Forrest McCarthy: Absaroka Ski Traverse

Jim Harris traversing the Northern Absaroka

The Absaroka Range is the remnants of a massive (9,000-square-mile) volcanic plateau that extends for roughly 150 miles in a northwest-southeast direction across the Montana-Wyoming border. Stream and glacial erosion have sculpted spectacular features from the poorly consolidated volcanic debris. Steep rocky slopes, jagged peaks, deep valleys, thick forests, and alpine meadows are home to healthy populations of grizzly, wolf, elk, eagle, wolverine, big horn sheep, elk, moose, mountain goat and bison.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep

The establishment of Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, North Absaroka Wilderness, Teton Wilderness, Washakie Wilderness, and Yellowstone National Park, has honored the region by protecting its natural and wild character. Little has changed since 1871 when legendary surveyor Ferdinand Hayden wrote: “On the east side of the Yellowstone the eye takes in at a glance one of the most symmetrical and remarkable ranges of mountains I have ever seen in the West.”

In early June 2012, with financial support from the Hans Saari Memorial Fund, Jim Harris and I took advantage of lingering spring snow and completed a high ski traverse along the northern half of the Absaroka Range. Starting at Pahaska Tepee near Cody, Wyoming, we hiked and skied over 100 miles (including over 30,000 feet of vertical gain) in seven days to Mill Creek near Livingston, Montana.