Our last day of skiing in Jackson was truly a day that only New England skiers would enjoy. Our original goal was Buck, which seemed reasonable, as the mountains would be getting a decent freeze overnight. However, that didn't pan out.
We started the day in 34 degree rain a bit before dawn. Yeuhi's photo. Note the camera is perfectly focused on a raindrop.
Here's a grouse on a rock. This bird is truly miserable. Yeuhi's photo.
Lower Stewart Draw to find the approach. We'd scoped it out a couple days before and approached in sneakers until hitting the snow line.
The trail was very clear until we reached the lower extent of the fresh snow, then it got ambiguous. We/I succumbed to the natural tendency to push uphill to always try to chew off more vertical. We were still intermittently following a human herd path, so it wasn't clear that we weren't on track.
Unfortunately, the snow was too shallow to skin, and too deep to keep out of our shoes. We persisted up in the zone between rain and snow for an hour or so.
In what was the most miserable gear transition ever, we pulled off our soaked shoes, switched to dry socks, and stepped into our boots. Having dry feet, and also being on skis again, really made us feel better.
The skinning was still marginal for a while, involving some sagebrush thrashing.
Soon we popped out into a little bowl above a pond. The snow was starting to look pretty good and we were psyched.
There was a bit of navigational wandering, and we realized we were too far south for our intended route to Buck. We must have been seeing a herd path commonly used for Static Peak in the summer. No matter, with the appreciable fresh snow and zero visibility, Buck was surely not a good option anyway. We proceeded up the upper reaches of Stewart Draw onto Static's summit cone.
Yeuhi's photo:
We kept track of the snowpack on our way up. We felt confident in the stability, as it was holding below freezing, no sun, and extended column tests were very favorable, with no propagation and low quality shears only. We also managed terrain, holding to climbers' left to keep slope angles low.
Then we got to the top, where there was no more up:
Not much sense in hanging out up there, so we ripped 'em and skied. This was literally skiing inside a dense cloud, with no horizon and no visual texture to the snow whatsoever.
Pretty sweet skiing powder on the last day of the season.
Yeuhi's photos:
Pat looking good...
...and he eats it.
Alex:
We skied out onto the broad bench between Static, Albright, and Wimpy's, working our way down the southern part of the drainage.
Next photos Yeuhi's:
Me skiing it out.
Sideslipping down something sketchy and undermined....
Transitioning back to wet sneakers.
Hoofing it back to the car through massive quantities of deer crap.
The next day we flew home. We felt good about giving her hell in spite of the non-optimal conditions. We really made the most of it during the week, with only one day of real rest and sleeping late. Have to come back on a better year!
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