Slackcountry, Jackson Hole, Friday March 25th.

I will no longer call it Slackcountry, at least up in Jackson. The guys and gals that duck ropes and go through the access gates into Teton National Park are seriously fit, if in a different way, than us Nederland skinny ski skinners. This different culture of people, that head straight to the Sidecountry right off the tram, have strong hip flexors and glute's.  I have never seen someone with such big heavy skis, boots, and bindings side step a slope through deep powder so effortlessly. It was like trying to follow a Swenson on skate skis...ain't gonna happen. I guess that's what 15 years of experience getting 100-plus days a year in does to you.  

Our local 'guide' was an acquaintance named Hunter that used to live down here. He's friend or family of BigDaddy and has been living the ski life up in Jackson for a long time. The last time I saw him was when at a Dropkick Murphy's show in Denver about 5 years ago.  Wednesday morning, Hayride and I were in line at the Village Cafe getting our first Tramline Breakfast Burrito (highly recommended) and a quad espresso, when I noticed Hunter step in line behind us.  I am pretty sure he didn't recognize me right off the bat, but it didn't matter, common ski bum courtesy had him inviting us to his place to crash and take us out for a tour one day.  We had a bro-deal place to stay a mere 50 paces away from the cafe, so we made plans to meet at the top of the tram sometime on Friday.  When Friday rolled around, Hayride and I were both pretty worked from two full days of skiing and thought some resort time would be easier than heading to the Pass again...think again.  

We met Hunter in Corbet's Cabin at the top and quickly realized what we had gotten ourselves into. Hunter asks what we're up for, and trying not to influence his normal routine I say something like, "whatever you want to do, we're good with anything."  The following statement has to be in the top ten classic ski quotes in my book, "How comfortable with air are you...?" Um...hmm...'more comfortable than I should be!' I thought to myself, but really said, "well...depends on how much air?" The funny thing is that I was just joking to Hayride on the ride up that Hunter wanted to take us down Corbet's Couloir on our first run.  That ended up being the truth

We headed straight from the cabin to the famous Corbet's Couloir.  The couloir has a mandatory drop-in of at least a few feet...and goes up to 20ft or something like that.  I wish I could've captured his full run on camera but i was having issues (shaking profusely?).  Hayride played it smart and decided to go around and watch us come down.  I gave into self-imposed peer pressure (myself talking to myself) and followed Hunter down the entrance.  He explained that you only need to slide-slip left down the initial chute to the top of the mandatory drop and then simply hop off, "smear the tails" to head right, then smear em again to cut left (before you hit the cliff wall) and then "you're all good!" Ok, can't be too bad (what does smear the tails mean anyways...?).  When he faltered and hip-checked the 5-footer I thought, OK, maybe it is kinda hard!

Tribute plaque to Doug Coombs in the 'cave' just under Corbet's couloir entrance

What can possibly go wrong I thought.  The new snow was all scraped off and the entrance was pretty shaded and icy.  My entrance was surprisingly ok; i made the right turn off the small cliff and only fell on my ass in the ensuing left turn, mostly because i was going so damn fast within 2 seconds of landing.  Then the main wide open couloir with deep cut-up powder. What took Hunter 5 turns to head down the run on his fat Rossi S7's took me at least 20 turns on my relatively skinny Manaslus.  I popped out of my right binding (again) once, bailed over the bars, but only ended up with serious leg burn at the bottom and smiling ear to ear.  Hole f'ing s%@#, what a sick opening run!

View north to the Tetons from the boundary of the resort

After Corbet's we headed down and quickly under a rope.  After some side-stepping I thought we'd be putting on skins, but 45 minutes later I realized we were gonna keep going that way.  No reason to have the skins in the pack here I guess! Around the backside of the resort, we eventually hit a cliff band and followed as Hunter tried to find an untracked route down.  Our chute was only somewhat south facing but i found out soon had a good suncrust under the 5" of new snow.  "Guides go last" he says, so i volunteer to go first.  Confidence lacking, I sluff the whole chute (which wasn't that wide anyways but still...) after one turn and eventually get myself down to the bottom to take photos. Hayride does much better than me as seen below.  Hunter heads down in maybe 1 turn, passing me at about 30mph on the way to the next traverse into Granite Canyon.

Hayride heading down the first chute

The traverse, heading to Granite Canyon and the ABC's.

We were headed to the "ABC's" or something like that, naming three of many chutes, glades, and couloirs that lead down into the canyon's bottom and the traverse back to the ski resort.  

