After the first attempt I was more fired up than ever. Travis flew home to San Diego. I think he had been home 3 days before we had made plans to try to sneak another go in this season.  A weekend of low pressure had left the Tetons with some snow in the upper elevations.  Monday was partly cloudy and Tuesday looked to be splitter and cool.  Tuesday it was.  I was a bit concerned about the new snow and quite concerned about the lower temperatures since, unless you bring a stove, all of your water comes from snow or ice melt. Not wanting to carry anymore weight nor burn daylight melting snow, we opted to not take a stove.

We left the car at Lupine Meadows at 3:00 a.m. September, 2o. We were joined on the trail by a bugling elk.  He stayed on the trail a switchback or so ahead of us for quite a while.  Good entertainment for the interminable switchbacks up Teewinot.  I became quite concerned when the first snowpatch we reached was rock solid.  Definitely no water on Teewinot.  Not a big deal, we have enough to water to get us to the next possible water. Which is 3 hours away at the Koven col.  Fingers crossed that the sun will warm things up enough to get some water.

TK on top of Teewinot at 6 a.m.

We scrambled down the SW face of Teewinot in the dark.  We reached peak 11,880 just at first light. The scramble down to NW chimney rappel was bit icy and required care.  As did a handful of steps, with crampons,  across an ice patch with bad consequences.  Then some nice cruiser ridge.

The next section which was a bunch of loose blocks three weeks ago was solid this time, frozen in place.  On one move through the frozen blocks a water bottle clipped to Travis’ harness came unclipped and fell directly into steep frozen water slide. It accelerated down the mountain and out of view… GULP. I mean, sip.  There goes 20 ounces of water and 1/4 of our water carrying capacity. Travis pulled his other water bottle out of his pack and promptly put it on a locking biner.

This section was nicely frozen in place this time. Travis' water bottle took ride falline from me. Photo: Travis Kemp

From here a quick scramble brought us to the top of  the East Prong.  2 raps brought us down to the Koven col and thankfully water.  I had been saving water in case we did not find water in the col so I was quite dehydrated and feeling poorly. We rehydrated and basked in the warm sun for 20 minutes or so.  If we had known that this was our only water we would have drank longer but we figured since this was flowing that other sources would be flowing as well.  But as we continued up Owen I soon realized that water was not flowing in the places it had been three weeks ago.  As it turns out the col was the perfect area to melt and gather water in the morning.  There was large area of thin ice over black rock that received direct early morning sun and funneled into a chimney to make a nice flow.  Little did we know it but our next water source was to 10 hours away. Sip.

Frozen water on the way up Owen.

We continued on, reaching the summit of Mt. Owen just after 9 a.m.  Touched the summit and continued with our day knowing that reaching Owen is but a small step in the Grand Traverse. We continued south towards Gunsight Notch and the Grand.

Alpine rollercoaster. Photo: Travis Kemp

We found our way into Gunsight notch via some heads up (icy) downclimbing and some rappels.  We scrambled up out of the notch to ledge which we took for 100′ to the south to the base of two steep and amazing pitches heading towards the Grandstand.  We roped up and I led the two super fun pitches. Some scrambling took us to the top of the Grandstand.  We stepped into the shadow of the Grand Teton and began our adventure up the North ridge.

Travis starts up the first pitch of the North ridge.

It was incredibly cold on the North ridge.  The route was snowy and icy which slowed us down a bit.  The second pitch which, when dry is an easy 3rd class gully,  was quite bad and we decided to stay roped.  Due to it’s low angle it had collected the most snow. I climbed slowly, digging out hand and footholds.  Travis meanwhile was getting so cold that he began to simul climb with me.  Upon reaching me at the belay he mumbled something about dying of exposure, took the rack and headed off on the next pitch. I drank the last bit of what was now slush out of my water bottle before it froze solid, put every bit of clothing I had on and tried to think about warm places.  It did not work.  Soon I could not feel my toes.  It was cold. Core temperature dropping cold.  As soon as Travis said ‘on belay’ I was off and running.  Climbing as fast as possible in hopes of generating some heat. I reached Travis at the bottom of the Chockstone pitch warmed only slightly from my effort.  Things were looking a bit icy.

MixmasterTK. Travis' mixed climbing experience pays off as he cruises the icy 5.8 Chockstone chimney in approach shoes with aluminum strap on crampons.

