Swimming in the Winds

A four-day mission to swim in the high alpine lakes of the Wind River Range, Wyoming.

By Stio

July 30^th, 2018

WHERE: Wind River Range, Dubois Entrance

WHEN: Late Summer 2017

THE CREW:

Jill Garreffi
Danny Holland
Michael Holland
Jovanna Hart
Laura Makar
Jessie Mitchell
Laurie Stern

THE PLAN: Hike the Glacier Trail in the Wind River Range to swim across as many high alpine lakes as possible in four days.

A wetsuit, swim cap and goggles aren’t the most traditional gear to bring along on a four-day backpacking excursion. However, when your primary goal is long distance, high alpine swimming in the Wind River Range, these are your essentials. Oh, and a really warm puffy and handwarmers for after early morning swims. Getting out can be the coldest part...

Lakes are the swimmer’s dream. To quote a commonly used Great Lakes slogan,

“No salt, no sharks, no worries.”

Unlike swimming along an ocean shoreline, goggle views are ever changing and awe inspiring. You’re surrounded by no-name summits, snowy couloirs, rocky cliff bands and rainbows of wildflowers. Altitude lends itself to some of the purest, clearest water you can find, which beckons for submergence. Once you put your eyes in the water, a whole other world reveals itself. Downed trees, shadows of harmless trout, and deep turquoise hues are like a hidden planet that allow for a full sense of escape, even if just for a moment.

We gathered a crew of friends together to join on this expedition - some were swimmers, some not, but all appreciated and understood the sense of solace that the backcountry brings. Our 150 pounds of gear (!) was carried up the ascent to basecamp by hired pack horses. Fully provisioned with food, camp equipment, and swim gear we made our trek along the Glacier Trail outside of Dubois, Wyoming, hiking about 10 miles before reaching a beautiful lakeside campsite that we got to call home for four days.

From camp, we would day hike to nearby lakes with our wetsuits, towels, caps and goggles in hand, opting for a short or long swim depending on the size of the lake. Down time was filled with reading, eating, cribbage playing and short hikes to overlooks in the surrounding area.

It was (literally) a refreshing way to experience the backcountry. Typically, high alpine trips involve a strenuous amount of hiking and route finding - but when the only goal of the day is to swim, eat, read and repeat, everything slows down, becoming deliberate.

Just as the lake bottom offers a whole new perspective on an underwater world, our experience in the Winds showed us the beauty of the backcountry in a way we never knew existed.