Hayride dropped in first to the next chute at the top of what you see below.  He took a ride, in more than one way, down that couloir and lost a pole in the process (he is ok).  Hunter led me lookers right to the rocky ridge above the main couloir and said to, "go down around 7 turns....wait...make that 20 turns for you, and stop" as we wouldn't want to miss the chute back into the midway point of the couloir.  The next 20 turns in those shaded trees were the best flippin belly-deep champagne powder turns that I've ever had the luck to experience.  After I stopped, laughing aloud, we dropped into the couloir and met up with Hayride at the bottom, where i took the picture below. 

The bottom of A or something like that.  This alone was longer than any run in the Front Range.

The traverse out of here apparently is created/skied at the start of every season by Hunter and his bro, and involves many short uphills that you kinda side-step/skate up, so to scare away snowboarders he says (not sure what I think of that as I'm also a boarder!). 

Hunter heading out the canyon on a traverse.

Hayride did quite well on the way out with only one pole.  We got passed by a few people including one girl, and a half-hour later we're back in the resort.

One-pole Hayride sidestepping out of Granite Canyon into the resort.

The next tram ride up, after our almost 2 hour loop out to Granite, we headed to the south side of the resort to something called Rock Springs. A quick duck of the rope along a well-used trail, we were dropping into some nice short chutes with only lightly cut-up powder into a huge open bowl with massive granite-lined sides.  The pictures don't do this justice at all.  Hunter said he loves this run because it reminds him of the Alps and I can imagine why.

Hunter heading down a mini-chute to start out Rock Springs.

Hayride heading into lower Rock Springs.

Hayride, we came down from the left of that cliff on the right.

Back on the lower Hobacks (what is up with someone name HO-back getting so many things named after him...?) we headed straight home to open an Abyss and celebrate a fine day of skiing and a great few days of skiing in a truly amazing location.  If we had more time, I would've loved to do a long tour in the park but there's always another day.

Teton Pass Backcountry Tour, Thursday March 24th.

Teton Pass in the middle, Glory Mtn and bowl on the right side.

Start of the hour hike up to the top. Let's focus in on the details...

mortar shells (huge!) with the names of those that have died in avalanches on the pass.

This is a highly used pass so conflict seems to be an issue here sadly.

If you find one...don't pick it up...? DUH?!

On up...straight up! Bootpacks follow the fall-line. See the road back there?

Me down the gullet of Glory Bowl.  This is an awesome LONG descent!

Teton Pass has more terrain to explore than I'll ever know.  There are the obvious slopes that you can see from the parking lot, or read about in the online "guidebooks", but I can tell from just looking at the characteristics of the ecosystem that open glades permeate this entire area.  Under an hour bootpack from the car, you can get a better and longer ski run in that you can find anywhere in the front range...and it won't be tracked up after 10 people hit it either.  This is one of the many reasons why Jackson is a ski bum's destination, people move here to ski-to-live, and it's immediately obvious why.  I have yet to experience such a steep, deep, and expansive area in Colorado.  Silverton and the San Juan's perhaps, maybe Tahoe, but in Jackson the snow's lighter than Tahoe and safer than Silverton...it splits the difference in those area's snowpacks and comes out on top in my book.

Hayride down lower...we were really lucky with the snow conditions.

Glory Bowl is a classic descent.  It's obvious where to go, and it's over 1200 vertical feet of open bowl and sparse trees with some hucks thrown in.

After Glory, we switched sides of the pass and headed to where our noses took us.  We ended up on Xmas Bowl (we think) on the lookers left of Edelweiss Mtn, and something else I don't know the name of.  There were lots of tracks, apparently everyone has a night job here or doesn't work.  Doesn't matter, even a day after the big storm, there were untracked lines everywhere.

Hayride skinning (yes...SKINNING!) up to an unknown name Bowl on the right. Nobody here on a Thursday!

The bootpacking took some getting used to (I'm still sore in weird places from it almost a week later), and I'm not sure why skinning isn't the preferred mode of uphill travel here, but I guess when in Rome...

Me taking a picture of Hayride taking a picture of our turns down Xmas Bowl.

Jackson Hole, Wednesday, March 23rd

Just got back from a few days in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a short ski trip.  Honestly, I couldn't have skied another day...i'm worked!  The 24 hours before we arrived it just dumped, and pretty much snowed up high on-and-off the whole time we were there.  They got the single-most snow in a 24-hour period of 29" on Tuesday and we were in the tram line on Wednesday morning.  To say it was an insane day would be an understatement.  We both had some of the skinniest skis on the mountain and were the only ones who actually would consider using climbing skins to go uphill...go figure.  It is a different culture up there for sure, lots of people whose lives revolve around skiing, lots of skiers with big balls skiing really fat skis with rockered tips and tails, hucking big cliffs, and generally doing big lines in really big snow.  I felt over my head not just in snow.

