Herodutus- “Great deeds are usually wrought at great risk.”
This has been a tough season and the losses are overwhelming. Because so many friends died in the backcountry this year, it is in the spirit of discussion and education that I thought I would share more about some latest adventures.
There have been many moments of confusion and sadness. It has been a difficult process of personal internal recovery to get back out there. . .But, the mountains are what move me.
In 2007, I skied the Grand Teton in WY and it was a long day and an exciting day, but fairly easy going. Everything fell into place and the mountain welcomed us at each pause. My ski partner Karen and I had planned the trip and took a long weekend off from work. We drove 10 hours from Telluride, arrived at 8pm, and our team left for the park at 12am. We climbed 7,000 ft, covering some miles with heavy packs. Conditions were great for climbing and for skiing so we pulled it off. It was my first time skiing in the Grand Teton National Park, and 16 hours after we started we were back in the parking lot, elated with the accomplishment of a great ski descent.
Skiing the Grand Teton along with climbing Lobuche & Ama Dablam in Nepal (2005) were notable turning points for me because both endeavors went so smoothly. With these two successful experiences I was deeply enchanted with the big mountains and with the bigger possibilities in ski mountaineering.
Middle Teton East Face to Glacier Route
I moved to Jackson, WY on Sunday and one of my great Telluride ski pals, Dan Hehir, came up for a quick 3- day visit. There was a good weather window and we were excited to ski but we were tired. We had no set plan. Dan is an ER Doc and he rallied in his car after 3 on-call night shifts. I had just returned to SLC from back-to-back trips to Colorado and California via car and plane, loaded and unloaded a uhaul, and was settling into a new place.
Dan showed up and we left for the Middle Teton at 4am the next morning. It was a later start. Unwittingly, we did the long start from Taggert trailhead as opposed to the much faster Lupine Meadows. We had “escape” and “exit” plans at each stage but kept getting to points that were just within our pre-established limits, which allowed us to continue ahead. We summited via the SW couloir, which was in rough ski condition, and looked down the East face.
We felt we could manage it. Once we committed to the route, we were locked into the descent. There were some sporty down-climbing solo moves above a massive cliff band that took some time to negotiate. Once through the technical sections, we skied as conservatively as we could down the exposed, steep entrances to the “Glacier Route”. Dropping in on the face, I cleaned the run, knocking down surface slides as I went. Then, as we exited down around Bradley lake two miles from the trailhead, my dynafit toe piece pulled off my ski. Close one. It was a 12hr day. In our subsequent discussions, we felt we cut the margin of safety a bit too small.
Dan Hehir summit of Middle Teton
After the Middle Teton foray, Dan and I both entered the next adventure with an even more conservative mindset.
Dan topping out of the Stettner Couloir
We pondered our next objective. As our group numbers fluctuated, it was just Dan and I again and we decided to go for the Grand. Once again from Taggert trailhead, we were hiking by 1am and made decent time up to the base of the Stettner couloir. My gut instinct was uneasy that day as was Dan’s.
We looked up the route and it had significant ice and ice bulges to negotiate. It was trickier than the last time I had led it. I was short on ice gear (2 screws for 230ft) and longer on rock gear (with few possible placements) but I was excited to try. It is a daunting position to be in ski boots with skis on your back and with limited gear to climb a route with unknown conditions above but it is also what makes for adventure.
At the first anchor, we both recognized a tough road ahead. Pressing on, as I led the next pitch, it was long and run-out. When Dan reached our second anchor, it was 10am. Debris was coming down in small light bursts and we still had about 1000ft of climbing to go.
We should have been on the summit at that hour. Had it been our first day at it we may have pushed on and taken more risk in the climbing, the rockfall, and the warming face above. However, having been on top late a day before, we made the tough decision to back off well before we reached the line. If we had continued we would have pushed the limit farther than either of us needed to go.
As it was, after two rappels, on our ski descent, we were rewarded with 3,500+ ft of perfect corn turns down to Garnett Canyon’s entrance. . . any later and we would have been skiing isothermal slush, setting off larger wet slides and who knows what else. Fourteen hours later we arrived back to Taggert.
Dan alerted me to this blog (below) today. I’ve never met Frank in person but he has a lot of time in the mountains and brings up some similar thoughts from his Grand Teton attempt earlier this year. It is interesting that we all have many of the same mental processes and evaluations even though we can feel alone in our own heads and hearts when making a difficult judgment call.
Here are Frank’s posts on a very similar experience to ours:
Turning Around Thoughts
A Thousand Feet Short
* photo of Dan Hehir in the Stettner couloir was taken while I had him on a reversino autoblock system that catches the rope on each pull and allows for a safer and a hand-free possible belay.. and taking photos.
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