We made our way up the North ridge to second ledge.  What was usually an easy scramble along second ledge to the Owen-Spalding route now required a bit more care and we stayed roped for two of steps with lots of exposure.

TK works his way across second ledge.

We got to the Owen-Spalding and scrambled up Sargent’s chimney and the catwalk.  I walked passed the next chimney completely. Following the line of least resistance. Which right now was a large ledge leading to the south.  It was not until I was staring at the Exum ridge that it hit to me that I was off route and wandering aimlessly. I wondered how I could get off route here, a section I know well.  Then it hit me. We are severely dehydrated. I look at my watch and did the math, 30 ounces each over the last 7 hours.  Hmm, not so good. I turned around.  Travis was no where to be seen.  I traced my steps backwards and found Travis sitting down and moving rocks around to make a bed.  He was even worse off than me.  We had a quick conversation and I decided to run up to the summit and Travis was going to take a nap in the sun while simultaneously melting snow in his water bottle inside his jacket.  Kid can multi task.  A couple of hundred feet above I looked down and Travis was lying down in the fetal position. I have never seen Travis in this kind of shape, ever. Dehydration is for real. I made it to the summit and two nice guys from Montana were there.  They told me that they had just climbed the full Exum ridge.  I immediately fell into a deep dehydrated daydream of how nice of a day it would have been to be on the Exum ridge. A long, moderate ridge, great rock, in the sun all day,  with a full camelback,  pb&j’s  and a giant breakfast burrito with eggs, potatoes, sausage and cheese for the top.

What am I doing?

There is so much I really want to climb in the Tetons, probably more than I will be able to fit into my lifetime, and today I spent the day doing a long scramble to the freezing cold and icy North ridge and climbed it in less than ideal conditions.  All of this with very little water and only gels and powders for food. What is wrong with me?

One,  I have a bad habit of having a bit too much wishful thinking and two, I am addicted to the challenge of doing the Grand Traverse in a day.  Blinded by the addiction, I was not able to see that today was not the day.  There were red flags. Forecast cool temperatures and recent snow. But wishful thinking by an addict prevailed and we tried it anyways.

I downclimb to Travis who is still napping.  He is feeling a bit better but like me he has a pounding headache.  I grab the rope from him and head to the rappels. 2 raps bring us to the upper saddle.  We hiked down towards the lower saddle excited by the thought of water.  I still had a slim hope of rehydrating at the water source there and continuing on. Upon arriving at the lower saddle we were informed that the regular water source was not flowing.  We hiked down to see for ourselves.  Sure enough it was less than a drip.  A guide had built a dam and created a small puddle which he was extracting water from a table spoon at a time.  It became clear that his puddle was not refilling and that he needed every ounce he could get.  So we had to go down.  Water was down.  We descended knowing our day way over. We found water below the JHMG huts and filled our water bottles.  From there we made the long hike down to the truck.

I like to tell myself it is all part of the process but deep inside I hate not reaching my goal. But the fact of the matter is that I would hate myself more for not trying.

This is turning into a project and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I am learning a ton about moving quickly in technical terrain. Chock it up as training.

Third time is the charm. I hope.  I need to move on with my life.

Warning- Super long blog post.  As I was researching the Grand Traverse I was surprised at how little info there is on the web about it.  Rolo’s page is extremely helpful, but that is about it.  So I have tried to include key bits of beta that helped us along the way which the casual reader may find boring and useless.

The Grand Traverse is a link-up of all of the central Teton peaks: Teewinot, Mt. Owen, Grand Teton, Middle Teton, South Teton, Ice Cream Cone, Gilkey Tower, Spalding Peak, Cloudveil Dome and Nez Perce.  Since the first time I ever heard of the Grand Traverse I had always dreamed of climbing it in a single push.  For now,  I have no interest in climbing it in multiple days, partially because I dislike heavy packs and bivis but also because I like the style.  It is very all or nothing for me. Of course I can climb it in two or three days, but in a day? I’m not so sure.

