I am an avid adventurer, always looking for different ways to push myself in the mountains. I grew up in a mountain town (North Conway, NH) and now live in a mountain town (Jackson, WY). I am trying to make a living in the outdoor field, but have yet to find my calling.
Date: 1/21/2015
Snow Condition: Mixed surfaces; mainly consisting of light breakable crust. Some pockets of faceted snow, but warming at mid elevations created isothermal snow and created “grabby”, dense snow.
After an extended period of no snow and some inverted temperatures, Dane, Tristan and I decided for a mellow day on Olive Oil. It is a sub peak of Mt. Hunt directly north of the village and accessible from Granite Canyon Trailhead. We started late, around 10:30am and worked our way out along the Moose-Wilson Rd. until we came to the skin track that takes you up the north shoulder of the peak. While there are many ways to get to the peak, I have found that this way is the fastest and most straight forward. It is noticeable from the other skin tracks in by its location. It is about 7/10th of a mile out on Moose-Wilson Rd. from the trailhead and veers left right before an opening and obvious bridge (stream crossing).
On Moose-Wilson Rd. right before the left turn onto the skin track.The skin track to the north ridge of Olive Oil.
We worked our way up to the ridge and started climbing to the summit. At some point, the snow started to become isothermal and we grew massive globs of snow on our skins. We scrapped this off with our poles/scraper and worked our way up to the summit “block”.
Dane, working his way up to the summit “block”.
We finally made it to the summit in around 2hrs 40min and stopped to enjoy the beautiful inverted day. It was pretty neat to take a close look at Granite Canyon and its many runs from a different vantage point. Some looked big, while others looked smaller than they feel while skiing them. We took some time at the summit to enjoy the day and then geared up for the “amazing” skiing down (breakable crust, isothermal snow, faceted snow).
Granite Canyon from the north. Look at all those runs.Looking up Granite Canyon with Pandora’s in the center.Good vantage of the Banana Couloir.
Turns out, the crust was very skiable and the snow on north facing aspects was soft. We only encountered subpar skiing towards the middle of the run where the temperature inversion was at its greatest. All in in, we were very surprised by the snow conditions and the skiing in general. We took the upper face down to the cliff band and skied through some soft, breakable crust. Then, worked left and skied an open field to some trees which took us down to the gully of the northern ridge.
Skiing the upper face.Magical soft breakable crust.Shot through the cliff band below the upper face.
At one point, Tristan took a nice tomahawk because of a windlip he couldn’t see due to some flat light, but he was just fine. We made our way down the gully, finding our skin track and the way to the truck. We made it back to the trailhead in just over 4hrs and in plenty of time for some hot tubbing.
Date: 1/31/2015 Snow Condition: Powder, Packed Powder, some sun crust on the way up Garnet Canyon. Soft dense snow on the lower east face of Disappointment Peak.
After a few small storms brought a 6″ inches of snow to the mountains and a couple awful days skiing around the resort, I decided it was time to get into the park. North facing aspects seemed to be skiing the best over the past couple days, so I mulled over a few options and decided on the Dike Couloir near Teepee Glacier.
Zelie and I were a little late to start, leaving the truck right at 10am, but it was supposed to be cool and sunny through the day and felt fine about the departure time. We left Bradley/Taggart trailhead and proceeded towards Bradley Lake, out to the right along the normal track to Garnet Canyon. At the point along the moraine between the two lakes that the track either goes straight (to Shadow) or down to the right, we dropped right and made our way to Bradley Lake.
Beautiful view of the Grand from Bradley Lake.
We made quick work of the up into Garnet Canyon and were in the Meadows enjoying the beauty of the canyon in 2hrs. We saw a few guys booting up the “summer trail” to our right on their way to the Red Sentinel, a couple people going for the West Hourglass and later two guys on top of the col between the Ellingwood Couloir and Middle Teton Glacier. People were teeing off in Garnet and we were hoping not to run into to many tracks on our run. We decided the easiest way up was the skin track to the left of Spaulding Falls. At this point, the canyon was alive with spindrift flying off the mountain summits, as the sun crept above Nez Perce.
Zelie working her way up Garnet Canyon with the Middle Teton looming.The South Fork of Garnet Canyon with Cloudveil Dome and Nez Perce in the background.
We worked our way up the steep skin track, eventually switching over to bootpack mode just above the falls. We continued up and to the right, eventually coming to boulder field, exposed by the constant wind that comes through the canyon. We saw the two guys from earlier, struggling into the South Sentinel, on their way to the Red Sentinel to our right, and continued to work our way up to our objective. We eventually came out into Teepee Glacier at around 4hrs and were pretty excited that the majority of the work was done. We switched over to skin mode for one last minor push, but paused to take a look around the seldom viewed corner of the canyon.
