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TR - April in Montucky and the Tetons
This is a few weeks late, but I figure better late than never. It’s my first TR, so feel free to flame away. I had 10 days open at the end of April for skiing around Montana and Wyoming. We started it off with closing weekend shenanigans and lots of booze at Big Sky. I got in two days of guided skiing in GTNP after that, then
a four day mountaineering course with Beartooth Powder Guides in Cooke City (stayed at the Mt Zimmer Yurt).
Killer terrain off the tram and Challenger lift at Big Sky. Met up with fellow mag thefrush and skied the Big C, A-Z Chutes, and North Summit Snowfield.
Non-mag John about to drop into A-Z Chutes:
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Me getting ready to go:
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Shot of the line from below. Dropped into the V at top center, through the choke, and then skiers left down the big chute:
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Skiing was over early on day two, which meant party time. Headed over to the pond skim with backpacks full of beer - it was a fun time, but the crowds were a little insane. Lots of big sunglasses, trucker hats, and yoga pants, if ya get my drift. Also lots of dudes in cutoff shorts if yoga pants aren’t your thing. Pics or it didn’t happen, right? Notice the cutoff shorts on the left and right side of us in this picture. Weird or hilarious, I’m not sure. Anyway, I’m in the red hat.
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Hungover and done skiing lifts at BS, it was time to drive down to Jackson for couloir skiing in GTNP. I met up with Yostmark/Exum guide Scott Palmer. Great dude. I’ve skied with him a couple days over the past few seasons when I want to explore a new area or learn new skills. Yup, I know, I’m a dentist. The goal of this trip was to get some experience rappelling and learn the layout of GTNP. We nailed the weather and conditions and I’m psyched to get back up there next winter.
Day one in GTNP. Skinned up Shadow Peak, booted up Sliver Couloir, and rappelled into East Hourglass Couloir. Amazing conditions - North facing boot top pow.
Scott ready to go at the Bradley-Taggert trailhead:
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View of the Sliver from Shadow Peak:
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A few turns down into the Nez Perce cirque before the climb:
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Crampons on, up the Sliver we go:
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Made it to the top of the Sliver around 4-5 hours after leaving the trailhead. Now the fun begins with a rappel into East Hourglass. I think we made two or three rappels on a 40m rope before we skied. This was an awesome ski and also seemed like a perfect line to learn rappelling skills - relatively low consequence in good conditions with multiple anchors already built.
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Time to ski the East Hourglass! This is an epic line that opens up with a closeup view of the GFT.
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We skied out Avalanche Canyon (or was it Garnett? I’ll fix this in an edit), had a slushy lake crossing and a little bush whacking to get back to the car. Didn’t have to take the skis off though! Attachment 237168
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A hell of a day. I didn’t think day two could get better, but it did. The plan was to skin up Ullr’s slide path (it was frozen solid in the early AM) on 25 Short, up Snow Devil Ridge, down Chute the Moon, and a skin/boot up Buck Mountain and into Buckshot Couloir.
Skinning up Ullr’s:
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Skinning up Snow Devil Ridge:
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Up top, ready for Chute the Moon. More boot deep north facing pow!
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Skinning up to the bottom of Buck Mountain.
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Almost at the top of Buckshot.
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I’ll be damned, more cold pow.
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Done skiing in GTNP, now onto Cooke City. This place is rad. If you get the chance, book a few nights at Beartooth Powder Guides’ yurt. Big terrain, but you need a sled to get around.
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Sled access only to the yurt - about a 20 minute ride from town.
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Our first day skiing we set out to ski one of these coolies, but temps got warm too fast. I’ll be back!
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Plan B got us into Acid Drop couloir and more north facing pow. Seems to be a theme of the trip.
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Lots of big alpine terrain in the Beartooths. Plenty of corn skiing to go around too.
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That pretty much wraps it up... get out to the Yellowstone area for some spring skiing next year if you can!
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