Every summer I always have some sort of excuse for this not being the year I would try it.  Too busy, I need to be more fit, I need to know more of the route, blah blah blah.  This year I decided to just give it a go.  I had heard many horror stories from friends of never ending route finding.  One friend’s advice was to just do the Cathedral traverse and then rest a few days and go back and do the Cloudveil traverse, “it is actually enjoyable that way,” he said.  He was probably right, but I had made up my mind and wanted to go for the whole shebang.  In the past I have been guilty of biting off more than I can chew but, with the Grand traverse I knew it was huge.  I had no delusions of being able to nail this thing first try.  If I did… great,  if not, I will know more next time.  No expectations whatsoever,  that’s the way, unhhuh unhhuh, I like it.

Fuel

So it was not completely heartbreaking when we left my sister’s house in Jackson at 2:15 a.m. August 31st and lightning was striking all around us.  Nor were we devastated, possibly a bit disheartened, at 2:30 a.m., while driving to the trailhead,  when we got a text from our one man weather support crew, Jason Dunlop,  which read simply- crap! We told Jason we had an iphone so we could watch the weather and that he should go back to sleep.  He responded something like “I will sleep when I am dead”  followed shortly by a full weather report (Thanks Jason!).  It looked like a strong but small and fast moving system was going to cross over us for the next hour or two.  With absolutely no desire to be up on Teewinot in the rain and lightning we hung out at the trailhead in my truck from 3:00 until 4:45 when the storm seemed to have passed.  1 hour 45 minutes behind schedule leaving the trailhead, not so good.  We pounded out the 5,600 vertical climb up the East face of Teewinot a bit harder than we planned trying to make up some time.

We had planned on being on top of Teewinot at first light. Obviously not happening as I hike through the nice early morning light a few hundred feet from the summit of Teewinot. Photo: Travis Kemp

The summit of Teewinot is awesome. Trying to see my shadow. Photo: Travis Kemp

Travis and I have both climbed the East face of Teewinot,  but everything between the summit of Teewinot and the summit of the Grand was new to us.  There is a lot of route finding to deal with.  We knew this would be our crux.  From the summit of Teewinot we headed back down the way we came a hundred feet or so before heading south to a large obvious notch (visible above my head and a bit left on the first photo of Teewinot).  We went west through the notch to access the southwest face and followed a steep gully down for a couple hundred feet before catching a small ledge to the south (skier’s left) to escape the gully onto the large open ridge leading to peak 11,840.  From the top of 11,840 we avoided the 3 rappels right off of the top of and opted instead to go for the Northwest chimney. We accessed the NW chimney by heading north off of the peak down and around a small (mini van size-ish) pinnacle  and then continued about 40 or 50 feet down and to the north. There is an slung horn for an anchor at the top of the obvious chimney.  Easy but exposed downclimbing or a single rap take you to less steep but less solid ground,  we rapped.  From here we traversed steep dirt, choss, snow and ice (pulled out the crampons) until we were able to get back on the ridgecrest.  Next sub-peak we traversed to the north through some loose blocks, but nothing too horrible.

Travis negotiating one of the more loose sections between Teewinot and Mt. Owen.

From there we had a slight route finding error as I thought that we were supposed to traverse the next peak to the south when in fact the next peak was the East Prong and the ridgecrest was the best route.  Lost twenty minutes or so. On top of the East Prong we did two rappels to get to the Koven col.

Travis rapping off the East Prong into the Koven col.

Travis coming out of the Koven col.

We filled up on water at the base of Mt. Owen and continued up the Koven route.

Travis enjoying some fantastic rock on Mt. Owen.

We cruised up the Koven route to the summit enjoying fine rock along the way.

Travis catches a quick breather on top of Mt. Owen with the North ridge of the Grand Teton looming large above.

From the summit of Mt. Owen we downclimbed the way we came for a couple hundred feet and then followed the Southwest ridge,  staying on the east side of it, towards the Grand.  On the recommendation of a very helpful and knowledgeable ranger we passed Rolo’s recommended descent gully and continued  south down the ridge as described in the West ledges descent in the Ortenburger/Jackson guide.  This was one of my favorite sections.  Amazing rock and some easy moves with exposure. Super exhilarating!  No signs of fatigue we were both feeling great. We followed the ridge until continuing to the south became difficult,  located a slung horn and did one rappel to the west which led us to small ledge system which we followed towards Gunsight notch.  The ledge system led us south to three raps with somewhat manky anchors and some loose rock into Gunsight.  In retrospect, next time I think that I will downclimb further to the west to a bigger ledge system below which apparently takes you into a couloir a hundred feet or so below Gunsight.  I would much rather hike an extra hundred feet than knock a loose rock onto my head while rappelling.  Just me.  Out of Gunsight we followed Rolo’s directions which were perfect, “out of the Gunsight climb up and right 60 feet, then up and left 50 feet to a slanting ledge going down to the east. Head 100 feet down the ledge.” This took us right to the base of an amazing, steep, knobby, 5.8 pitch.  We roped up for the first time and enjoyed some of the best rock I have ever found in the Tetons.

