This is a trip report of a 5 day ski mountaineering camp I did with Exum Guides from June 7 - 11. Overall, this was a fantastic trip. The first two days were spent skiing backcountry off of the Jackson Hole ski area and learning some ski mountaineering skills. Day three we hiked into Garnet Canyon and spent three days there skiing various locales. At the end of day five we hiked out and had a final dinner. When we weren't camping we stayed at a place called The Murie Center, which was a wonderful spot. My confidence levels went full circle on this course. I came in feeling good about my skills, felt like I got my butt handed to me on day one, but by the end of day five I felt really good about my abilities as a ski mountaineer. Also the Tetons and the Jackson Hole area is just such a beautifully inspiring country that spending a week there in and of itself was worth it. Anyway, here is the run down.
Day 1
This day we had some pretty gnarly weather, essentially January weather, low temps, snow, lotsa wind, etc. Our guides, Wesley Bunch and Tom Turiano, decided that this day we would work on our traveling skills, skiing and skinning. We took the JH ski area tram to the top of Rendezvous Mtn. and then skied down into Cody Bowl. We converted over to skins, and went over some basic travel techniques, worked on our kick turns and skied a slope real quick. After that we regrouped, stowed our skies on our packs, broke out the ice axes and booted up the Four Shadows Couloir. Once on the ridge we briefly went over how to set up a snow anchor. The wind was howling up there and everyone was loosing body heat quickly so we didn't spend much time there. We all wanted to get off the ridge and out of the wind. Once we all made it down to the bottom of the bowl, we popped our skins back on and toured back up to the summit of Rendezvous to catch the tram down to the base. The weather was being a pain then as well, everyone pretty much had there head down and was just slogging along, except for Tom, he still had a lot of laughs and smiles in him and almost seemed to like the weather.
Day 2
The weather started off better this day, had some nice clear skies and a fresh layer of snow from the previous day's storms. We again started off in the JH parking lot and took the tram up to the top of Rendezvous Mtn. Tom Turiano couldn't join us for the rest of the camp, but Kent McBride stepped in. We also had a journalist, Michael Perlman, from one of the local papers join us. After getting off the tram we piled into Corbet's Cabin where we went over some technical skills. We learned about tying into a harness, some basic knots, how to belay using both a belay device and belaying around the waist. We rounded out the 'classroom training' with the theory of setting up snow anchors.
After our classroom time we went out and skied down to the upper lip of Horseshoe Couloir. Here Kent setup an upper anchor and Wes tied in. Wes then skied into the couloir kicking off any loose snow on the upper sections. He then setup another anchor right above the rock band that splits the couloir into it's upper and lower sections. We then, one at a time, proceeded to tie into Kent's anchor and ski down to Wes. We then tied into the rappel Wes setup, took ourselves off belay from Kent, strapped our skis to our packs and then rappelled down to the lower part of Horseshoe where we clicked back in and made fresh turns out of the couloir. After a quick lunch we geared up with crampons and ice axes and proceeded to climb up the Horseshoe Couloir. Below the rock band we formed up into two four person rope teams on a short rope and had a little dry tool/mixed action getting over the rock band. Once over that we climbed out the top of Horseshoe, converted back to skins and skis and toured up to the tram.
We had good weather the whole time we were descending and ascending in Horseshoe, but when we started skinning back up to the tram some clouds and snow rolled in. When we started filtering in to the top a group of Japanese tourists were waiting for the tram as well and saw us emerging from the clouds on our skins with our packs and gear. We immediately got peppered with questions of where and what we skied and got told
"Aawww You expert!" . Of course having watched Kent and Wes in action that day we were all feeling like anything but experts. I suppose from their perspective anyone crazy enough to be out skinning in that weather is an expert skier though.
Day 3
We had packed up our gear for three days of camping and skiing the night before and headed over to the Exum offices to get group gear (tents, stoves, food, etc). Once loaded up we headed over to the Lupine Meadows trailhead and did the hike into Garnet Canyon. We lucked out and managed to grab a camping space known as The Platforms and setup camp there. Once that was done we geared up and did a skin ascent to the top of Cave Couloir and skied back down and then out to camp. After Horseshoe, Cave didn't feel too hard, or maybe we were all too tired to notice. Plus snow and wind had moved in by the time we were at the top of Cave. In any event it was a fun little ski. We wrapped up the day with some dinner and then early to bed.
