As the sun moved across the sky, the carpet of downed trees that was laying a few hundred yards from the hut was moved, piece by piece to the wood rick, bucked into firewood sized chunks, and stacked in preparation for next years flakes to fall.

By the end of the afternoon and caked with sawdust, the firewood fairies emerged from their chainsaw slinging, log carrying dust cloud to find a full wood rick, a three-inch mat of sawdust, and a case of PBR. Boots were removed to sighs of relief, as the Irish crickets sounded off, making quick work of the beer.

The fairies slept well that night, with visions of peaks and coolers dancing in their heads, for tomorrow was to be a ski day the likes of which have never been seen. Though not a flake fell from the sky that night, Wednesday’s objective was cold dry snow, and with that singular goal in mind, the fairies gladly traded their work-gloves for ski gear, and headed up toward the peaks

Ascending to the 5th Lake Saddle, hopes of cold dry snow became blurry with heat-induced mirages. Glopping skins and beads of sweat made even the surest believers in cold snow doubt their tour plans. And then, with one short traverse and two quick turns, we struck it rich, skier style!!

Looking back at our tracks, eyes moved higher. A pair of coolers towered above us as we began to transition back to climbing mode. Wet, crusty glop turned to dry, fluffy powder as we ascended up into the confines of the coolers, and one by one each skier had his turn to enjoy the fruits of his gravity-fighting labors.

Amid hoots and cries, the cooler and runout were completely shralped, harvested of their majestic white blankness in favor of deep arcing turns. Another transition and climb back up brought the group to a turning point, and the decision was made to divide and conquer ski. Three of the interns and Patrick opted to attempt the Heyburn Cooler, while Joe and two others decided that the original cooler still needed more shralping. More bootpacking, heavy breathing, and jaw-dropping views, found us transitioning back to downhill mode.

And just like that, we reached the lake, and prepared ourselves for a downhill battle with the late afternoon isothermic snowpack that stood between us and the hut.

One of the lesser known products of these woodcuts are fairly large piles of “slash” that aren’t wood-stove-worthy, and what’s a firewood fairy to do but put flame to flammables, sit back, and enjoy a nice little campfire.

Again, sleep evaded no-one that night, and after an early morning of cleaning and buffing out the hut, the fairies were on their way to Fishhook Yurt for more chainsaw slinging and log hauling.

With full wood ricks at both Bench and Fishhook, the firewood fairies deemed their job complete, and, the next morning, headed back to the trailhead, satisfied that yet another winter could be shared with so many, around a roaring wood stove.

Cheers!
The Firewood Fairies

We are just back from a quick and fun two days and one night ski trip into the Pioneer Yurt with a long time local ski group. While the snow conditions were not perfect, pretty tours in the alpine basins surrounding the yurt and the comraderie of yurt life made for a great time!

Solar Pillows at Tornak Hut! Last week Sun Valley Trekking hosted a group of pro skiers/riders (Ralph Backstrom, Griffin Post, and Neil Provo) as well as folks from Backcountry.com and Goal Zero. The purpose: to test the backcountry solar power systems designed by Goal Zero while skiing our tails off in the Idaho backcountry. Good times, great testing and some fun pillow lines were had by all!

We are still finding the powder goods in the Sun Valley backcountry! For those that think the lack of recent snow means poor skiing, we recomend you check out some of these pics to see what the skiing is like right now. A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Come on out, we’ll take you to the great skiing!

As of today, all our locations except Fishhook have been converted from kerosine lantern to solar powered LEDs. The solar upgrade uses Goal Zero equipment and also includes a mp3 speaker too. The benefits are twofold, it’s a step in the green direction and the noise pollution from the kerosine jets is gone which makes for an entirely new nighttime experience. Thanks to West Howland for capturing these images of our Bench location.