A Fine Line - Middle Teton TR - 5/13/06

[alpinepronghorn]

The days are getting too long for this.

It’s May in the Tetons, and the sun sets late: nearly nine now. The day’s warmth lingers overnight, allowing the snowpack only a few hours to freeze. So we set the alarm clocks earlier each week, hoping to time our ski descents so that they fall during that magical half-hour between boilerplate and slush.

This image of the middle has burned in my mind since February, and with one Teton summit skied two weeks ago, another weekend of high pressure called for a second to fall. NH Tele and I agreed on an early wake up, and with eggs and sausage waiting for an early morning fry-up, we crashed out at 9, light still filtering through the curtains of my room.



Alarms started buzzing at 3:15, only a quarter-hour after our other roommate, Pete, had stumbled in the door from a night on the town. Driving down Broadway in Jackson, the bank thermometers read 45 degrees. We’ve got 6,000’ of vertical to work with, though, and we cross our fingers that up high it’s dipped well below freezing.

The Park roads are finally open, and so we drive up to the Lupine Meadows trailhead, familiar from last summers adventures and a welcome change from the farther Taggart lot. Though snow lingers in the shadows of trees, we elect to hike rather than try to sew a skin track out of the remaining snow patches. This turns out to be the right play, and we continue hiking even after we reach the snowline, climbing a well-set bootpack up through the (thankfully) frozen snow.



We make it to the Meadows on foot, and stash our unused skins on a boulder as the sun’s first rays hit the Middle. It seems a perfect morning; blue skies, good temps, but our feelings of confidence are soon rattled by an ominous sound. The tinkling of plastic bouncing down snow draws our attention to a small object sliding down into the meadows: a climbing helmet. NH Tele and I exchange concerned looks. Did it just fall off a backpack? Or…something worse? I run quickly across the meadows, but the helmet shows no signs of blood or a bad fall. Somewhat relieved, though still shaken, I leave it for its owner to find and we begin the climb up into the North Fork.



We make good time up the headwall, and are soon in view of the lower two thirds of our objective, the Glacier Route on the Middle Teton. NH Tele points out the line.



The route steepens gradually over its entire length, allowing us to see nearly the whole route once we reach the middle of the lower glacier. As we climb higher, the challenges of the summit cone become clear: separated from the main east face by a major cliff band, the upper face appears only to connect to the lower face by a thin ribbon of exposed, steep snow. Trading leads, we climb up into the gully, gradually slowing as the increased pitch and altitude begin to take their toll.



Behind us, the massive crenulated south face of the Grand Teton rears up.



Finally, we trade out one pole for an ice ax and begin the serious work of climbing the last 1,000’ to the summit notch.



Once at the lower col separating the north-facing glacier from the south facing Ellingwood Couloir, we begin to appreciate how fast the snow is softening. Taking divergent routes thought the rockbands, I climb a thin veneer of slushy snow sticking to smooth granite while NH Tele wallows through unconsolidated powder. We’re about an hour ahead of schedule, but it quickly becomes clear that if we were any more on time, we’d be in serious trouble. Also, it becomes fairly steep…



Here, the snow covers what in summer is 5.7 rock climbing. NH Tele clears the wallow of the couloir, climbing up my footsteps to the notch between the North and South summits of the Middle. Behind him, Nez Perce’s North face looms above the south fork of Garnet canyon.



Pausing to catch our breath at the notch, we spot a couple of early risers making their way down the Grand.



Another shot gives you a sense of perspective for this line. Though now often skied, it remains a bold and committing adventure.

[alpinepronghorn]

The final 80’ to the summit unfortunately require mixed climbing over rock and quickly softening snow. This skier had climbed the Southwest coulior, and had to rap down to reach our position in the notch.



Considering the conditions and our lack of gear, we elected to ski from the notch. Though disappointed not to make the true summit, I knew we still had a serious descent before us. Looking down at our line, I had some reservations about the snow; we would have to pick our line carefully, and manage the heavy slough we were sure to kick off. With a fair bit of exposure and a little pitch, this view got my heart pumping…



NH Tele was kind enough to guinea-pig the line. After psyching himself up on the lip…



He drops in and gives the face a ski cut. The first 20’ or so were very, very steep.



