Doing What At 10 Below?!

I woke up feeling wrung out this morning after a cold day of guiding yesterday followed by some time riding the rollers in the evening.  But this was my first Sunday off in a while and the Fitzy crew has been doing Sunday group snowbike rides, and I had never been on a snowbike...

The thermometer actually showed -5 fahrenheit when I left the house on my old commuter bike.  (Brandon thoughtfully offered to let me use Scott's bike for the ride--what a guy.)  There was a whole crew sitting around sipping espresso in the warm cafe at the shop when I walked through the doors.

I showed up expecting a mellow Sunday spin with a bunch of friends, which is how it all started, up Baseline and the Old Jackson Highway under a brilliant sun.

And then JayP turned us up Rush Hour.  Now this is one of my favorite trails when it's dry and buffed--fast, flowy, and fun.  

Today it was none of those things.

Well maybe fun, but a crush-my-nuts-on-the-toptube, retrospective kind of fun.  Definitely not fast or flowy.

Apparently some people, like Rio, have experience with this whole snowbike thing and can successfully ride along the skinny little track of packed snow.  Picture riding a bicycle down a railroad track--not in the middle, but up on one of the rails.  The instant my front wheel rolled off the track it sunk to the hub and it was all over.  Add to that Scott's refusal to install a front brake on his bike and the term "singletrack" took on a whole new meaning.   Brutal.

Remarkably technically challenging, this whole snowbiking thing. To say that I loved it would be excessively hyperbolic, but I did enjoy it inasmuch as I generally enjoy getting my ass whupped.  

Room for improvement?  Lots.  Will I try it again?  Definitely.

And here I was getting all confident about my ability to steer a bicycle...

3 For The Price Of 2

Andrew McLean, arguably one of the most prolific American ski mountaineers of our time, has a rule that you always climb what you plan to ski.  Makes sense, right?  Climbing a route provides an opportunity to assess conditions, make sure there are no unexpected obstacles...  Essentially you get to remove the "unknowns" for the descent, when you're traveling at a speed greater than you might like to discover the unexpected.

We broke that rule three times on our Teton Canyon adventure.

Some objectives just don't easily allow for the climb-up-ski-down structure.  I had seen a couple of couloir shots in the Eddington Canyon/Treasure Mountain area while guiding on Peaked Peak last weekend and got all fired-up to go explore them.  I did take photos of them to study up on at home but wasn't able to get a complete view of either, so we headed out equipped with ropes, harnesses, and a light kit of anchor-building gear.  Just enough to manage a few rappels, or get completely stuck.

Jaime and Parker proved to be the perfect partners.

Skinning through the old burn under a quarter-moon.  Brrr.

It's rare that I skin with my puffy jacket on, but yesterday morning was cold in Teton Canyon at dawn.  Really cold.  Squeaky snow, nose hairs freezing, brain processes slowing down kind of cold.  It wasn't until an hour in that we finally warmed up enough to enjoy the silence.

Photo: Josh Parker

If I were to summarize the day, I would say great exploring, not at all straightforward, with mind-blowing skiing.  I had been down the day's first couloir a couple of years ago but climbed back out of it having brought a too-short rope.

This time I brought a longer rope, but thought I had a traversing route figured out to get around the rockband.  Oops.

The first couloir.  Our intended route is in blue, with the actual in orange.  (Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

Pretty sweet turns!

I actually just ended up sticking us at the top of a humongo cliff, taking us on a much more extended traverse than intended.  But the skiing was pretty fabulous, and the adventure of figuring out our exit kept it interesting.

Parker watches Jaime scout around the corner.

And in the end we were able to traverse back into the couloir where our rope was long enough to rap past the rockband and ski out in unreal powder.

"Yup, looks like it'll go."  Jaime on rappel.

Like a fish...  Photo: Josh Parker

"Aah, that's better."

And then more skinning, up a track that Parker and Larry thoughtfully put in a few days earlier.

Once again, the skin from Eddington Canyon up Treasure Mountain feels endless.  And steep.

