Spring in Jackson #2: skunked on Apres Vous

For our second day in Jackson, we decided to head up Apres Vous peak to access the Air Force chutes, north facing couloirs into Granite Canyon. We figured they would still have reasonable snow, and there was a decent amount of snow even on the ski resort side allowing us to skin most of the way up.

Ah, ski season!

Looking up to Corbet's and the S&S. If you zoom way in maybe you can see our tracks.

Skinning up the ridge above the AV chair.

Looking across to the S-facing wall of Granite Canyon...that's the sunny side of the canyon, but there's probably plenty of snow on the shady side...right?

A view of the extremely awesome Buck Mountain, with Static in the foreground.

The knee-wrenching talus we needed to negotiate to approach the entrance was not a good sign.

We worked our way down to get a view of Mile Long. It was not impossible, but highly marginal at best. It was ugly enough that I apparently didn't even take a photo to document it. We could have skied it, but would have hit some rocks, and the snow was really mank. Considering it would commit us to a significant schlep on dirt/mud to get back to the village, we declined. We headed up and out the way we came in.

We did a little more snowpit practice for the fun of it near the ridge top.

Alex ripping excellent corn before turning right into the Crags area.

We trended rather far right, trying to just follow the snow where it would take us, but unfortunately this was a total minefield of rocks. Eventually it got too thin and we hiked on dirt back to a more consistent groomer.

Ripped it out on the last groomer, including this last little "appendix" of snow. Good to the last drop.

After we got back to the condo, we did a very quick turnaround, and headed up to the GTNP Visitor Center to get a camping permit. We got a very informative rundown from the rangers about where we'd be allowed to camp (anywhere, with permission!) . We were weighing the relative merits of going for the Skillet on Moran, vs doing something more free-form in Avalanche Canyon, but eventually settled on our Plan A of Moran. We got our permit and bear cans, and got ready to head out the next day.

Spring in Jackson Hole #1: (lower) S&S

In May, Yeuhi, Alex, and I went to Jackson Hole, with many thanks to the exceptional hospitality of Rosie's parents, who offered us the use of their home.

The 2014-15 season had not been a great one throughout the West, and actually, Jackson saw less snowfall than New Hampshire that year. The season apparently peaked for the storm where Rosie and I skied 25 Short back in December, and had been underwhelming otherwise. When we set the dates for this trip as early May, we thought we'd be pushing the early end of the typical corn season, but unfortunately a lot of warm weather had melted the snow line even higher than expected in the couple weeks ahead of our trip. However, we made the most of it and had an excellent time.

The day after arriving, we decided to go for an acclimation day in the (closed) resort. We hiked for an hour or so to hit the nearest consistent snow, at the bottom of the Thunder chair.

Woohoo, on skins.

Dress rehearsal for WY: Dodge's Drop, Lip, and Diagonal

Five days before our trip to the Tetons, Yeuhi,. Alex, and I skied a solid day on Mt Washington together. We wanted to do at least 6000 vertical feet, as this would be the vertical of some of the harder days we planned for Wyoming, such as the Skillet Glacier and Buck Mountain. So we got up early, slogged it up to Pinkham Notch, and parked way down on route 16, along with the 6000 or 7000 other people headed up the mountain that day.

We crossed over to the Sherburne for the second half of the way up. Dodge's up center, looking good.

 Crossing around over to the top of Dodge's, after going up Hillman's.

 Up close, Dodge's was in somewhat rough shape. There was plenty of snow, but the warm weather had left it cut up with deep trenches from the handful of previous skiers on that day. It seems like these last several years, the mountain goes from winter to summer, with no reliable spring period of warm days and sub-freezing nights to give the snow a good corn consistency. Anyway, I was feeling some adrenaline, even though I've skied the run at least twice before. Luckily, once I stepped into my skis, I immediately felt better and knew I could ski it. Amazing how much more comfortable one can feel once he has his skis on his feet.

Alex lookin down the barrel.