We never do resort days for this long, especially where the terrain is so amazing and challenging or when the snow is so deep.  My body isn't used to the bootpacking or all-about-the-down type skiing.  With the long tram rides we got almost 20K of vertical in 5 hours or something silly like that, including two pretty good hikes to get fresher tracks, so we were pretty taxed at 3pm so we called it quits.  Jackson is truly a skiers mecca.

Sunset on the drive into town on Tuesday

All you  need is some IPA and Ensure!

The tram building is on the left, the line is around the front and all the way up and to the right...

Tram up up to the 4,000ft to the top of Rendezvous Bowl on the left or choose Corbet's Couloir on the right.

Open boundaries here.  Cody Mtn looming in the background as Hayride checks out the avy danger sign.

That would be me belly deep in powder.  I'm a tad over 6'1" so that is what I would call DEEP!

Hayride floating downhill...

...and again on another run over near Casper Bowl

It's all about boot-packing and side-stepping here to get where you want to go.

 

This is the boot-pack up to Headwall and then on to Casper.  It's amazing how many people here boot pack to get to more freshies!

me headed down hear Casper Bowl.

To the Snake River brewery for an IPA, apres ski.

Tomorrow's Post = Teton Pass Backcountry...

Good timing

> Record day in Jackson yesterday! Read the subtitle to the photo...

Off to Jackson Hole

Steel*Wool on skis has decided, with some sadness, to bail on the Elk Mountain Grand Traverse this year.  Various reasons but mostly because it's a record snow year in Jackson and neither of us have been there to ski the resort or Teton Pass....so we're off Tuesday through Sunday.  Cheers!

The NEW Chutes and Ladders

Stunning day up high today.  Hayride got the afternoon off work so headed up to the E.P.C (and ladders) around 2pm.  None of that stuff that blows snow around, 45 degrees and bluebird sky, 4" of new snow.  Quietest day I've had up there I think ever.  The snow down low was pure May corn so we weren't expecting many good turns.  It got softer as we headed up the north face to EPC and Squirrel-Huck gully, but then anywhere the hot sun hit today was crusty, even on the north faces.  Good thing we put the invisible tarp over these glades.  This place is my new favorite place to ski, by far. The new Chutes & Ladders. Hour and a half to the top, back at the car in less than a 3 hour trip.

Traversing over from the top to Big Johnson Chute. 

Hayride skiing down. This picture doesn't do the view justice at all.

As we went down the first run, we traversed right only to find more unexpected chutes, one after the other. I just don't get it, how have we never come up here before...?! It's amazing. I've lived here almost 20 years now, skied here 10, and never found this stash.  It just goes to show, it's not the area that gets boring, it's the person that gets complacent, at least in this case.

Felt kinda like spring is here out there. Soon it'll be time to hit the high peaks in search of corn-surfing-fun-in-the-sun. Powder, and corn, are the closest I get to surfing here in Colorado.

Squirrel-Huck Gully

Solo skintrack, Wasatch style because of practicality (don't mess up your turnage spots!)

The top of the first run, Twin-Tree Hill.

And the big whopper, I'm calling it Big Johnson Chute. Zero degrees north facing, literally. Starts at 10,500ft-ish, ends 1,300ft lower down. Yes, it was amazing. You missed out, Pilots. I'll take a 4-pack of TenFidy or an Abyss if you want me to lead you there.

About 600ft vertical down from the last photo...and I was only halfway down! 

Nobody could go ski today so I went anyway. Headed back, once again, up to E.P.C. and Squirrel-huck gully (named after the crazy squirrel that hucked a huge air after completing a 30ft log-ride across the gully the first time I came up here). 

Another 'surprise' storm left 3" at the house and another 5-8" up high (sounds like a broken record, eh?).  The weather was calm and sunny at the ranch, then as i hit the schoolhouse it was whipping wind creating a whiteout.  Classic tunnel conditions at the parking lot.

I dig solo excursions into the woods, not better than with friends, but just different. My mind is calmer, I hear more things around me, i notice the snowpack and weather conditions more, I go my own pace, I find better skin-tracks (or at least nobody cusses me out if I don't), and search for spots that may not have a good approach but I only have myself to get turned around only to end up at the top of a cliff and have to boot-pack back up 100ft in punchy recycled powder (yes, that was reality today).  In between Squirrel-Huck Gully and the Whaleback is Big Johnson Chute - the longest continuous line at the tunnel that I've found.  The line I've been eying for years...check.  I'm usually not a 'check-box' type of dude but sometimes the shoe fits. 

