Powder Week

 Haven't updated in quite a while. Been skiing basically everyday for the past few weeks. MY epic powder week just so happened to coincide with that OTHER Powder Week at the village. Taking a breather today. The skiing has been fantastic recently. I can't recall what I've skied past about a week ago. I know that I had some great days in Granite prior to this week, as well as some great days in the Park. Skied what I call the Delta Chutes down to Delta Lake in Glacier Gulch a few times. Glacier Gulch is a great ski with fun pillow lines and chutes all the way to the bottom. A little recap from this past week:

 Monday. February 18th: Two super fun Granite Laps
 Tuesday, February 19th: Pyramid East Face pow to lower North Shots pow with Noah, Thomas and Annah.
 Wednesday, February 20th: Back to the Pyramid with Thomas, Tucker and Brian English, north shots top to bottom pow.
 Thursday, February 21st: Solo Playboy Chutes with Hudson. He's been chilling really hard lately and needed to get some exercise before he gets too fat.
 Friday, February 22nd: Pyramid North Shots in pow with Katie Crystal, Silas and Bill (not Truelove)    Avy class at night with Exum.
 Saturday, February 23rd: All day Avy field session with Exum.
 Sunday, February 24th: All day Avy field session with Exum. Mail Cabin drainage, Moosebrush in knee-deep powder. Bluebird day. Gorgeous.
 Monday, February 25th: Pyramid mini-epic. Skied North Shots in pow. One ski partner sprained his ankle at the bottom and it was a bitch getting out.
 Tuesday, February 26th: Super fun, casual day on the pass. DJ, Matt Valentine, David Fields, Jenny and Hudson. Noonish start, to two powdery Playboy Chute laps. Always fun to show others new terrain, and the day didn't disappoint.
 Wednesday, February 27th: Solo mission up the Pyramid. Started a little after 1pm. By myself so I wanted to see how quickly I could go. Made it to the memorial at the summit in 1 hour 35 mins. The sun was shining and the East Face looked too good not to ski. Made incredible turns down the East Face before traversing skiers left back to the ascent ridge. Skinned back up to the top of the
lower north shots. Nailed a narrow chute I had been eyeing from the bottom. Skied all the way to
the bottom, skinned back to the ridge, then skied back to the car. Car to car took around 3hrs
15 mins.
Thursday, February 28th: Casual Village day.
Friday, March 1: REST. Can't believe it's already March. Time to start thinking big. Wake up!

Nailed it.

North Shots. Martini Chutes in upper right.

Exploring new lines in GTNP

  Yesterday I got back on my skis for the first time in 3 days. It's been freakishly cold for the past few days and I've used that as a good excuse to take a break from skiing and do some bouldering at the gym. Max, Bill and I left town around 8, planning on poking around some north facing shots in the Park.

  The skinning went quickly and it even warmed up enough for me to shed a layer and go glove-less. Skies were partly cloudy and the high peaks took on that majestic, mystical aura as they moved in and out of sight.

 Once on top, Max scoped the line that he had been eyeing from another peak. He said he was 95% sure it went through, but that 95% of the lines on that side DIDN'T go through. Hmmm. We dropped in and skied gladed trees into a Granite Canyon-style chute for about a 1000 feet. Unbelievable! Perfect pitch, perfect snow, no tracks...

  ..Aaand then the chute rolled over steeply. We could see small trees going down a hundred feet or so , but it went around a corner and under a rock outcropping and we couldn't get eyes on it. We'd left our ropes and harnesses at the house, so we decided to boot back up and ski another line that DID go through. Well that was fun while it lasted.

  Max took the honors and the booting was easy along the ridge. A couple of 4th class moves on some rock made things interesting. Even got a bomber hand jam in at one point. Soon enough we were back on our skis and skiing gladed powder to another chute. Although SUPER tight getting in, this one went through. Untracked powder was promptly skied all the way to Avalanche Canyone.

  A second lap was discussed but declined, and we opted for a pitcher of beer and Moose Bread at Dornan's instead. Another fun day in the Tetons. Next time, I'll bring the ropes.\


_BY

 

January 9, 2013

 Cruised up Disappointment Peak to Surprise Lake with Will. Warm temps, sticky snow on the way up. Stayed North of East on the way down. Very fun powder turns. It's about to dump.

A Farewell Ski in GTNP...

   Yesterday I got the chance to say goodbye to a friend in a very fitting fashion. The friend was JR Jenkins, the fashion was skiing the Sentinel Couloir in Grand Teton National Park.

    Noah picked me up at a casual 8am. JR was dropping a friend's car at the airport, so we picked him up on the way. We got skinning around 9:15 AM and were at The Meadows in Garnet Canyon in around 2 hours. Upon gaining the flat ground at meadows, the wind increased significantly. Snowfall had increased as well.

