Sheep Creek Peak, not to be confused with Sheep Mountain, is the king of the Little Elk drainage in Idaho’s Palisades Range, standing just shy of 10,000 feet and boasting ~4,300 feet of quality skiable vert above the Palisades Reservoir – a true skier’s mountain.
(I wrote this article last April but never published it. With ski season fast upon us, I figured it could be fun to release it now – for a little pre-season stoke!)
April 19th, 2023 was my second time attempting to ski Sheep Creek Peak. Round one was with John Modlish this time last year, mis-navigating and bailing early amidst a soft freeze and warming conditions. Round two was joined by two new friends, and we struck gold in knee deep powder. The Northwest Wyoming region had been in a strange storm cycle – big dump, big melt, hard freeze, repeat – with little time for corn between. Our descent was sandwiched between the big dump and big melt phase, and though we were only expecting a light smattering of new snow, up to 24 inches of low density fluff greeted us atop a stout crust. Following the creed of Tom Turiano we advanced via Little Elk Creek and Elbow Canyon. The canyon bottom provided many type two hours filled with moose sightings, creek bed boulder hopping, thick brush, isothermal mank, active waterfalls and ample frustrating avalanche debris before relenting to the steeper upper mountain – Palisades standard. At the base of the Southwest Bowl (terminus of Elbow Canyon) we forked left and followed the path of least resistance up a gently forested ridge to the summit crest, transferred skis to packs and continued for nearly a mile to a GPS confirmed summit – 9,950 feet – marked by a strange, chest height, non-illustrated, vertically driven two-by-four indicative of man’s insatiable urge to smear their stink on the natural world. Greeted by blustery snow and meager visibility in the twenty-ish foot range there wasn’t much to see, and as we huddled three-deep in a small grove of alpine hardened brush I tried to explain the stunning 360 degree views one would see on a clear day to a crew that had never set foot in the Palisades before. For all they knew, we may have just crawled inside a ping-pong ball.
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With marginal wind effect and VERY low snow density the upper Southwest Bowl provided cold smoke turns on a firm bed surface, a blissful whiteout experience reminiscent of my Lift Operator days at Grand Fog-ghee. After a few hundred feet we cut hard left to avoid getting sucked into the tightening ascent gully and traversed to the Southwest Ridge. We galloped the crest for the remainder of the descent, enjoying endless 25-30 degree gladed terrain that felt like skiing a half-dozen Mail Cabin laps back to back, and nearly bottomless to boot. When the ridge terminated in a dramatic cliff feature around 7,500 feet, we successfully escaped skier’s right down steep trees into lower Elbow Canyon, and were able to billy-goat peacefully to the car with little effort.
Aside from the 1,000 feet of jungle guarding the lower flanks of just about every Palisades peak, Sheep Creek Peak is a skier’s mountain. The line we skied is only one of many worthy descents on all sides of the compass. The South Bowl has several appealing craggy chutes, and the Northwest Bowl looked to have some short, sweet and steep shots with hot-lap potential. On a clear day the views in this region are spectacular, and though the clouds never broke for more than five seconds I did my best to imagine. Having skied in the Palisades a handful of times, I think the trick lies in timing. This relatively low elevation range melts out quick, and the dense terrain sub-7000 feet requires a generous snowpack for reasonable travel. The Palisades also take longer to fill-in early season, so the window for optimal skiing is short. That said, catch any of the peaks in this area on a decent snow year, during a stable weather cycle, and boy oh boy can they provide. Imagine Teton Pass on steroids – if dramatic sub-treeline terrain is your thing, look no further.
(mo’ powdah soon)
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DISCLAIMER
Ski mountaineering, rock climbing, ice climbing and all other forms of mountain recreation are inherently dangerous. Should you decide to attempt anything you read about in this article, you are doing so at your own risk! This article is written to the best possible level of accuracy and detail, but I am only human – information could be presented wrong. Furthermore, conditions in the mountains are subject to change at any time. Ten Thousand Too Far and Brandon Wanthal are not liable for any actions or repercussions acted upon or suffered from the result of this article’s reading.
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