Did the bike-ski-bike thing in the park this weekend and skied the East Face of Teewinot on Friday with Bryan, Colin and Ty. We were on our bikes at 5am and watched the sunrise as we climbed the Apex to the bottom of the route.
Clouds lingered around the summit for most of the morning and we wondered if we would have good visibility for the steep descent. After cashing our skins about 200′ above the Apex, we enjoyed our lightweight packs of spring and moved pretty quickly upward towards the Narrows. With the big winter this season, they should be referred to as the WIDES, as they are pretty much completely buried right now.
We occasionally went up to our knees on the bootpack and the clouds around the peak continued to obscure the summit. As we got closer to it though, they slowly lifted and we were welcomed to the top with warm sunshine and a clear view to the valley below. The views from the top of Teewinot are just amazing and the surrounding lines looked awesome. The Hossack/McGowin continues to be one of the less skied routes on the Grand Teton and it looked as sick as ever from our vantage point.
We had some food in the sun and rallied our stuff together for the descent. This was my second time skiing the East Face, the first time back in the late 90’s…I think. Conditions, and my ability, were a lot different back then and I remember down-climbing through the Narrows. Today…it would be much different and we would easily be making turns though the crux of the route due to the above average snowpack. I lead off from the top on variable, crusty snow and technical terrain to the funnel above the Narrows.
Photo: Ty Cook
After making a few more turns, I set up to take some pictures of the guys skiing through the constriction and onto the bigger face below. We found some decent powder way to the skier’s right, and continued downward. After passing the Worshiper and Idol, we grabbed our skins and ski crampons and dropped into the gully directly beneath the face for some fun corn skiing back to the valley floor.
Photo: Ty Cook
Photo: Bryan Feinstein
The bike ride back to the trailhead felt great…especially since my pack and skis were strapped to the bike frame and not on my back…and the seemingly slight downhill grade makes pedaling a breeze…even in my Z-zeros!
Lovely pictures!
Thanks Matus!!!
bike-ski-bike, nothing wrong with your judgement IMHO 🙂
it may have been sunny for the last 5 days up here but you can still count me extremly jelouse of that line.
Nice work!
amazing pics!!!!!!!
Thanks!
It’s not me…it’s the Tetons!
Nice job on the ‘Not! Looks like y’all had nice conditions! All I got to do was a little tour of the Vallèe Blanche from Courmayeur to Chamonix yesterday (!). A great day in the Italian Alps with our Freeride-buddy Stefano Bittelli who made sure we didn’t fall into crevasses or get eaten by goraks. If any of your Euro-correspondents are reading this we are in Courmayeur for two more days and then to La Grave for about five days. Looking for some more fun stuff to ski, i.e. steep couloirs, etc. There are a few TetonAT devotees we have run into over here– they love the site. They are also envious of the snow but they still had a good amount this winter. Had my first day of skiing corn this year on the glacier– what an experience!! Ciao! for now!–Reed in Morgex, Italia
Glad your having fun Reeders…and thanks for dropping in. I emailed a few friends for you…we’ll see if anything pans out. Huge warm up today. Some others going for the OB on the GT as well. Yikes!!!
Have fun over there!!! Feel free to send some pics!!!
Reeders…rumor has it it rained quite a bit up to 2700M in La Grave recently. I sent you an email from a JH’er who guides over there. You might be able to catch him before he goes in the mountains for a few days.
Back to Ross Lake this week!!!! YAY!
Reed,
Hey, I’ve only got limited experience of La Grave, and I am sure you will figure out stuff to do, but here is a couple of fun tours I have done in that area: The col du Lautaret (20 mins from town on the Briancon side) has got tons of options, Pic Est and Ouest of Combeynot both great objectives, and the Grand Galibier has got a cool North facing couloir from between the east and west summits. Grab the topo of the area, it has tours marked out, and if you stop by the Bureau des Guides and talk with the local guides, they can have good suggestions. If you get a chance, search out Ptor at the Hotel Chaumine in Ventellon, the first village just above La Grave. A Canadian guy who has a lot of local experience, unfortunately recovering from injury at the moment. He should have some good ideas, and if you see him, say hello from Aaron!
Have Fun, I think the snow is better now than when I was there in the beginning of March!
Thanks Aaron!