First pitch coming out of Gunsight Notch. Even better than it looks, so classic. Photo: Travis Kemp

The next pitch was just as good,  more of the same, steep and knobby 5.7.  From there we put the rope away and scrambled up to the top of the Grandstand.  We were hoping to climb the Italian cracks up to the second ledge then traverse over to meet the Owen-Spalding.  We located the first pitch, which is shared with the original North Ridge route,  and Travis quickly led it. I followed and then ran up the 3rd class gully to a ledge.  Travis met me there moments later.

We pulled out our topo and tried to locate the next pitch. Neither of us were sure exactly where the next pitch was.  This is not where I imagined having route finding problems. This is where I thought we would just find a crack and follow it. In retrospect, after inspecting other topos and photos, the Italian cracks were around the corner and out of sight to the climber’s left of where we were but, based on our topo any of the cracks in front of us looked like they could be the Italian cracks. Travis was leading so he played a quick game of eeny, meeny, miney, moe. Moe crack it was. He headed up a crack that started alright but soon turned into a loose nightmare. Having made some hard moves (not downclimbable) over bad gear he battled through more loose rock and sketchy gear to a ledge. I climbed up to him and knew without him saying a word that he had just fried himself mentally. I took the rack and started exploring.  First right, then left, then straight up, then far left. Nothing looked great but I continued up. Why? I have no idea. I chose far left.  I battled up short corner with some hard moves and a ton of lichen which brought me to a ledge with an ancient anchor. It was becoming very clear that we were not on the Italian cracks. I backed up the old anchor and belayed Travis up.  Once again I explored.  Right, left, straight up.  Nothing.  We finally came to the conclusion that we were definitely not on the Italian cracks and that we would not find them by wandering up  this face as we had been doing so far. Brilliant! We rapped.  A full 100′ rappel just barely got us to a tiny stance where we could traverse over to the original North Ridge route which is thankfully a large and obvious chimney.  We climbed a bit of loose 5th class to base of the Chockstone chimney.  We were psyched to be “on route” but knew we had wasted way too much time (4+ hours) being off route and that the Grand Traverse was most likely out of reach.

There were about ten steps of pure ice guarding the start of the chimney that crampons were helpful for.  From there we shot up at rapid pace.  I led. Climbing as fast as I could safely. I arrived at the top of each pitch winded. Travis followed, with no consequences for falling he climbed like a maniac.  Travis would arrive at the belay completely out of breath, hand me the gear and I was off.  Three pitches (our topo showed 4, we combined the last two) brought us to the Second ledge. We followed  Second ledge to where it meets up with the Owen-Splading route.

We were psyched to be off the North ridge. No afternoon thunderstorms! I knew we had just gotten away with one.  Anyone who knows anything about the Tetons would never choose to be on the North ridge from the hours of 1-6 on a late summer afternoon.

We scrambled up the O-S to the summit of the Grand.  We had the summit to ourselves. Not surprising at 6:30 in the afternoon.  We both knew that the Grand Traverse was not happening for us today. Mentally toasted and way behind schedule due to our North ridge mini-epic,  we had no motivation to continue on deep into the night. We would have to settle with just the Cathedral traverse. No sense of failure for either one of us. It was nearly impossible to not be psyched after such an amazing day of climbing. Although I can not wait to come back and try again, this will always be one of my most memorable and enjoyable days spent in the mountains. Mini-epic and all. We spent some time on the summit and watched the Grand Teton’s shadow grow.  What an amazing place, what an amazing range, what an amazing day!  I want a REMATCH!!!!!