Teepee Glacier.Middle Teton Glacier and the East Face of the Middle.
We worked our way up and to the right, eventually finding the entry into the Dike Couloir. It looked a little thin up top, but we imagined it was all filled in down low.
Top of the Dike Couloir.
We hung out in the sun for a bit, until the newly developed northerly wind began to be too much. We geared up and started to make our way down. After a couple side slips, we worked our way through the upper section and had some fun turns down to the rollover. Here we could see that the couloir had been HACKED. I couldn’t believe how many tracks were in the run…it reminded me of a Granite Canyon run two weeks into a dry cycle. Regardless, we were able to find some fun, fluffy turns on the sides of the couloir and made our way down in a few sections.
Zelie making some some pow turns.Fun turns in the heart of the Dike Couloir.Looking down the bottom half of the couloir, with Zelie slaying pow.The author making a slash.
The skiing was surprisingly fun, with plenty of powder to go around. We made our way down into Glacier Gulch, turning before dropping down to Delta Lake to admire the scenery.
Dike Couloir.The Grand, Owen and a shoulder of Teewinot looming large in Glacier Gulch.
Overall, the couloir is only about 1000′ of vertical, but some of the best part of skiing in this zone is the fun terrain that you get to ski down to Bradley Lake. We made our way down and across Delta Lake, then traversed right and found some fun snow to work with all the way down to a point where we started to go right around the base of Disappointment Peak and to the moraine to the right (north) of Bradley Lake. Apparently, you can just ski down to the valley floor and work your way to the right, eventually finding the parking lot as well, but we opted for the skin track out. We crossed Bradley Lake and made quick work of the out, taking our boots off at around 6hrs. If was a great day to get out into the park and another fun ski with the lady!
Date: 1/21/2015
Snow Condition: 10″ of Consolidated Powder with areas of faceted snow and some small pockets of unstable snow at lower elevation.
The Banana Couloir is a ski mountaineering run that many have stared at during the winter months, wondering what it would be like to ski such an aesthetically pleasing line. I have been guilty of looking up at this East/Southeast facing couloir off Prospector Mountain for years, always wanting to ski it, but not sure how, or when the right time would be. Well, after some thought the other night, I rallied my brother Dane and friend Close to head up Open Canyon and give it a try.
We left Granite Canyon Trailhead at 7am as the first flicker of daylight began to light up the sky. We had a pretty solid plan for how to navigate the approach to the base of the couloir, but were unsure if it would translate into success. After pouring over google earth, I found an old road 1.2 miles down Moose-Wilson Rd. that would take us close to the beginning of Open Canyon without much bushwhacking. It veers off to the left, before Moose-Wilson Rd. makes a hard right and the pavement begins. This proved to work, with a skin track taking us into the often overgrown and seldom traveled area to the south of Phelps Lake.
Our first glimpse of Banana Couloir.
With a visual of our objective, we took a left and started breaking trail towards Open Canyon. The snow was solid because of the low elevation rain event from a few days before, so we cruised up canyon with relative ease. We came to a ravine at some point and not thinking, dropped into it and crossed the stream. In hindsight, we should have just stayed on the right side of this gully, because it was the drainage from Open Canyon and we needed to be on the right side of it to start our climb.
Dane crossing a nice snow bridge.
Despite that minor setback, we made it to what we thought was the base of the couloir in just over 2hrs. Here we stopped for a few minutes to eat and decided how to tackle the initial steep face.
Base of the Banana Couloir. Looks like it would be a waterfall in the summer.
We decided to begin our climb to the lookers left of the “waterfall”, but I think the easiest and safest line up is to the right, through the trees and cliffs. Upon starting up, we heard numerous whomps as the snow collapsed on a weak layer at about 7600′ in elevation. This was very concerning to us and we discussed proceeding or not, but decided that the weak layer was only a low elevation (surface hoar) issue. We continued up cautiously for around 500′, making quick switchbacks on relatively exposed face, maintaining a policy of only one person on the slope at a time. After a stress filled, painfully slow initial hour of climbing, we seemed to be out of danger, having not heard a whomp for 200′ or so. The slope got pretty steep and crusted here, so we took off our skis and shouldered them for another 500′ until we reached the top of the steep initial face. We quickly got back into skin mode and tried to make up some of our lost time as we worked our way up and to the right. We got our first look at the Banana Couloir from up close not long after and were a little concerned at its size and the distance we still had to cover before reaching the top. We worked our way up the left side of the massive couloir for around 500′, before crossing the couloir to the safer, less exposed right ridge.
Working our way up and across the Banana Couloir.Looking up the couloir, about 2000′ from the top.Working our way up the ridge.
