If you love powder, steeps and skiing Jackson Hole, this may bring on fits of jealousy. We just spent a fabulous two days skiing JH and doing a backcountry ski outing in Grand Teton National Park.
Day one was spent with my wife, Ann and daughter, Rachel. It was almost a bluebird day with a light “dusting” of 3 inches of powder added to the 18” already received in this storm cycle. For the most part, we were skiing cruisers off of the Gondola, with a trip down Tower 3 chute and a face shot run down the Headwall. In total we got in 22,000+ of fantastic vertical, which was a pretty nice day. Could have done more, but I knew that day 2 was gonna be BIG.
Day 2 brought another 3 or so inches to the Tetons and the start time was 7:00 AM at the Taggart Lake trail-head in GTNP with Exum guide, Aaron Dahill. The goal was 25 Short, which has its name because it is twenty five feet short of 10,000. As Teton peaks go, this isn’t a real big peak. But we turned it into one. We did the Turkey Chute, which is a north facing couloir running 1,700 vertical down into Avalanche Canyon. This isn’t a bad day, but we weren’t done. After skiing most of the way down the canyon, we took a hard right and skinned back up to the summit via the North Ridge. This was a steep, tough grind, but well worth it. We then finished the day by getting over 2,000 vertical of almost untracked, deep powder down the SE face. Total vertical for the day was 6,000 plus and we put in 11.6 miles.
The videos contain highlights of:
- The JH steep, (Tower 3), the deep, (Headwall) and some cool tree skiing.
- The Turkey chute, including a “fun” little down-climb into the couloir.
- Some blower powder from the summit of 25 Short.
One of my top ski outings of all time!
Peak 25 Short Video:
Jackson Hole Video:
GPS Data: (25 Short)
