost went off the road trying to get through the snow) so we skied this.

[eagleskier]

Nice job Cody. So which coulie is actually the FishBoneII in the photos. There's so many of them on that wall, but some of them don't go.
That mountain mahogany is one tough plant/tree. Nasty stuff bushwacking through that.
We just got back from that area too. We couldn't get through DoubleSprings Pass (almost went off the road trying to get through the snow) so we skied this.

Thanks. I've eyed that line that you guys did. Looks good. So, here is how I would name the Fish Bone Couloirs, (I - X). I drew the line of our approximate descent. BTW, IX looks really fun! I may have to bushwhack up in there again to get the summit, and then to also hit IX on the way out. :-)

We veered skiers left over into the run-out for the first one, (I) because I kicked off a good slide and the debris was at the bottom of the Fish Bone II.

[hafjell]

Great stuff. Steep with low exposure is fun. I'll take #s VI, VII and IX, please.