Found Mouse Couloir TR

Saturday May 6th, 2006
Grays Peak area
Found Mouse ski

Friday night at 2am fully succumbed to a viral illness of unprecedented magnitude I found myself lamenting the upcoming 5am hour. Sleep I had yet to know this evening. Three hours later I awoke feeling better, while not fully rejuvenated, spirits were certainly adequate for an attempt on the Lost Rat Couloir of Grays Peak with climb2ski.

On the drive up 32 ounces of Gatorade soothed my longing soul and drenched my spirit with refreshing refreshments. However, the bumpy road reminded me that my stomach was as empty as a barrel of IPA on an English schooner returning to the motherland. The road turns to snow, the car stops, skis go up. Gazing up into the morning sky, each step is simultaneously revitalizing and debilitating. Higher and higher into the basin we climb, moving slowly, as if the ether is molasses and my skins are upside down.
http://tetongravity.com/usergallerie...l_Appraoch.JPG

Seconds accumulate and become minutes and minutes morph into hours. I am getting nowhere in record time and worst of all climb2ski keeps taking my picture. Nevertheless, he is my brother and I love him, so I decide against impaling him with my whippet.
http://tetongravity.com/usergallerie...rmal_Kelso.JPG


Finally at the base of the Lost Rat Couloir, we see dark rocks, new snow, sunny skies, and a nagging feeling that I forgot my skis that are on my feet, sum that with an inability to run up a couloir we opt out of this east facing line. So there is something new that I will never ski, the Lost Rat Couloir.
http://tetongravity.com/usergallerie...al_LostRat.JPG

Sitting in the middle of this beautiful basin after a lengthy break and some Irish Cheddar, we contemplate our options. Just to our left we see something warm and inviting, it looks down with a gaze heretofore unbeknownst to us and whispers with a voice as sweet as papaya, "Hello, my name is Found Mouse, what is yours?" Immediately I pick up my skis and make random stabbing motions in its direction in an attempt to thwart the attack. Upon seeing this climb2ski asks, "Are you alright?" I reply, "I was thinking we should try our luck out down there up that on over that way." Never one to turn down an opportunity to kick 1000 feet of steps for his ebullient younger brother he agrees. An hour later we find ourselves on top of an appropriate amalgamation of rocks and snow and ice in a land of rock and snow and ice. I turned my eyes to one side and then to the other, one side looked better than the other, but the other was heading in our direction. Soon the fury enveloped my skis along with a water bottle and some other personal belongings.
http://tetongravity.com/usergallerie...l_Blizzard.JPG


We negotiated a fair deal with the slope below and got what could only be considered a fair return on our investment. The sky relented somewhat and we were able to take one look back at our new friend, Found Mouse.
http://tetongravity.com/usergallerie...LostMouse3.JPG

Several hours later we found my car right where I had left it.

Good read, nice line. Way to push through and get something done.

Are you feeling better now?

All better.

Nice Dude. Sweet line. It looked like winter up there :biggrin:


I miss winter:frown:

What do you call 50 blondes standing side by side?

A wind tunnel.

Nice pics of the ether. :D

Solid!

I need to get into this spring skiing thing.

True my brother was not feeling well... As I was climbing and waiting I thought this must be what iskibc feels like.

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...mbingSmall.JPG

After some time the view looked like this...

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...RobUpSmall.JPG

It was a very nice day in the mountains. Had a little of everything. This one was one of my favorites - east face of Toreys

http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...reys2Small.JPG

sweet pics brah!