3 Chicks, 2 Couloirs - East Hourglass via the Sliver
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Nez Perce in Grand Teton National Park has always been a peak of interest to me. It boasts multiple stunning couloirs and three that link up together with a little rope work to complete a trifecta. Out of the three, there was only one that I hadn’t ridden yet. The East Hourglass can be approached two ways - one, from the bottom to a chockstone two thirds of the way up, or a more exciting route - down climbing and rappelling into via the Sliver, a couloir on opposite side of the peak. Obviously, the latter route has always piqued my interest.
My close friend Pip Hunt was in town and another partner Morgan McGlashon just happened to have a Sunday off when the weather looked perfect. I sent out a text to both gauging the interest, the gear we’d need and start time and the plan was hatched.
5 AM and a few days later my alarm went off and I stumbled downstairs to get the coffee rolling. Pip and I had packed gear and food the night before to hedge our bets against forgetting anything important in the early hours. Except for headlamp batteries #fail. Gathering everything into the car, we met Morgan in town and headed off to the trailhead. Your mind works in funny ways when it’s early, and as we layered down in the darkness with skis and boards on our feet - we joked about bringing the 60m rope up five thousand feet only to ski out the Sliver and not use it at all. Hahaha - great training! Of course that meant I got to carry it.
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The route itself to the East Hourglass is a super fun (based on your level of pain tolerance) and consists of a 4K foot skin up Shadow Mountain, a down climb and ski into the Nez Perce Basin, another 1K climb up the Sliver Couloir, only to drop down the other side via a down climb, hanging snowfield and mandatory rappel.
The ascent up Shadow mountain was beautiful, as we tried not to take ourselves too seriously on an icy skin track. There may have been a few face plants. On the way up, we were constantly probing the snow and looking for any warning signs of note. Satisfied at our observations once we reached the summit, we quickly transitioned for the down climb and ski into the basin below the Sliver. In typical Teton fashion, another party snuck up behind us at this point and let us know that they had a similar objective. We all paused and discussed the hazard of putting their party plus ours in a steep terrain feature at the same time, but eventually decided with enough space and caution that we all felt like it was a viable option. Plus they offered to set the bootpack (score).
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After another 1K feet of 37-45 degree snow climbing and having ping pong balls of snow and ice whizzing past me, we topped on the Sliver. At this point we had discussed skiing it and pretty much looked on in horror at the icy, melted out and re-frozen crust that we’d be skiing through to do so. Conditions were definitely stable, but it would be a less than ideal descent with rocky crux no fall zone at the base of the line to navigate. Standing in the notch at the top, we peered down into the powdery goodness that lay in the East Hourglass and thought - we have the rope, let’s go for it. The other party decided they were going to go for the Sliver, come back up and ski the East Hourglass after us so we could space out a bit more and dropped away down below while we prepped.
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The wind was whipping so we all threw on extra layers and Morgan grabbed the rope to set up the first rappel. The first rap is more of a down climb but because the chute looked loaded and we weren’t sure where we would find the next anchor (or what condition it was in) we clipped into the anchor and then the rope and let Morgan lead the way down into the unknown.
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Just a bit past the downclimb she spotted another anchor above the hanging snowfield and beefed it up with a second piece before coming off rappel and sending Pip and I down to join. Once again - in a 50 degree hanging snowfield that was heavily loaded, we decided to do a second rappel to gauge snowpack stability and look for the final anchor. We figured it was a good excuse to practice rope skills and be conservative.
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Morgan set up and rapped down until she reached the end of the rope, with the next anchor in sight. Then she set the down climb the remaining distance and set herself up on the final anchor. I followed, with Pip dismantling extra pieces on our second anchor and rapping down to us. Now for the crux.
The adventure in doing some more technical lines is you’re not always sure what exactly you’re going to find. The winter thus far had been leaner than in years past and we were hoping that a 60m rope was going to be long enough to get us past the crux rappel and into the top of the chute. That said, when we set up the rope we couldn’t exactly tell given the drop if it was long enough. We had all brought gear to re-ascend if needed and with a knot in the end of the rope Morgan once again took the plunge while we waited. A cry a triumph floated up moments later and we knew we were good to go. I clipped into the rope, unclipped from the anchor and began the precarious rap down to the beginning of the East Hourglass. This was a fun one - as the rock was coated in a nice layer of ice making it impossible to keep my feet on as I descended. It ended with a free hanging rappel before depositing me on the slope below where I saw Morgan waiting, skis ready.
Pip followed and chatted with the other group behind us as they had reached her and decided to use our rope given the fact that it was ready to go. They offered to coil it in exchange for letting them utilize it and it allowed us to move through the terrain faster. As Pip descended, I threw my splitboard together and got ready to watch Morgan drop. Given the limited amount of space, we leapfrogged each other with Morgan dropping once I was ready and Pip using the same space and platform to transition as I had previously while I waited to drop.
It looked sick below us and with a puff of a rooster tail, Morgan took three glorious powder turns down the couloir. We all giggled until we heard the telltale sound on metal edges on windbuff and ice. Awesome. Morgan stopped for a moment, re-grouped and proceeded down the rest of the line with a bit more focus as the wind had done a number on the lower section and we definitely did not want to take a fall. Once she reached her safe spot, she gave a hollar and I knew it was my turn. Trusty ice axe in hand I looked back at Pip to make sure she was ready and began descending.
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Like Morgan, the first few turns I found were powdery and fun - I had to restrain myself a little from completely opening it up as I knew it was about to change. Shortly after the couloir became much more variable, and I found myself making careful turns above a rock choke at the end of the chute. Clearing the choke and finding softer snow I opened it up a bit more only to catch my tip under a shallow wind crust. Whoops, full somersault and a face full of snow later I was mach-ing across the flats to join Morgan and cheer on Pip.
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Re-grouping and giving our high fives and whoops as Pip made it to the bottom, we pondered the next move in our game plan. As we waited for our rope, we peered up the West Hourglass which was looking very inviting - but it was already late afternoon and the exit was looking pretty heinous. We all threw in our two cents, eventually agreeing that although we were sure we could tag the West, we were also pretty sure that would mean exiting in the dark in thin cover and with only 2 our of 3 headlamps (one had dead batteries).
With another group high five and some fist bumps, we were reunited with the rope and headed out of Garnet Canyon, an awesome day behind us.
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