Day 4
Got woken up at 5 AM by a lively Wes. After having a cocoa and some breakfast got the gear together for a summit run up to the South Teton. This meant having to skin from the camp at (about 8500') up to the summit (about 12500'). We skinned back up the same path past Cave Couloir and kept going up to a saddle off of the South Teton. I unfortunately, was having some acclimatization issues that day, and no matter how much water, powerbars or gu I dumped in me I just did not have any energy. I made it up to the saddle, to 11500' when I decided it was time for me to turn back. I knew I needed enough strength to ski back, in control, to the camp and I could feel my strength going. I absolutely didn't want to turn around but it was what had to be done, so I called it. Wes and Kent felt I should ski back to the camp which I did. When I made it down my hands were shaking and I just sat on a rock for about 30 minutes before doing anything else. I spent the rest of the afternoon warding of marauding marmots. The rest of the group made it to the summit and from what I hear, had a fantastic ski down. We spent the rest of the day just gabbing, had some dinner and then zonked out.
Day 5
Wes again got us all up at 5 AM. We spent some time in the morning breaking camp, but we also got our gear together for what was suppose to be a short trip. I was feeling much stronger that morning (and my strength held through the day) so I went along for this adventure, and I am still on a buzz from that ski. We left the camp and headed off for a couloir called Sliver Couloir off of the nearby Nez Perce mountain. This involved a crampon up to a ridge next to the camp and then a boot down through snowless forests to the bottom of a bowl. From there we cramponed up again and headed back up a smaller nameless couloir to a plateau where we then trekked over to a pile of rocks nearby the slope leading into Sliver Couloir. The weather was nice and clear and things were pretty warm so we made the choice to dump as much gear as possible and to do a rapid ascent of Sliver before it warmed up too much and increased the dangers we faced. We left behind our shovels, probes, extra layers, shell jackets, lunch, complete Archie Comics collection, etc. Thus lightened up we took off for The Sliver. The couloir itself is pretty narrow, average 25' wide with some narrower spots, about 850' vertical and a sustained slope in the upper 40's. And since that isn't enough, the bottom has a nice big boulder blocking the run out with the only way in and out being a little notch on skiers right. We formed up into two rope teams of three each just above the boulder and started to crampon our way up the side of the couloir. I was in the first rope team just behind Wes who was breaking trail. Even though, or maybe because, I was stepping in Wes' tracks I found myself sinking into waist deep snow many times. This made for a few comical moments as I was stuck struggling to find a patch that wouldn't collapse under me while Wes was just plowing ahead almost dragging me out of these pits. Of course, our luck with the weather didn't hold and about half way up it started to snow, and since we were all in capaline bases or short sleeves we weren't too happy about the situation. Finally, after a seemingly never ending hundred feet we made it to the top and filed out to a platform about the size of a large dining room table. I was at the back looking down a couloir like what we just climbed up but on the opposite side of the little saddle area there. Kent setup an anchor at the top, and we one by one roped in and proceeded to ski back down Sliver. We had two ropes so we managed to get about 400' out of one belay before the skier had to pullout their ice axe and anchor themselves into the slope with the axe then wait for the rest of the team to catch up. I took one little spill on the top half, managed to get the rope around my ski, but after that something clicked and everything fell into place. A lot of the fear dropped away, the rhythm came, and all the motions I made were spot on. Those last 2/3-rds out of the couloir were a hugely thrilling experience and by the time I made it down my confidence in my skiing was back in full effect. I especially felt good about myself after actually making a turn, not side slipping, through a narrow spot only about 10' wide. The weather cleared up on our descent and when we all regrouped at the rock pile next to our gear there was a huge buzz of energy in the group. We then did a ski traverse over to another unnamed couloir that dropped us right back at our camp, about two hours later than we said we would be back. We quickly packed up and did a non-stop hike out of Garnet Canyon.
Everyone was on a high from that last day and we had a very good dinner back at the Murie Center and spend some time swapping stories and just jawing about stuff. And some of the stories you get out of guides like Wes and Kent are pretty amazing.