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06-07-2016, 09:51 PM #1
TR: Spring in Greater Yellowstone
Well, with temps pushing into the upper 80's in Bozeman the past few days, I think I'm ready to throw in the towel on skiing serious lines this season. Here's a look back at a spring season filled with corn, powder, bears, baby bison and lots of great days in the mountains.
(However, I wrote up an individual TR for the South Teton from April here: https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/s...ir-South-Teton)
On a cold morning back in April, we skied a steep, aesthetic line in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness. A 3 AM wake-up had us up in the alpine a little after dawn.
Y, what a beautiful line!
Booting up the East Branch
Big views in Big Sky Country
Those mountains out yonder sure look Crazy...
Steep
The summit of Black Mountain offers significant vertical relief above its surroundings, with over 5k of vert gained between the trailhead and the summit.
"For Grand Rugged Scenery I know of no portion of the west that surpasses this range." -Ferdinand Hayden
The mighty Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness
Moo
The Eastern Branch of this couloir wasn't skied until July of 1995, when a group of skiers made the first descent. They described it as, "sixty degrees for the first three turns then solid fifty." We agreed.
Looking back up
Admiring our work
One last look back
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06-07-2016, 09:51 PM #2
Mount Moran
"The summit has never been attained and probably never will be, as the last 3,000 feet of the mountain are sheer perpendicular walls of rock." -Scientific American, 1919
In mid May I made my way back to the Tetons to take a stab at Mount Moran and the mighty Skillet. Most people opt to canoe across Jackson Lake to get to the base of Mount Moran. Those people are smart. Instead, we hiked/bushwhacked from the String Lake trailhead to the base of the Skillet. It wasn't an overtly hard approach, but hiking the 5-6 miles back out after skiing the Skillet the next day was quite taxing. We set up camp just below the snow line that night in anticipation for an early start come morning.
The alarm sounded at 1 AM sharp. I never really fell asleep that night, and was not feeling well rested for the task at hand. Oh well. The first few hours were spent in the dark, quietly climbing beneath the light of the Milky Way. We were just about at the base of the handle by the time the sun came up, and I wasn't feeling good. Lack of sleep and a subpar breakfast were taking their tolls on my body. We stopped to take a fairly lengthy break at that point, as the snow was bulletproof and the sun was still low in the sky. I tried to eat some food but I was having difficulty stomaching anything. Growing doubts about summitting began to cross my mind, but at least the sunrise had been beautiful. I only took a few iPhone shots of the sunrise, as my camera was buried in my pack and lacked the willpower to stop and dig it out. I find there's often a direct correlation between how shitty I feel backcountry skiing and how many photos I take.
I somehow managed to rally and ultimately topped out on the summit of Mount Moran around 8:30. I still felt like shit, so I didn't loiter long.
Panorama looking South
Asgard
The Grand
Leigh Lake
We ended up timing the corn cycle just about perfectly, and it was great corn for most of the 5,000'+ descent.
Looking down from the top.
About halfway down the Handle
Yummy
Milking that runout zone
I've never skied a line with as much sustained fall line skiing as the Skillet. Certainly a worthy objective, even if it has been skied a million times. Can't beat 5.5k of sustained 35-45 degree skiing!
Bye Bye Skillet
Death March Time...Last edited by Ted26; 06-07-2016 at 10:40 PM.
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06-07-2016, 09:52 PM #3
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06-07-2016, 09:53 PM #4
Beartooth Pass
Even though the snowpack in the Beartooths was thin this year, there were still some fun skiing to be had the past couple of weekends. We camped in Rock Creek opening weekend and enjoyed more vehicle assisted skiing. We woke up to a moose next to our campsite the next morning.
We soon headed up the Beartooth Highway, but to our dismay found that the road was temporarily closed at the state line. So, we headed out across the plateau and lapped the Rock Creek Headwall a few times.
The area reminded me of Hillman's Highway a little.
Rock Creek Headwall
The weather was much better the following day, and the pass was completely open. A fantastic corn harvest ensued.
Summer Vacation
Top of the Gardner Headwall
Gardner Headwall
Hitch-Hiking life
Couloir Hunting
I returned this past weekend to get some quality June Skiing in on some other road side attractions.
PC: My Uncle
Well, it's been a hell of a season. Time to go hike.
Last edited by Ted26; 06-07-2016 at 11:11 PM.
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06-08-2016, 07:13 AM #5
lookin good out there.
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06-08-2016, 10:27 AM #6
Beautiful day on Black, nice combo of objectives you got done this year. That bear pic is rad. Running into one of those on some predawn spring ski mission=gonna have a bad time!
"The skis just popped me up out of the snow and I went screaming down the hill on a high better than any heroin junkie." She Ra
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06-08-2016, 10:34 AM #7
excellent
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06-08-2016, 05:49 PM #8
Nice work on the Y!
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06-09-2016, 07:56 AM #9
Approved.
Thanks for sharing!!!They think I do not know a buttload of crap about the Gospel, but I do.
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06-09-2016, 01:23 PM #10
Great stuff. Thanks for the stellar pics.
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06-09-2016, 03:45 PM #11
Well done. Baby bison: good play...
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06-09-2016, 04:55 PM #12Registered User
- Join Date
- Oct 2009
- Posts
- 536
Great read, well done! Rad pics-
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06-10-2016, 12:21 PM #13
Refreshing!
Leave the baby alone though!!
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06-13-2016, 02:00 AM #14Ich bitte dich nur, weck mich nicht.
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06-21-2016, 12:00 PM #15
Awesome, 5 stars.
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