Diamonds in the rough

Sparkle plenty! Look closely and you see "diamonds" in the crust of this super-tall mound of snow. It's in the parking lot at Chief Joseph Pass, named after the indomitable Nez Percé chief. We cross-country ski on a vast trail system there, maintained, voluntarily, by the Bitterroot Cross-Country Ski Club.

Midweek in March, after warm daytime temperatures and freezing nights, ice crusts the surface of tracks to the warming hut (see its green-metal roof in the distance?) where we've arranged with the U.S. Forest Service to stay -- as "hosts" -- for the night. The ski club grooms and set tracks on Fridays. (That's today! I should go back this weekend.)

Me, in shadow. I stop for the view but also take a new selfie.

This is the view, southeast to the Pioneer Mountains. So pristine and spectacular. And quiet, at 7,000+ feet!!!

We meet up with the Forest Service's Arlene, who's also skied in with a toboggan of supplies for a weekly day-time cleaning of the outhouse (huzzah!) and re-supply of drinking water to the cabin. She agrees to take our picture.

Cheese! From left, Shelley Phillips, Rob Lynn, Alex Shaffer and me. The four of us plan to stay overnight (there are an array of built-in beds with mattresses in a loft above the main cabin floor). Arlene suggests that we pose by the "avalanche" -- a slab of snow that recently slid off of the metal roof.
 

This is the "avalanche" as viewed from inside a covered side porch. No animals, or humans, were harmed in the shooting of this picture.

 

Next day (groggy, after a poor night's sleep for us all -- that second bottle of wine may not have helped), Alex leads the way. Our borrowed toboggan (thanks Heather and Jeff!) is loaded with pillows, covers and a mostly empty cooler and is bungee-corded to his belt. We're skiing away from the cabin and back toward the parking lot. But not before a last stop -- at the amazingly snow-topped outhouse (see below). Whee!...