GEAR:

Sterling 9.2 Fusion Nano 60 m

BD stoppers- #5-12

BD C4 cams- #0.3, 0.4, .5, .75, 1, 2

4 shoulder length slings

3 double length slings

BD Neve strap-on crampons

FUEL:

12 servings of Hammer gel each

15 Perpetuem Solid tabs each

2 scoops Perpetuem powder each

2 scoops Heed powder each

2 Hammer Bars each

Travis Kemp and I headed to the Tetons for a few days with hopes of giving the Grand Traverse a go.  Travis was coming from sea level so we both thought it would be good to get in a nice warm up with a bit of elevation.  The plan, which admittedly was mine, was to climb Chief Joseph buttress, scramble up the East Ridge to the summit and descend the Northwest couloirs. Sounds easy enough, we should sleep in. 5 am wake-up at my sister’s place in Jackson put us on the trail just after 6.

Our line, approximately.

Cheif Joseph Buttress. The climb more or less follow the sun/shade line on the prow.

I thought we got off route because the 2nd pitch which was supposed to the be the crux (5.10) felt easy, except for a few very wet 5.8 moves and the 3rd pitch which was supposed to be 5.7 felt much harder to both of us.  Chatting with a very helpful ranger the next day he confirmed that we were on route.  He said that in his opinion the more difficult moves (5.9,5.10) noted on the Ortenburger/Jackson topo were soft and that the easier moves (5.6-5.8) were a bit sandbagged.  We agreed.

Following the 3rd pitch. 5.7 on the topo, felt much harder. Photo: Travis Kemp

Leading the 4th pitch. Photo: Travis Kemp

Travis with his best Warren Harding impersonation, 4th pitch.

The 5th pitch. I know it is hard to get excited about 5.5 pitches but perfect rock...

and some nice exposure make for a classic pitch. As good as 5.5 gets.

I had it in my head, due to quick and poor skim over the East Ridge description in the guidebook, that it was just a quick little hike to the summit.  So we were both quite surprised when we found ourselves on top of East Peak looking way up at the East Summit and even further up at the true summit with a bunch of steep scrambling and some rappels separating us from the summit.  I pulled out all the copies I had made from my guide the night before (thanks Jason!) and carefully read the East Ridge description.  Two raps  take us down to the base of the East Summit.  First rap was a full 100′. At the end of our rope we ended up on a exposed ledge which we followed to the north about 30′ to find the next anchor.  50′ rap took us to solid ground. At the notch between East Peak and East Summit we explored escaping out the East Hourglass couloir to save our legs for traversing. Travis rappelled over extremely loose rubble and out of view. Shortly after dropping out of view I was glad to hear him ask me for a belay.  He climbed back out mumbling something about loose rock deathtraps.  We talked about dropping down into Avalanche canyon via the couloir below us to the south, but we had left a pack and some food in a bearbox in Garnet canyon, plus we got a thumbs up on the weather from our local weather expert, Jason Dunlop, so we decided to stick with the original plan and head to the summit even if it was going to be a bit longer of a day than I had originally thought. We explored the possibility of skirting below the East Summit to the south.  It doesn’t go without some hard climbing or a bunch of raps way too time consuming to save a few hundred feet of vertical.  We ended up climbing up the Southeast face to join the East Ridge to the East Summit.  A bit of downclimbing to the north and 8o’ rap brought us to the notch separating the East Summit from the true summit.

Travis scrambling up the final portion of the East Ridge with the East Summit towering behind.

A quick scramble brought us to a very windy summit.  A brief break on top before the wind drove us down.  We descended the Northwest couloirs into the South fork of Garnet canyon and back to our car.

We hit the Recoverite and drove to my sister’s place where she had an awesome dinner ready for us (thanks Laura!).

Turned out to be a longer day than expected but was pretty much a perfect warm up for the Grand traverse as it involved a lot of route finding, some technical climbing, a bunch of scrambling and finding some hidden rappel anchors.

Gear:

Sterling 9.2 Nano 60 m

Set of  stoppers #4-#12

One of each BD #0.3-#3

Fuel:

4 scoops of Hammer HEED

4 Hammer gels each

12 Hammer Perpetuem Solid tabs each

1 Pro Bar each

After possibly the most consistently good winter of my life I found my self buried deep in work that I had been putting off in exchange for amazing pow all season.  While friends went on their spring expeditions I stayed home and worked my tail off.  It is always hard to be tied down by work while friends are getting after it.  I had to supplement my 7 days a week work schedule with mini climbing trip every two or three weeks to keep myself sane. I was lucky enough to get down to the San Rafael Swell before it got too hot to do a bit crack climbing with Johnny Edwards.

