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Spring in the Tetons and Lost River Range (two hits and a miss)
I’m sitting here in my office looking out the window at another (almost) 100 degree day here in the Treasure Valley. I guess that means that summer truly has arrived and my ski season for 2015-16 has come to an end. (I’ve done the Turns All Year a couple of times, but it is kind of a hassle from here in SW Idaho, so not this year). At any rate, I realized that I haven't gotten around to posting anything up here on TGR for a while, so I thought I'd share out some spring "adventures".
As the title suggests, two of these were successes in terms of objectives accomplished, and the other one; well let’s just say it was a Suffer fest with a capital “S”, a learning experience.
Skiing the Middle Teton
In early April I was able to get together with a fellow TGR forum participant, (not sure if either of us would be considered Maggots, although I certainly wouldn’t turn down that honorable designation). Lee and I headed up Garnet Canyon to ski the SW Couloir of the Middle Teton. This route offers the least exposure off the summit of the Middle, (IMHO), but it is tough to hit it in the right conditions. It seems like the window of opportunity is pretty small, because the storms throughout the winter seem to scour it out and then it is one of the first aspects to melt out with the direct afternoon sun. As a result, I think it doesn’t see near as many descents as the classic East Face/Glacier route.
The day that we picked turned out to be almost ideal and we had great corn snow most of the way. The upper 500 vertical was pretty firm, definitely not corn, and sketchy enough to require our full attention! After that, it was great corn all the way down and even into the Cave Couloir. By the time we hit the Meadows, the snow was past corn and hitting that mashed potatoes state.
We didn’t get a lot of photos, and my GoPro was acting up, but I did get a few pics with the smart phone and some images from the GoPro:
Sunrise as we leave Bradley lake
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We take a quick break at the Platforms in Garnet Canyon, with the Middle front and center.
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The summit of the Middle Teton. Thumbs-up and the "Splattski".
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Lee, just below the summit of the Middle.
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Looking down the couloir - it's steep, the snow is firm and falling would not be recommended.
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Lee negociates the middle section of the couloir.
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All smiles as we exit the SW.
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The “Suffer Fest”
On May 1st, we took advantage of the park road opening up and ventured up to the String Lake Trail Head for an attempt on Mt. Moran. We were too early for canoes, (ice still on Leigh Lake), and so we opted for a “short cut” that I had studied out. Basically we headed around the SW corner of the lake and up the gully to the Falling Ice Glacier. The plan was then to cross over into the Skillet at the notch and head to the summit from there. For a full account of the misery and suffering click on this link. The quick and dirty is this:
- There is no easy way into the Skillet, especially in the spring when you can’t use the lakes and the access is a combination of dirt, mud and snow.
- You can always find good skiing on Moran – even if you don’t even get close to the summit.
- The slog out is even worse than the approach.
- And finally, if your friend who is a professional guide in the Tetons suggests a different objective after hearing your hair-brained, wild-ass scheme, then yeah – you should listen to him.
Now on the plus side, Elijah (Eli) Weber shoots some great photographs whenever he is along with the crew. Here is a sampling of some of his work:
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Going to Church in Idaho
In early June, two of my friends and I were able to get our schedules lined up for a trip into the Lost River Range in Idaho. Traditionally this is the “sweet spot” in terms of hitting the perfect spring corn conditions in this range. But I think global warming has moved that sweet spot up a month earlier. As a result, this outing was more accurately named, Skiing Mashed Potatoes in Idaho.
In spite of the less than stellar ski conditions, this trip was a success. Technically, we weren’t on the summit, but we were on the high point of the summit ridge, on the route that we chose and we were above 12,000 feet. I’ve included some photos of the climb, a video of the “mashed taters” action and some other photos of the cool peaks in the Lost River Range.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc-ARWgzwXk
On the approach to our camp site.
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Jim leads off on the skin track. Our objective of upper right in the photo, just out of sight. Donaldson Peak, another 12'er is the small point above and just right of Jim in this photo.
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Tom climbing, with the early morning sun hitting an unnamed Lost River Peak.
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Jim and Tom climbing Mt Church. The old avalanche debris / slide zone offered the firmest footing, but even there we were usually fighting boot-top depth mashed potatoes.
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Looking back at our tracks coming into camp. The high-point upper left in the photo was where we skied from. From this position it looks like the summit, but the true summit is actually the point second form the right. I'll have to go back and get that one another day.
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Following are some shots of some of the other peaks in the Lost River Range:
Borah from the NW, with a decent view of the steep north face:
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Leatherman (on the right) and Unnamed peak with the "Tomahawk Couloir" to the left:
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Mt Corruption. This peak is seldom climbed, and I've only heard of one ski descent:
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Mt Idaho:
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And finally, a shot of Jim attending to "Lurch" the 1990's era Land Cruiser that is the perfect vehicle for the gnarly roads in the Lost River Range. Lurch just needed a little break to cool off. :)
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So, there you have it. Two successful summits and one failure to hit the summit. However, all were a success in terms of the important criteria:
:) We came home safe.
:) We had fun – even if it was Type II fun.
:) And we made new friendships and cemented existing ones.