   We basically followed the summer trail lookers right of Spalding Falls. Where the trail would normally cross the drainage to the Petzoldt Caves, we tossed our skis on our backs and started booting up to the base of the "South" Sentinel Couloir. The booting was easy enough, although a breakable crust was slightly annoying. Stopping every so often share our thoughts on the situation, we made our way up the chute. While turning around was of course an option, none of us wanted to ski a nasty breakable crust in blowing snow and high winds. Our hopes hinged on decreased wind and increased visibilty once we dropped into the Sentinel Couloir proper.

  Once we gained the top and crossed onto the north side of the couloir, the winds decreased and visibility increased a little. The snow seemed wind affected but very skiable. None of the breakable crust that the south side had. Noah dropped in first, then me, then JR. We skied it to the moraine above Delta Lake, then got some nice powder turns down to the lake itself. After crossing the lake, we traversed skiers right to the East Face of Disappointment  We were surprised to get some AWESOME pow turns down the face until we had to traverse right again to Bradley Lake.

  After the standard kick in the nuts skin/sidestep back to the car, cold beers were enjoyed and tired, clumsy high fives were given. A good end to another good day in Jackson Hole. Claaassic Jackson. Take it easy out west, JR.

VIDEO HERE:  Skiing the Sentinel


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IT'S A TERRAIN TRAP!

   Been SO damn cold lately. Did a couple of laps on The King on Thursday (1/3/13). Skinned up to the top of the S-chutes to check things out. Mainly just for something to do. Then went back up and hit Scotty's Ridge on a second lap. Mainly just to get out and enjoy the awesome sunset. Tried out some Volkl Shiros at the Village yesterday. Went up Taylor this morning with Thomas. East Face. F'ing terrible. There about a 2 inch breakable crust right now. Things got creamier with any northerly aspect. Hopefully the crust doesn't stay and this little bit of snow we're supposed to get on Monday with bond nicely. Stay on Northerly aspects. Getting the itch to get back in the park. Soon.


   In my boredom, I created this Star Wars dork backcountry skiing meme. I thought it was funny.



   Get it??


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Taylor, Taylor and Taylor. And New Year's on Taylor.

December 27: South Face of Taylor in blower powder

 December 30: East Face of Taylor in fast-as-you-want powder

 December 31: East Face of Taylor in fast-as-you-want powder

 January 1: My 27th trip around the sun, and another Taylor lap. South Face birthday bash. It's been pretty good.

 Between skiing everyday and Christmas week at the restaurant, I'm in desperate need of these next 3 days off. 2012 was pretty incredible. I'll recap that year at another time. Here's some pics from recent trips up Taylor Mountain.

Will negotiates the crux of the skin track.

All smiles back at the parking lot.

_BY

Winter so far...

  It's been quite a while since I've updated this thing, and since I wanted it to start out as a ski journal of sorts, I guess I should write something about the great winter we are having in JH right now. I was a little skeptical about the upcoming winter when my plane landed after Thanksgiving and it was pouring rain in the valley. Not exactly the kind of weather I was hoping for upon my return. It rained, and rained, and rained. The good thing was that it was frequently cold enough up top to turn that moisture into snow. Great early season turns were had on The Pass when there was absolutely no snow on the valley floor.

 It kept getting a little colder, the snow line kept creeping down, and the skiing kept getting better and better. I feel like I've skied powder every time I've clicked in this December. I would say I've skied more good snow this December than in all of last years funky winter. The snow has been steady and consistent, with a few big storms dropping a couple of feet at a time. By all accounts the snowpack seems bomber. I need to start keeping up with the dates of things skied, but this month has been a haze of powder, work, and Lost Continents. You know how it is. A few highlights off the top of my head:

- First over-the-head blower pow on Four Pines a few weeks ago.
- Dawn patrol on Glory. Sunday morning after a storm. Cold and clear. One of the most beautiful sunrise/alpenglow sessions I've ever experienced. Dropped into the NE facing aspect of Glory Bowl and skied untracked, run-of-my-life type snow.
- A single untracked run down Laramie Bowl at JHMR makes the list.
- Endless to Mile-long in Granite Canyon of Christmas Day was pretty awesome.
- South Face of Taylor yesterday (Thursday, December 27) in great conditions.
- Presumably first tracks down the Spoon Couloir on Disappointment Peak a little over a week ago. Someone obviously could have skied it before us, but we saw no tracks and no signs of a previous booter set up the chute. The chute itself was wind affected, but the entire E Face of Disappointment was INCREDIBLE all the way to the bottom. A few pics from that trip follow:

Bill skins up the East Face of Disappointment Peak

Nearing the top of the Spoon Couloir

Near the top of Disappoinment Peak. Grand and Owen in background.

                                            Sunset from JHMR on Christmas Day.

-BY