Southern Wind River Winter Adventures: Jules Bowl/ Bonneville Pass Area

Jules Bowl/ Bonneville Pass Area
Brooks Lake Area, Shoshone NF, Absaroka Range

April 22nd, 2006

Jules Bowl

Really very outstanding country! This is a popular area for snowmobile high marking, but since they quit grooming trails three weeks ago it hasn't seen much traffic. However, three guys did show up later this day and punch a trail in there. Which was handy for me. I was able to follow their trail in and motor up to a couloir to wrap up my day.

Before I did made my run into the JC Couloir I tackled a line on this hill. I was hoping to scope out the GD Coulior we dropped back in November. It's out of the picture to right.

A profile of Jules Castle, from up high, on my climb up.

Up on top, a terrific view of Bonneville Pass. And I thought I was getting up pretty high just hiking over Bonnevill Pass (10,000ft.) . I must have been over around 11,000 ft. when I took this photo, and I was just on a bench- not even peaked out.

Tracks down from my upper most perch.

After climbing up the bench, I went over to the GD coulior and looked it over. I decided not to drop it because it was surrounded by hefty cornices, and it was heating up pretty good. So I went back to where I climbed up and down climbed a bit. 55 plus degrees is too steep for me on a snowboard, by myself. Once I got in the 45 neighborhood, I was good. The snow was great, almost too great!

Once in the trees I cut a line across the top of a 40 degree slide path. It ripped. Pretty good little wet slide. I wouldn't have wanted to be in it.

Click on this photo and you can see my board-cut and the slide path. Needless to say, after that, I took a safer route on a ridge line down through the trees.

Jules Bowl from aways up the Bonneville Pass Trail.

After triggering some nifty wet slides I decided to find some colder snow. I motored up the Bonneville Pass trail a bit, until a found these wide-open low angle runs. Sometimes it's just fun to play around.

Beautiful line!