SVT Guide, Joe St.Onge, remembers a May ski day on his child’s 2nd birthday:
Patrick Graham approaches the summit of Ryan Peak
It was May, locals had hung up their skis and our busy ski guiding season was coming to a close. It was time to ski for ourselves.
My wife was pregnant with our second child and do to deliver within the week. We had a check-up with our doctor and she said that it did not look imminent. I took that diagnoses as: I could go ski the next day. My wife is a skier and guide and she gets it. She encouraged me to get one last ski in before the snow melted and another baby entered our lives.
It was a last minute tour plan. I wanted to ski something “new”. Ryan Peak is the tallest in the Boulder Mountains of Central Idaho. It’s been skied, but not regularly as the approach is big. I had a concept that it could be approached from the “other side” and had found out that the dirt road that crosses a high pass had just been plowed, allowing access to the “other side”. A quick call to two of our guides and the plan was hatched for the next morning, early. Conditions were perfect spring corn: firm for the climb and silky for the decent. The approach was fast and fluid. We followed wolf tracks up the remote canyon and later heard the howls from a den echo while on the peak. We spied amazing future lines, one of which we skied later in the week when the doctor said it may be a couple more days before the baby came. It was awesome.