Happy Spring Forward all.

The storm that didn't come...kinda

 The "Potential Storm Announcment (PSA)" (or is it Public Service Announcement...?) came out on Thursday about how we were gonna get the biggest storm of the year to date...that's like saying "it's great there no wind up here!"  ..and then it gets windy. 

Of course, the big storm didn't come.  The 10-20" decreased to 3-5" in the forecast and then we actually got nothing in Ned.  Oh well.  It's a funny occasion when the forecaster apologizes on email to everyone. 

The Pilot and AK came up anyways to see if we could find some fun in the EPC region again.  Turns out, the new snowline is 10,000ft because as we drove up to the tunnel, it just started dumping...a lot.  Another 5" of fresh had fallen and we were just finding gold everywhere.  The wind of course helped deposit some 'sympathetic' snow too. 

The Pilot traversing probably the largest snowbank in this area.  I want to come back in summer to see the elevation difference.  No snow on the east side, and the wind deposits all the snow right under his skis. 

The skin up is rather large (1.5 hrs at least) but the payoff is excellent.

The Pilot is mid jump turn in the middle of the picture there.

Skinny skis

Does this look like someone on skinny skis? This is Hayride at Prospectors yesterday on the Asnes Holmenkollens which are a mere 52mm underfoot. These are not 'all about the down' by any stretch. His 'regular' backcountry skis are over double that underfoot.

 It's really not possible to describe how it feels to rail a telemark turn in 8" of new snow on these skis...but you really should try it if you don't know what it's like.  (And study these movies, especially "Revenge of the Telemarkers".) There's an element of danger - you're not totally sure you can pull it off, but when (or if) you do, it feels like you just cornered on a roller coaster.  The skis are so unstable and do NOT float that you must actuate your downhill knee to make sure the ski goes the direction you want it to. The turn initiation has a delicate surgical feel to it, cutting into the snow slowly. Once you get the downhill ski on edge, you have already dropped the uphill ski's knee which is what really starts the carve...and then hold on for the ride. Even though you're somewhat slowing down in the turn, you're really accelerating until you come out of the turn and initiate the next one the same way.  

The beauty of these skis is their practicality and utilitarianism. They go everywhere, the user just has to learn to use them.  They're not easy to ski downhill.  Without skins, and just the right wax, we were out for 4 hours going up, down, and all around.  A little rise in the trail? Just jog up and glide down the flatter or downhill other side. There's an element of FLOW to skinny skis, more fluid than the farming of turns with heavier Tele or AT gear (not that there's anything wrong with that, i love that too!).

The best part about the ski was that on the uphill we both were hurting, not feeling ready at all for the Grand Traverse in 3 weeks.  It wasn't that much fun truly. Then we got up high. There was no wind up high which was just weird. It started snowing and then the visibility was nil. I mean ZERO...we couldn't tell if we were going up or down.   As we got over to the Prospector's area, the snow got deeper and softer.  We both were surprised at the amount of 'blow-over' from the other side of the Divide that has happened these last few days.  Traversing is the way to find new lines and that we did.  Unfortunately, the south facing slopes had such a bad crust that the new snow just broke off of it and we both took short spills because of that.  But as we got more north-facing, it just got better and better. It was supposed to be a crappy snow day but turned out to be one of the better powder days we had.  And it's always knee deep on skinny skis.

...and on down...

Wednesday BC

Old man's mocha (it's really quite good!)

 Hayride came up with the "Old Man's Mocha" and i must admit, it's REALLY good.  And it has serious power in there...2 shots espresso mixed with a warmed up bottle of Ensure...you have to try it.

The Pilot and fellow BCS racer AK came up to get some turns yesterday.  It was sunny, warm, and the snow was frozen solid except on the north faces.  We headed to the same northside EPC slopes and the Whaleback just because it's so damn fun.  Found some soft snow in the trees with windslab punchiness on the exposed slopes.  We bootpacked up a bit, "peaked out" on Marmot Poop Rock, stared at the rad view, and then hiked down about 200 vertical feet over scree and the high alpine grasses to get to the slope we wanted to ski (very Montezuma's Revenge race-like - lap 8).  Found even more alley's to add to the ever-expanding EPC list up there.  Now we just have to link them all together in runs with no short traverses.

the Pilot and AK skinning up the southside

AK hiking up with 007 in the background

The Pilot doing his best impression of skier/explorer on Marmot Poo Rock. (my camera shutter didn't open all the way for some reason...)

  

AK ripping the downhill, this kid (ok, he's 26, but still...) rips on skis.

The Pilot on the down