First day of spring skiing in Oakes Gulf

Skiing in Oakes Gulf...always a good time. Oakes is special because it has some steep runs, but you can get around the area by skinning rather than bootpacking. This was basically the first day of real spring condition on the Rockpile, so the corn was unfortunately rather immature.

After slogging up the Ammo Ravine trail and getting some sun at the Lakes hut, skinning up around to the summit of Monroe, Washington in the background.

Skiing in March

On Pi day, Greg, Coz, Raphael, and I skied Cardigan.

The trappings of a classic NH powder day: rain clouds, granite and water ice.

Schwack to nowhere on Lafayette

Greg and I went for a little misadventure up the north branch of Walker Brook. This was before there was much snow..but, when you haven't been to the mountains for a few weeks, you need to do something.

Ah, January in NH...connecting snowpatches up the creekbed.

 Since the creekbed mostly wasn't easily passable, we spent most of our time along the forest next to the watercourse.

 We ate lunch in a little clearing. These peaceful little openings in the forest pop up as we schwack around in NH, and provide a nice spot to get some sunlight (if it's sunny) and get a glimpse of the peaks around. Not sure why they exists in some certain spots...maybe a hundred years ago, there was a little logging camp here? 

 We got a glimpse of our theoretical destination, an hourglass shaped gully on Lafayette. We were obviously wrong to think it would have snow.

We made pretty good time following little rivulets in the woods above the creek itself, until we came to a point where it descended through a sort of canyon with steep walls. We did some exxxtreme, no-fall skinning across a steep slope and flailed down onto the creekbed.

...but once in the creek, we found many downed logs in our path. Since we were running a bit low on time and we clearly weren't going to ski the upper mountain regardless, we didn't go much beyond this point. 

 Greg on the crux of the exit-schwack.

 Where we popped out. Absurd.

Jackson 3: Edelweiss, etc

Here are some images from our left few days in Jackson.

On 12/30, we drove up the Pass, dropped off into Trail Creek, and skinned up Edelweiss. It was very, very cold in the shadow of the Pass Ridge.

After the awesome powder on 25 Short, the sastrugi on the main face of Edelweiss was a real shocker.

 I could have framed Rosie silhouetted in the sun, but it was super cold and when it's below zero, you don't ask people to stand around while you set up for a photo.

Very snow, such wow

S. New England going off

This has been a wild winter. Powder skiing on a local hit we never would have expected to have snow like this. Historic snowpack--if you're ever going to ski some of this stuff, do it now. Alex and I made it out of town on the morning of the fourth major storm in a short succession to take many short laps on a small mountain.

First ones into the parking lot (which, amazingly, the town plows out even during storms). I am standing on top of an 8 foot high snowbank as Alex step into his skis in a little ground blizzard.

Not meant to be a crotch shot...just a photo of over-the-knee snow depths. 

 Doesn't look like much, but this little cut in the woods was good for thousands of feet of skiing. You play the cards you're dealt; go where the snow falls.

 Although it could have, of course, used a few more thousand feet of vert, this is about as good as tree skiing gets.

Jackson 2: 25 Short

Another highlight of the recent Jackson trip was skiing 25 Short again. Although we didn't get the phenomenal views of last time (photos here...1, or 2, or 3), the rotten snow we had last time was a distant memory. This was among the best 2500 feet of skiing I've experienced.

Mark skinning up.

The snow is really working in our favor here.

 After a couple hours of climbing, we were up against our time limits, and near the top anyway, so we ripped skins and skied. Thanks to Mark for the next three photos.

Excellent light powder.  

 As Mark reminded us, this snow was about 5% water and 95% air, so this is as close as you can come to flying without wings.

 BOOM--documented face shot for Rosie.

Rosie skiing. Thanks for the video, Mark.

 Mark smiling the smile of a man with 1500 feet of powder still below him.

Mark's video of Pat:

 Shit eatin' grin!

 Rosie, either wrestling an alligator or skiing thigh deep pow.

 Pow.

 Mark skiing it out.