Day 1 was as successful as we could have hoped for, so the pressure was on Fabrikant to keep it coming on day 2. The sun was scheduled to make a full appearance and bring warming temps. Like an army commander he stayed up late into the night scouring maps and filtering incoming communications from the field. The plan was set and we finally went to bed.
Wolfie had to head back to SLC, but Caleb was set to replace him and our crew of 4 met in Jackson at 4 am and headed back towards the park. We put off at a pretty good pace in the dark through the flats and into Garnet Canyon. The plan was to ski the south facing Ellingwood and Chouinard routes on the Middle Teton.
The wind was blowing well as we neared the apron and the sun came out. The expectation was that we’d find corn if we timed it right. The bottom was really wind raked, but the chute looked like it might be OK.
Sometimes it’s really good to be so wrong! As we tucked into the shelter of the couloir and ascended higher we were glad to discover that the Ellingwood still held POW. That’s right, creamy perfect powder snow that was quickly warming from the sun.
We worked together and made quick work of what might be 2K of vertical?
There was a little talk about heading higher and topping out, but we knew we would miss this little window on perfect snow. A quick picnic and then………
Pow Wow! Caleb dropped in with full heat into the #hotpow.
The sluff was slow and the skiing was fast!
We skied the entire chute with only pulling up once. I’m not sure I’ve ever skied anything this long and consistently steep in such primo-creamo conditions.
Ty continued to impress with his commitment to the telemark turn. It made my quads hurt just watching.
Adam dancing out on the edge of the world.
Really cool to get out with such young and talented skiers. Yes, it made me feel a bit old.
But they told me I had “old man strength”, which I guess is part slight and part compliment.
Commander Fabrikant went into full battle mode and propelled us upwards with encouragement and motivational speech as we took turns blasting up the Chouinard before it got too warm.
Our timing was yet again PERFECT! We transitioned at the rocky choke and dropped in on perfect warming corn at the top and more hot pow down low.
The Ellingwood was a good warm-up to the Chouinard which is a bit steeper and narrower. These lines make the perfect double down since the Chouinard ties right into the lower portion of the Ellingwood. Well played Adam.
Ty and Adam watching Caleb finish up.
Two classic Teton lines in the bag by noon, but we weren’t done yet. Consensus was that if we hiked up the Teepee Glacier we would have a much more enjoyable north facing descent out what I believe is called the Dike? We skied down and traversed around the Middle Teton, put some sunscreen on, and our heads down, and climbed one more time. The snow in the Dike looked like damn fine powder, and it was. All smiles as our legs got a rest in the effortless mellow angle powder. Trending and traversing right all the way out, we were able to continue in good snow almost all the way to the valley floor! With that much vertical and aspects covered in a long day, one would expect to encounter some shitty conditions, but we got away without on that day. All we could do was smile and shake our heads at how lucky we had been to nail 9K ft of Teton goodness. Ty looking back up at the Grand Teton from Delta Lake
1 comment