Going Glory-Taylor

...That's the text I sent to Erica from the parking lot on top of Teton Pass.  I try to let her know where I'm headed when I ski solo, and figured that she would understand my intention to spend the morning skiing the two crown jewels of the Teton Pass area.  Turns out she had no idea what I meant.

I'll have to work on that.

Despite getting a later start than I had intended, the Pass lot was empty when I pulled in.  It's been so busy this year that I assumed I would be in a crowd hiking up Mt. Glory, but instead I ended up breaking the bootpack.

Things were pretty well scoured up high, with Twin Slides getting well-loaded.

Frosty head on top of Glory.

Of course, having the opportunity to break trail up Glory meant breaking trail back down, too...

Pretty darn powderful turns up there.  Even the luge-track in Coal Creek had 4" of pow on it.  Sweet.

The guys at Wagner Custom built a pair of GoFast ski mountaineering boards for me last spring--lightweight little things to help me keep up with Z.  Of course, my season ended so abruptly that I never really got to ski them, but I've been LOVING them this year.  It's really fun to be out on something so light and nimble.

There are certainly lighter rando-race skis out there, but I guarantee that these ski better and will last longer.  And they don't come with a lycra suit or a pair of faerie slippers.

They're definitely not powder boards but they ski super well, and paired with the chipmunks from ClimbingSkinsDirect (still the best skins I've ever used) they make the uphills pretty fun too.  Can't wait to get them up into the alpine where they're meant to be.

In any case, back to skiing.  I was once again granted the opportunity to break trail up Mt. Taylor.  8" of light, fluffy new snow was easily skinned through and the wind that had blasted me on Glory was easing up, with occasional patches of blue sky through the storm clouds.

And then standing at the top, having broken trail uphill...