Note: This route isn’t in the guidebook and I wonder if it has been skied before.
Click photos for larger images.
I have been eyeing the Southeast Face on the Middle Teton for a few years now and after one busted solo attempt, I got out with telemarker Chris Onufer this weekend and scored pretty good conditions for an exciting descent. The line sits looker’s left of the Chouinard Couloir. Here are some photos and a few tid-bits about the day. Enjoy! –Steve
Chris hikes up the South Fork of Garnet Canyon.
After scoping out the route from below, we decided to climb the Southwest Couloir
and look for an entrance into the top of the Southeast Face.
Chris makes his way past some sustrugi towards the Southwest Couloir.
Chris heads towards the Southwest Couloir.
On the way up, I searched around for an entrance to the face…this wasn’t it.
Randosteve heads back into the Southwest Couloir.
On the summit of the Middle Teton, Chris thinks it time…to SKI!!!
Chris skis the Southwest Couloir.
As usual…the skiing sucked here.
After poking around some more…we find the top of our line.
Randosteve skis the top of the Southeast Face of the Middle Teton.
On the way to the crux of the route. The snow was good here.
Randosteve skis the Southeast Face of the Middle Teton.
It was pretty steep with exposure and consequences as we moved through
the crux, and I linked turns where I could.
Chris skis through the crux zone of the upper Southeast Face.
This area was a little icy and we both side-slipped and stepped our way through.
Chris finds good snow on the main section of the Southeast Face.
The pitch mellowed here, but it was more loaded with snow…and little unnerving.
Randosteve skiing lower on the face.
Chris throws a tele turn low on the face.
The East Hourglass Couloir on Nez Perce in the background.
Picking his way through rockbands, Chris finds a way
through some cliffs at the bottom of the route.
Chris skis the Cave Couloir.
That looks pretty exciting, and heart racing Steve. Nice work.
i think i got some cool POV from the descent…and am working on a video.
Very nice Steve
thanks! it surprises me that i haven’t heard of anyone skiing this route before. maybe someone will chime in and say they skied it a week ago (which in turn will most likely be followed by some randosteve bashing and live to spray comments)…but that would also surprise me. i think it is a very aesthetic line, but it also sits next to other aesthetic descents on the middle teton (ellingwood and chouinard couloirs) so i think it often gets overlooked.
Nice Steve, I’ve looked at that and wondered as well. Way to stay motivated. A question though….since you don’t rando anymore, can you still be called “rando”steve? (there’s your bash :-))
thanks jon! and i still rando quite a bit…i just like to do it with my own personal challenges these days…as opposed to on the race course.
take care of that neck my friend!!!
hey Chris: why don’t you have a decent AT setup yet? We know you’re not really a telemarker 😉
Can’t your friend Steve get you a deal?
BTW, nice work both of you.
thanks eric…i have razzed chris about this many, many times…and i have an AT set up for him sitting here collecting dust.
Good for you Steve….I’m jealous. Three years of injuries has taken the wind out of my personal rando sail. Hopefully I’ve saved the worst for last for a while! Healin’ though, biking, soon to be on the rio! See ya around, keep up the good work.
p.s. careful out there after this new “dusting” I’m sure you know
What route did you take up?
what were the snow conditions on the SE face? was it corning up already (not that this new snow we’re getting won’t change that)? i was curious about when the breakable crust on sunlit aspects would thicken up to the point where it would be supportable and a corn surface (useful to know once we get sun again).
thanks and nice work!
jason…like i stated in the photo description, after scoping the route out from below, we climbed the SW couloir and looked for a entrance from the top.
http://tetonat.staging.wpengine.com/2010/04/photo-tr-southeast-face-middle-teton/#comment-237441
sorry…i meant derek on the previous comment.
jason…we didn’t encounter any breakable crust…but variable conditions of powder, wind and what i’ve recently heard tom turiano describe as ‘foamy slabs’.
Really cool line Steve – definitely looks out of my paygrade. Nice work!
Steve, a couple of my friends skied that line 1 or 2 years ago. They nicknamed it "Cake or Death. There is still another unskied line on that face though.
mandragouras…that is interesting. i would love to know who you are referring to. if you feel like it, contact me and let me know in private. thanks.
http://tetonat.staging.wpengine.com/contact/
Dude your tilt-shift ski and climb shots are a breath of fresh air…after following your site the past few years I can say your shooing is getting to be pretty good.
I would think you could (or should) pitch a few photos for your sponsors’ use in Ad collateral…might add up to be a nice little bonus every season, ya know?
thanks gringo! a lot of people say i should enter some photos into some contests…maybe some day.
Hi Steve,
Nice trip report. That line was skied by myself, Mark “Redbeard” Fellerman, and Martin McManus in the spring of 2007 as a training run for Mark and my attempt on Mt. Foraker. I like to think that it was a first descent, but it was probably skied in the eighties or ninties by Alex Lowe or Doug Coombs. Like many lines in the park we will never know who was the first. It is a sweet line though nice and steep with great exposure. Keep up the good work!
Dan
dan…thanks for the info. funny…when i heard someone my have skied this line a year or two ago…you and mark came to mind. hope your descent was as good as mine!!!
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