After gaining the ridge, we proceeded up at a frustrating slow pace due to the slick snow conditions and a few points where we had to take off our skis to get over some rock outcroppings. We struggled up, eventually coming to a steep, exposed section that we had to quickly bootpack through. After making it through this pinch in the couloir, we could see the summit, but we a little unsure if we would get to the top. The sun was warming the snow a little faster then we would have liked and none of us felt like going for a 3500′ ride down the couloir in an avalanche. We set a turn around time of 1:30pm and decided to push for the top at full speed. We skinned our way up the mellow upper “bowl” for a bit, but had to switch over to bootpacking about 800′ from the top. The snow was surprisingly stable, but after our experience down low, we were all a little nervous to be on the upper face, exposed to avalanches.
Bootpacking up the final face.
We made great time up the face, making it to the summit just past 1pm, but were all aware that now we had to make it down this large avalanche path safely. We took a few pictures, admired the entry into the “V Notch Couloir” and quickly geared up for the ski.
View to the North.Scary entry into the “V Notch Couloir”…it doesn’t ski through
I made two big ski cuts on the rollover with Dane and Close watching, but when nothing budged we cautiously skied the upper section – gaining confidence in the snow with each turn. The skiing was unreal – fun/bouncy/playful powder with areas of deeper snow on the northeast facing right wall. We worked our way all the way down in several sections, having a blast and hooting all the way to the last pitch.
First turns from the top.Dane, harvesting the Banana.Close making turns towards the top.Fun turns down the huge couloir.More powder!Dane, entering the steep middle section.A look up the Banana Couloir from around 9500′.Dane, milking the turnsClose, skiing the lower gut.A view up from above the last pitch. What an amazing run.
We approached the lower face from skiers left of the waterfall and cautiously made our way down, all to aware of the potential instability the snowpack displayed earlier. We made it down to a cliffband about 200′ from the bottom of the canyon. There were two possible ski throughs and I chose a less exposed ski to the left. I made it down and gave a hoot, signally the next skier should come down to me. All of a sudden, Dane yelled, “Avalanche!”. I moved behind a tree and as I did, looked up and could see snow beginning to flow over the cliff. It didn’t look huge, but saw large blocks of snow from what appeared to be a hard slab rolling over the cliff for what seemed like minutes. When the snow stopped, I could hear someone yelling from below the cliff (to my left) and nothing from above where Dane and Close had just been. I called for Dane again and thankfully heard him yell, “I’m safe, but Close got taken down below!”. I raced down to the debris pile at the bottom of the cliff band and as I approached, saw Close’s pole. My mind was racing, but was going for my transceiver to search for Close when I heard something from above. It was Brian, he had been pulled over a small cliff and thankfully found some way to stop himself from being dragged over the much larger cliff edge a few feet in front of him. He said he was missing his ski and pole, but he was ok. I looked around in the debris pile for a bit and luckily found his ski half buried, but intact.
Brian making his way down to his ski, very luck to be safe.
Dane gingerly made his way down after Close had retrieved his ski and we collectively let out a sigh of relief. We knew the snowpack at the lower elevation had some weaknesses, but thought we could mitigate them. We were wrong, but thankfully we all made it out safe.
The crown of the pocket that ripped out about 50′ from where Close made a turn (He was the third one to come down).
We traversed around to the right (south), keeping high and trying to make it around the lower flanks of Olive Oil and find a skin track out. Eventually we found a fast one all the way out to Moose-Wilson Rd. and pushed our way back to the truck in 8hrs. It was a great day, but very easily could have been a tragic one.
Date: 1/17/2015
Snow Conditions: 10″ of consolidated powder, stable with pockets of deeper snow
With around 10″ of snow and more on the way: Chase, Tim and I decided to venture into GTNP during a weather window to try and tackle Son of Apocalypse. It is one of many north facing couloirs off Prospector Mountain that end up in Death Canyon. We left town around 8:15am, delighted by the amazing weather and great visibility. We were moving from the Death Canyon parking area at 9am and made some good time up to Phelps Overlook. Here, we took off our skins and traversed right (south), following the summer trail until we crossed onto the large field to the west of Phelps Lake.
Field to the west of Phelps Lake.
We made a few fun turns down the field and then straight-lined it for the far end of the field and the snow covered bridge towards the south west of the field. We transitioned back to skin mode and started moving up and to the right – onto a flank of Prospector Mountain. In the past, I have gone across the south west corner of Phelps Lake and started skinning up the obvious avalanche path, but we decided to try a different path considering we were going to be breaking trail regardless.
The far avalanche path is the “normal” starting point of the skin.
We worked our way up, through some tight growth and eventually found ourselves lookers right of the avalanche path and the “normal” skin up. We crossed the path and continued up the ridge, finding a faint skin track from a few days earlier. The up was fairly easy and we soon found ourselves on the ridge that eventually leads to the Son of Apocalypse. We found the little depression in the ridge we were looking for around 4hrs from leaving the truck. While waiting for the group, I scoped out an alternative entry to the couloir that would provide a lot more spice, but looked doable if the conditions were right.
