Here’s is a little video stoke (it’s a little slow and mind-numbing) from skiing Okie’s Thorn Couloir last week with Reed Finlay. It’s a pretty obscure line, but the couloir sits directly skier’s left of the Dike Couloir, a popular descent on Garnet Canyon/Glacier Gulch loop-tours. It also runs below a sharp pinnacle, called Okie’s Thorn, on the southeast side of the Grand Teton. The line is best viewed from the top of Disappointment Peak, which is where I was the day before giving it a go.
We skinned up to below Teepee Glacier from Garnet Canyon. It was one of those magical mornings where the clouds moved in and out, with the mountain summit blazing in sun above. I can’t begin to count the number of times I said WOW…in amazement of how something you have seen countless times, can continually be so mind blowingly beautiful.
Anyway, we poked around for a sneak-in from the top of the Dike Couloir, but ended up skiing down the Dike about 1-200′, then making an exposed traverse and uphill sidestep to the skier’s left. Followed by a short down-climb into Okie’s Thorn Couloir itself. We then packed our skis and booted to the top of the skiable snow on the climber’s left. The snow was great, but the coverage was a little thin in the top few hundred feet and I nailed a few lurking rocks hiding under the powder. This kept the skiing pretty timid for the first half, but the bottom was more filled in, which gave the perception of safety and allowed for more enjoyable skiing.
Steve, thanks for sharing this trip! Great photos and video footage!!! Looking forward to the next one.
I like the phrase “perception of safety.”
Getting ready to road trip up that way, how far do you have to hike from the trailhead before you can start skinning?
KR…you can skin right from the trailheads. it’s not that bad…yet. 🙂
Wow, great work and thanks for the excellent stoke! I really like the new POV you have going on, not so sure about the slow-mo. 🙂
thanks brent. if i had more “good footage”, i probably would eased up on the slo-mo. that backpack cam is sure proving to be tricky to master.
Nice ski! A killer video. I like the slow mo and other edit features . Bet it took some time to make the video look like that. Much better than the standard helmet cam view! Keep it up!
Tetonrick
[…] by skiing down the Dike Couloir. I had always wanted to do this loop, and after reading about a pretty rad mission that Steve Romeo of Teton AT did in that area last week, it looked as though the conditions up […]
One day you’ll learn how to spell Teepe. How many years have you been misspelling this? Time to make a New Year’s resolution.
yeah LD…i feel like i have seen it spelled both ways, so maybe that has thrown me off?
New Year’s Resolution = Ride the bus to work this winter. 🙂