Tweet

Day 029: 01/29/12

Skiing 25 Short in Grand Teton National Park

Words and Photography By: Stephen Williams

I am not a morning person. If you wake me up before 7:00 am, you better have damn good reason and a hot cup of coffee waiting for me. These good reasons are limited to three things: work, early flights, and the promise of snowboarding powder. This last weekend, when the opportunity arose to ride some deep snow and tackle a line I have always wanted to ski, I happily sprung from my bed at 5:30 am. Before the crack of dawn on Saturday, I packed my splitboard and touring gear, picked up my friend Alex and headed north out of town to 25 Short in Grand Teton National Park.

I definitely had my concerns about the snowpack, and being the first car to pull into the Taggart Lake parking lot, I wondered if everyone else did too. Along with 80″ of new snow, the recent storm in Jackson Hole also brought considerable avalanche hazards and countless natural slides in the Tetons. Meeting up with Alex’s friend Nate, who works in the park and skis 25 Short often, I had plenty of questions. What route does the skin track take us on? What line are we planning for the way down? How are we going to avoid that gully? How is my traverse out going to be on a splitboard? Nate quickly assuaged my concerns with the confidence of someone who skis this line regularly, “We are not going to be skiing anything to worry about today. Today is about the tour, taking in the views and getting outside in the park.”

The skin up from 6,700′ to 9,975′ was long and breathtaking, both from the lack of oxygen to my lungs and for beauty of the early morning light breaking through the trees to illuminate our way. When it comes to uphill, I am a slow and steady kind of guy, emphasis on the slow part. Ten steps, take a breath, repeat. Cross through glades, squeeze through trees, repeat. Lungs burning, legs aching, repeat. Four hours later, we emerged from the forest and onto the approach to the top. The first wind we encountered all day hastened our steps across the ridge, and the time to take in the view at the top was brief because of its chill. From the highway below, I have always thought the Tetons looked close enough to reach out and grab, but from that kind of angle, the canyons reveal their expansiveness and the peaks seem so untouchable.

Quickly our climbing skins were stripped, our feet were strapped in, and we realized the turns down were going to be worth every bead of sweat shed on the way up. The low angle slope, steadily cold temperatures, and lack of any whomphing, eased our minds and allowed us to fully focus on the deep turns in front of us. We rode near the skin track and skipped from untouched glade to untouched glade. For a crew on their first time trek together, we kept squadron precise distance from each other and made the right decisions on the route downhill.

As I began to dig into the longest stretch of clean, untouched snow in my life, I remembered my first backcountry tour a few years ago. Strapping on snowshoes after a spring storm and heading up the southeast face of the Pyramid to see what all hype was about backcountry skiing. Earning those turns changed my life, and at the bottom of 25 Short, I was renewed with the feeling of discovering a brand new sport. I am still a rookie in this league, but I am eager to face off against the heaviest hitters in the game to see if I have the right stuff to make the cut. The slow and steady skin on the way out reminded me of my handicap as a snowboarder, but my desire to overcome and conquer mountains as a knuckle-dragger has never been stronger.

Alex Howell and Nate Bauman ascend the skin track towards the top of 25 Short

The views from the top: Buck Mountain, the Valley below and the Grand Teton peeks over Cloudveil Dome.

Alex and Nate enjoy the rewards of the long skin, untouched snow in the low angle glades on 25 Short.