Teton TR: A month since the lifts have closed...

[ZGnzo]

This is the tale of several individuals on a mission to quench their thirst for mountains, powder, and adventure. It takes place in the Teton Range, WY, For those of you who don't know French, Tetons means tits. Which is also a word that could be used to describe the skiing here. Tits. The French were so wise... This TR is dedicated to those of you who have recently left Jackson to find "real" jobs, leaving me sans legit touring partners.

The ski season "ended" April 6, with over 600" of snow fallen, and an upper mountain base of several Sears towers stacked on top of each other. For those of you who can't use your imagination to see what powder skiing looks like, here's a link to some shots I took. http://picasaweb.google.com/zach.guy/Jacksonia02 I’m not posting any more pics, there’s already a billion in this TR.

April 7. Day one of the post season depression:

Buck Mtn looking ripe for the taking


The line that we opted to ski; photo taken by the mountain goat across the valley. Gobble Gobble.


skier's perspective



Mike. Powder.


Mike. Powder.



Mike. Powder.


Booting up, wanting to shoot the moon.





Mike shoots the moon


I opted to go Michael Jackson style...


and by that I meant doing the moonwalk, not loving little boys





heading up for another round




tracks from last run




we tracked the crap out of that place

[ZGnzo]

Another day, this time less primo conditions. Hoping for corn down Olive Oil but the sun ducked under the clouds

Hugh


Icy sluff runnels and death cookies, but a cool line anyway.


The first big melt-freeze cycle of the year came, and it was time for a solo trip up the Middle Teton. Here I go booting up the SW couloir.


A look into potato land



A look at le Grand. If you use a microscope, you might be able to see 3 gentlemen descending the Otterbody. My balls felt particularly small that day.


There’s my car. Down there to the right.


Peering down toward Ellingwood Couloir


Snow King looking gnarly


still some snow left that way


And the route down. I waited an hour at the top, but I wasn’t patient enough for things to heat up enough, so I got mostly crust until the couloir opened up at the bottom. Then it was smooth corn the whole way back.


the crusty crux

[ZGnzo]

A new dusting of snow, and another day in the park, this time with Jake and Mike.
Mike isn’t actually thinking about how pretty it is here, more just hating his life for not applying glop stopper earlier this morning.


He decided to be unruly and set his own skin track to destroy this virgin snowfield, and ruin and chances of photoslutting.




People laughed at me when I said I skied powder that day. Mike enjoying it.


More of the goods


Jake.


That’s Cloudveil Dome behind him


I took part as well.


Booting up another coolie


It goes Mike, Disappointment, Teewinot


I guess I’ll go first


It was DEEEEEEP in there. Jake.


Mike








Cave couloir and back in time for Caddy happy hour.

[AsheanMT]

Thank you. Thank you very much.

[ZGnzo]

Lets take a quick intermission from the park to get face shots at the pass. That’s Jake buried under that cloud of snow



Mike in Unskiabowl



Jake follows


Mike near the Great White Hump



Back to the park for an early morning bike ride and quick stroll up to 12,300 ft.





Sunrise over Jenny Lake



Mike



breaking trail up Teewinot




The timing of another storm was earlier than predicted, and here we were with 5,000 feet of punchy crust to ski



Survival skiing from the top. Me.



that actually turned into bits of heavy powder, then corn lower down. My camera died on the way up so ski shots are courtesy of Mike.

[ZGnzo]

April 25. 5” overnight and lots more on the way. Lets go sluff ourselves out on the sliver!
Photo of the Sliver on Nez Perce, taken by the same mountain goat mentioned earlier. We’ll call him Ed.



Jake loves 5 a.m.




and doing scenic poses while skinning


The storm arrives…



I turned around a hundred vert or so from the top cause it was windloadtacular. And natural sluffs were getting pretty large. Waist deep clicking into my skis. Did I mention earlier that it is April 25?



In fact, Jake had an incident with one of those sluffs, lost a pole, and had no desire to continue to the top with only one pole. Here he is, a bit lower down.



We found the pole in the apron at the bottom so Jake could ski the rest of the mountain in style. Powder ranged from waist deep at the apron to boot deep at the lake. Tits.



April 26. Another brief intermission from the park for more faceshots at the pass. Bluebird and 15” of new. Jake in Little Tucks



Jake. Powder.



Mike. Powder.




By the time we returned to the top of Glory after a few laps on Tuck’s and Unskiable, the hungover shitshow had arrived to find the pow had turned to slush. It was an impressive sight…dogs without owners, owners without dogs, shotgunning beers, people in jeans, etc. It was time to head back to the park.


April 27. Jake and I set out for the Spoon on Disappointment, but bailed at Amphitheatre Lake because of poor timing/ stability. Instead we skied this guy. Photo taken by Ed the mountain goat.


The obligatory ski shot



Jake stares back at the alien



Then we got our powder fix above the lake



before skiing corn down the chute

[straight outta sultan]

Zach, so jealous. Please come back to Bellingham, it looks like you're not having any fun there and the skiing looks marginal at best. Yawn.



CAW! CAW!

[ZGnzo]

April 28, 29. We wanted to lap any remaining pow that was left at the higher north facing elevations, so we decided to camp up high. Here, Jake shows off a high quality product from Kmart. Its from their mountain adventurer lineup; I think Kmart is trying to get their foot in the door on extreme sports.




I felt like I was following a boyscout troop here. So much crap strapped on. That bag is rated to 25 degrees though, and is only 25 bucks at Kmart. We all want to be sponsored by Kmart now.



West Hourglass, Nez Perce



A Teewinot sunset


Mike skis sastrugi







Jake likes it



still powdery in spots. Mike.



Jake.



Mike getting scenic



Three dudes in a snowcave enjoying a candlelit dinner of Velveeta Mac. Jake made his own cave so he wouldn’t have to spoon with the rest of us.



This is the windiest spot in North America.



I decided to take scenic shots through my crotch on the slopes of the South



Mike trying not to fall into the abyss



Mike finds some fresh snow. Jake finds some fresh poo in his pants.









Jake







Booting up another one. I didn’t bring enough fuel to melt much water, so we were all thirsty as hell.




Heavy packs + goopy snow down lower and it was like gaper day all over again.

[powdherb]

Looks like a rad post-season. You shouldn't have just photoorgasmnsed all over in one burst, but put it periodically. When we will see you again?

[brutah]

i like this, i like this a lot

[lemon boy]

well played sir!

[alto]

SLAYAGE

[tone capone]

That was awesome. I enjoyed that so much, but could you not make me feel like such a pussy next time?

[karpiel]

That really made me want to get out and go up something.

[patrickski]

damn that made me feel like a lazy piece of shit

[Ireallyliketoski2]

Sweet sastrugi shots!

[Lone Star]

dammmmmmn. way to take advantage of a great month. (and season)

[kush1]

Solid work man!

damn that made me feel like a lazy piece of shit

No that's not just a feeling... you are a lazy piece of shit!

[the vor]

FKNA!!! Stellar TR. Way to keep gettin after it. Very nice pics.

[soylent green]

Great TR! I've always wanted to go up there in spring, now I can really see the possibilities. The shot of Turkey Shoot is really helpful to me. I've been wondering about that one.

[squirrelmurphy]

OH YESSSSSS

[powski3]

Things went off. Slayed. YESS YESS

[Karl Stall]

Um, fuck yeah...that was cool!

[gpcharles]

exceptionally solid

[montanaskier]

I heart the Tetons.