 The second couloir was the one I was really excited about.  I knew basically nothing about it other than what I had in my photo, and could see a cleft where I thought it might go through, but beyond that it just looked steep and skinny.  With our current stability and snow quality on shady slopes, why not give it a shot?  We could always traverse over to the Boy Scout Couloir if it didn't go...

The day's second couloir, and third.  Again, our intended route in blue with the actual one in orange.  The purple line is our rappel into the Boy Scout Couloir.  (Click on the photo to enlarge it.)

Parker dropping off of Treasure Mountain into the unknown.

It turned out to be the best snow of the day--a bit sluffy, knee-deep, light and soft, with nary a track in it.  Surprise, surprise.  I'm sure somebody's ventured down it before, but not this season.

Coming out of a straight-line through a pinch.  Exploring is rad.  Photo: Josh Parker

"Whoa shit!"  Jaime makes figure-11's through the pinch.

Fast, fun, stable powder.  Photo: Josh Parker

Indeed. Photo: Josh Parker

"Umm, I don't think the rope's going to reach."

And then it all came to an end.  Standing on top we had no idea of just how monstrous the cliff we were above was, but my "exit cleft" was nowhere to be found and the basin below looked like it was way below.  So we poked around for a bit to see if we could make it work, and ultimately put skins back on to traverse around to the Boy Scout.  A more thorough scout would have saved us some effort here, but would it have been as fun without a little taste of unknown?

Here we go into the Boy Scout.  Photo: Josh Parker

The standard entrance to the Boy Scout, from the west side, is a relatively straightforward, thought exposed, traverse in on skis.  We were on the east side so to save the effort of skinning up and over the rock buttress that tops it we chose to rap in.  The rope just reached.

 It was all turns from there.

Mmm, good.

...And then it was my turn.  I love snowboarding.

Jaime finds tired-legs and bliss in the Boy Scout.  Photo: Josh Parker

Could use a bit more snow depth, but it was still really fun.

The exit to the Boy Scout Camp could really use more snow depth.

Getting out of the woods and down to the skate track at the bottom of Teton Canyon was scrappy to say the least--I'm not sure I would choose to repeat that portion of the day.  But the rest of it?  Once again, I'm thankful to have friends who are willing participants on half-baked adventures into little-traveled parts of our backyard.  

Especially when it involves breaking the rules.

Happy Buck'ing New Year

I've been itching to get up high in the Park recently, so Z and I spent the last day of 2012 up on Buck with his brother Nash.  They say a picture's worth 1000 words, and with my New Year-ly fatigued brain that sounds great.  It was a pretty spectacular day.

Dark and COLD skinning through the wee hours.

Our first good look at Buck.

The sun was making cool spectres with the valley fog as we came out of Stewart's Draw.

Photo: Zahan Billimoria

Things were pretty wind-hammered up around Timberline Lake.  Would've been good skate-skiing.  I remain fully sold on the approach-skis for snowboarding in the alpine, and Wagner makes the best. Photo: Zahan Billimoria

Busting the track up from the lake.

Z was gracious enough to let me break trail up the East Ridge.  Usually he just lets me try to keep up. Photo: Zahan Billimoria

It's exposed up there!  Just enough to keep up focused.

The Brothers Billimoria work through a rocky crux.  (Granite slabs under a couple of inches of snow.) 

On the summit!  Z realized that this was 10 years to the day from the first time he climbed/skied Buck, his first Teton peak.

Nash finishing up to the top.

The glory shot.  Photo: Zahan Billimoria

Lunch on the summit.  Warm sun, zero wind--unbelievable.

Nash opens up down the East Face.

Z.

Slightly wind-effected snow made for heads-up skiing down the East Face.  Z made it look easy.

AJ.  Photo: Zahan Billimoria

Way better snow in the bonus-shots down into Stewart's Draw. 

Nash.

Z.

Buck Mountain from the valley floor.  We climbed the right-hand skyline, and if you squint you can make out our tracks down the big East Face.

Happy New Year!  May it be healthy and powder-ful.