Making his way down the face, he kicks off heavy sloughs that threaten to take his legs out from under him at least once.



Powering through, he reaches a spine in the middle of the upper face, and collects himself before sending the lower half.





Following in his tracks, I quickly gain an appreciation for his ski-cutting. Every other turn, the accumulating slough forces me to strafe to a new fall line. Heavy, wet snow hisses past, cascading over the small rock bands in the face. Picking a line to the right of NH Tele’s I reach the knife edge col below safely, but conscious of having pushed my luck a bit. Glad to be through the upper face, we send the central couloir in one long pitch, racing our slough as it pours down the couloirs deep central runnel.



Left only with the wide open lower face of the glacier, we relax, and enjoy smooth corn turns down into the canyon. It’s hard to appreciate what an amazing position it is here, skiing one of the few active glaciers in the lower 48, across from the spires of the Grand. Having ticked a line that I’ve though about for months now, these turns were simply gravy.



NH Tele takes advantage of the massive apron below the lower saddle of the Grand.



All that remained was to farm the corn of the canyons. NH Tele cruises across perfect cream cheese snow, with Teepee pillar behind him…



While APH demonstrates some 1980’s PSIA steeze.



The helmet was gone by the time we reached the meadows; we later learned that it’s owner had taken a spill and lost it off his pack during a several hundred foot slide. He was fine, but it was a sobering reminder of what the consequences of a mistake are up here. Rather than rush down, we lingered in the meadows for almost an hour, spotting both climbing and skiing lines and just enjoying the sun.

When we finally did begin picking our way down the lower faces, things quickly became a bit contrived. Linking snowpatch to snowpatch, we managed to make it all the way down to within a mile of the trailhead.



Only a short, soggy-footed hike remained between us and the car. But having reached the end of the snow, we were happy to close the book on another excellent day in the Tetons.

[white]

It's good to see someone execute safe judgement by scrapping the initial objective for the sake of safety...and still having fun

Nice TR.

[shirk]

Sweet TR. Them Tetons are purdy.

[ski_rick]

Nice trip, May keeps on giving!

[splat]

FKNA! Keep an eye out for more Bros up there.

TH and APD are there now.

[lhs]

hot damn
you guys are starting to scare me
aph, way to step it up yet again - its been quite a year.

[nhtele]

Thanks for putting the time into writing that TR - certainly one hell of a good day and now well-documented.

[Barnballs]

good one!

[Bodhi]

Whooly shiiiite, you are as bent as your poles!

Very nice TR, love the perspective photos.

peace,
D.

[ak_powder_monkey]

BADASS!!!!

[climb2ski]

sweet tr....

[ski_faster]

Great TR. Looks like you had some exciting moments.

[FrankZappa]

Wow, Killer TR APH! Thanks!!!

[LeeLau]

I really like the looking down shots - gives a good sense of how steep those are.

[powstash]

that line keeps me up at night. I'll thank you later for the lack of sleep. solid outing.

[Wysplit_ride]

Hell Yah! Nice line indeed...way to get after it!

[stump832]

Good stuff. NHTele is my hero.

[p.blz]

yeaaaah.

Nice one.

Thanks for sharing.

[squaremountain_local]

Super TR!

this shot made me almost shit my pants:

[BigKuba]

Sick Sick Sick.
I guess this time I can't rip on NHTele for turning too much.
This one's my favorite, any chance of a larger/less pixelated version?

[uglymoney]

Amazing! I love trip reports like this one. Well written, spectacular pics and route that I could practically touch from here. Thanks for sharing.

[arg]

Sweetness...well done. I'll have to make it back for that one, it's been on my list for a while.

[Trackhead]

Dammit!

Sitting in the Teton County library, after skiing Teewinot today (18th), and knowing that east facing line on Middle won't go safely right now. It's just too damn warm.

Maybe we'll ski it on the second trip back.

Nice work, and thanks for leaving the bread crumbs on all the lines in the park!

[grizzle6]

Freakin awesome.