Alternative entry couloir into Son of Apocalypse.
We changed over to ski mode and made some quick assessments of the snowpack. It seemed stable, with no areas of concern and we decided on a few ski cuts to test our theory. This provided no movement, so we proceeded on with cautious optimism.
Tim skiing pow down the first pitch.
The snow proved to be very fun and deep, with minimal sluff or crust. We cruised down the first pitch and then got into the heart of the couloir, with large rock walls and numerous hanging snow fields rising from each side.
Tim, skiing in the distance down the second pitch.More couloir powder turns please.
We made our way down the massive couloir, each having a blast and amazed at the amount of snow in the couloir. We were unsure if the rock band in the middle of the couloir had filled in, but were confident that we could either air/down climb it if necessary. So with a little trepidation, we reached the crux and found that it has filled in enough to pick our way through it.
Chase and Tim above the crux of the ski.
From here, the couloir eventually pinched into a fairly tight choke toward the bottom of the run, before opening up to the exit apron. We skied down to the pinch and passed through without incident.
Looking down to the pinch.Chase, looking nothing like a Colorado skier coming out of the pinch.
We skied the apron down for a bit and had a look up to Apocalypse Couloir to see if the ice bulge was filled in. We couldn’t determine if it was, but could tell that if it was skiable, it must be about a ski length wide at most.
Exit of Apocalypse Couloir.
From here, we crossed the stream and found the summer trail out of Death Canyon, which proved to be quite fast (up on the north side of the canyon). We eventually put our skins back on and made our way across the field from earlier and up to Phelps Overlook. We took one last look at Prospector Mountain and Death Canyon before turning our backs on the zone and making our way back to the truck.
Son of Apocalypse.
The traverse/ski back was fairly fast, with us arriving at the truck in 5hrs 40min. We felt pretty lucky to have skied a couloir like that in deep snow and even more fortunate that the snow was completely stable. We knew that days like this were few and far between in the Tetons and soaked in the joy as we made the drive back to town.
Date: 1/3/2015
Snow Conditions: 8″ of bouncy powder with a playful sun/wind crust underneath (barely noticeable). North facing pockets of deep powder.
After recovering from the holiday season, Zelie and I decided to venture into the park for a mellow skin up Albright Peak to see what the conditions were like in the park. We made it to Death Canyon parking area at around 10:30am and were moving shortly after. We made our way up the road until the fork for Death Canyon/Mavericks and made our way left to our destination.
The fork: Death Canyon (Whimpy’s, Albright, Stewarts Draw) far left (out of frame), Mavericks far right.
We continued past the summer trailhead and made our way onto the Valley Trail until the skin track forked right and into the open field below Wimpy’s Knob that signals the start of the climb. For some reason, this is one of my least favorite skin tracks in GTNP. It seems to always be set in the most asinine manner; usually steep with numerous switchbacks – but most importantly, it gets a good amount of sun and is always a bit slick. So, with this in the back of my mind, we worked our way through the field and began our climb. It was not as bad as usual, but it was not ideal. We worked our way up for around 1.5hrs and eventually came to the final slope that leads to the top of Wimpy’s Knob. Here, we began left about 300′ from the summit of Wimpy’s. We crossed through some trees and above some rock outcroppings, eventually coming to the ridge that connects Wimpy’s to Albright. We continued along the ridge until the East face of Albright was above us to our right and we needed to cross the slope to get to the south ridge and the normal boot pack up the 300′ top portion of the face. Here, the wind had created a thick crust, which made the skinning tough, but we made it across to the south ridge and had a decision to make. The face looked like it had slid during the past storm cycle and was riddled with wind whales. It looked like the skiing from the top would be mediocre at best, so we opted to just ski from the ridge, about 300′ below the summit. We geared up and ripped the gut of Albright Peak, working our way down and to the right below some large rocks.
Zelie, making some powder turns down the first section of Albright’s East face.The upper portion of Albright.
We worked our way down and to the right below a rock band, finding some amazing snow on north facing aspects, until we had to ski hard right to avoid the choke towards the bottom of the face. Here, we found ourselves with an untouched canvas of powder on the lower faces of Albright.
Powder time, excellent!
We milked the powder all the way to the bottom, linking some fun turns together on the mellow lower face. At the bottom, we worked our way left – eventually finding the Valley Trail and our ticket home. The track was pretty quick on the way out (one of the bonuses of skiing in this zone), making our way to the truck in around 15minutes. In total, the whole ski took 4hrs 30min, at a very leisurely pace. It was another great day in the park (we have been spoiled this winter) and left us looking forward to the next ski.
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