No Wimping out on Wimpy's
Most of you on this forum have no doubt already heard about, seen interweb reports, watched weather reports or maybe even experienced the storm that hit the Tetons this past weekend. I had set up to ski with one of the Exum guides, Aaron Dahill on the 4th of January and we had talked about maybe doing the South Teton. As the day approached and the storm got bigger, we opted for a safer objective. I was secretly apprehensive about skiing something named "Wimpy's Knob". (A cursory Google search didn't seem to reveal why the mountain had that name). So my assumption is that it is where people end up who "wimp out" on some other bigger objective. So, I guess I fit the name.
Anyway, we talked about hitting it twice and in the end, it really didn't take much convincing from Aaron to get me back up for two full laps. I must confess that as the client, I didn't do a lot of lead work on the skin track, BUT I did do a little bit. :biggrin:
Access to this little gem in the winter is from the "end of the road" at Death Canyon. The skin in is about 3 miles of slight uphill. We were first on the track after 8:00 AM on a Sunday morning, which really surprised me. Too many hang overs I guess???
During our first ascent we were caught by a group of three locals about 800 feet from the summit. Aaron knew them and they were cool and set the skin track from there up, (I had just finished my pathetic little stint). On the second lap, we had the slight advantage of having at least 2-3 others who had followed us up and had kept the track somewhat cleared.
It was snowing / blowing all day, (I think JH reported 21 inches during that 24 hr period). As a result, there wasn't a lot of scenery to photograph. I think Aaron may have got some photos and I'll post them up later if they turn out. I pretty much always have the GoPro running, especially on the descents, so I got some pretty decent footage of what it looks like to be choking on powder in the "deep and white".
Our stats for the day ended up being just over 6,500 feet climbed/skied, 10.5 miles car-to-car and over 8 1/2 hours out in the mountains. The video below is a GoPro TR, mainly of the descent stuff. If you don't like the GoPro stuff, then wait for the pics, but it does a pretty good job of showcasing the experience of skiing deep, light, untracked powder. For me, this was one of my best powder days ever, (I don't live close enough to the real goods to get this kind of stuff all of the time). For those of you that do, it truly is an enviable lifestyle. I applaud those who have managed to integrate skiing into their life where they can enjoy this kind of stuff on a regular basis.
We should always enjoy these types of experiences, have fun and above all else, come back home safe!
Happy New Year everyone!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_OipAI7ok0