Ahhhhhh... the desert.

Pumped! Johnny firing the last few moves of the long (160 ft.) and classic Lite Not Solid.

You know you are pumped out of your mind when a sandy, slopey crimp looks better than a hand jam.

Next I escaped to Red Rocks for three days for a very condensed climbing trip with Travis Kemp.  I did not take many pics but we had an awesome time.  We spent most of our time in Pine creek and Juniper canyons.  It blows my mind how many people come to Red Rocks just to climb the chossarific sport climbs next to the road and never experience the wildness and beauty that these canyons offer.

Some local climbers way up high in Pine Creek Canyon

We climbed a bunch of multi pitch lines and did a bit of cragging as well. The highlight of the trip happened to be the first line we got on,  Drifting,  an extremely sustained five pitch 5.11c. that climbs a  large vertical wall with one roof pitch near the top.  Interesting and tenuous moves off of amazing sandstone crimps. There is some hollow stuff in there too,  don’t get me wrong, but all the 5.11 moves (which is pretty much the whole route) were on crisp, solid features. So classic!

Heading up the first pitch of Drifting. Photo: Travis Kemp

Following the second pitch. Photo: Travis Kemp

Leading the third. Photo: Travis Kemp

The next day we headed to Ginger buttress and climbed Ginger Cracks a seven pitch 5.9 and Unimpeachable Groping a seven pitch 5.10d.  We cruised the two classic moderate multi pitch lines with no problems except for taking advice from some dude at the bottom of Ginger cracks who told us that we could make the descent with one 70 meter rope.  You can’t…   at least not down the Power Failure raps.  On the first rappel our rope was about 20 feet short of the next anchors so we built an anchor and pulled our rope.  Travis rappelled to the next anchor,  put me on belay, I cleaned the anchor and down climbed 5.9ish terrain to Travis.  Not really a big deal but lesson learned:  don’t listen to random people’s beta.

Travis following the third pitch of Ginger Cracks

Travis following the first pitch of Unimpeachable Groping. Notice, the two ropes, we learned our lesson. Funny thing is we probably did not need them on this one but they made for nice long simul-raps

Good times and sore fingers were had by all.  Ahh climbing,  I love it.

I drove to Aspen this past weekend to race in the best ski mountaineering race in america? I think that calling it the best ski mo race in america might be pushing it since this is the very first year of the race.  But since it was my first ski mo race ever,  it was definitely the best race I have ever been apart of.  The idea is to climb and ski all four of the major ski hills in Aspen.  A pretty logical link-up: Snowmass to Buttermilk to Aspen Highlands to Aspen Mountain.  The course ended up being a brutal 12,600 vertical feet and 27 miles.  The race format is teams of two.  So I talked close friend and fellow telewhacker Nick Devore into doing the race with me.  Nick was kind enough to carry my point and shoot camera and shoot all of these photos.  Check out the inspiring accounts of the race from the second place team of Jared Inouye and Brian Harder.  Nice teamwork guys!  So sick! Nick, where is my bungee?

And we’re off…

Quite a nice morning.

First transition,  just finished the skin up Snowmass.  Soft pow in the Sugar bowls takes us to Buttermilk.

Enjoying the fresh corduroy that Buttermilk is famous for.

Having a good time… so far.  Maroon Bells off in the distance,  sick!

Transition 2.  The scenery along the race was spectacular.  I definitely did not have the time to fully appreciate the views

Still smiling.  Some trees skiing took us to a really fast groomer where Nick and I tested the downhill race capabilities of our light setup.  Following Nick off of blind rollers at high speed was exciting to say the least.  At the base of Buttermilk we skated across some flats until we took off our skis and walked/ran along sidewalk to the base of Aspen Highlands.  Starting up the steep Thunder Bowl, with a 4,400 climb ahead of me to the top of Highlands Bowl,  was the first time I started to really feel it.  I battled through a couple of  ”rough patches”.  Hammer gel really came through for me.  My stomach was on the verge of forcing me to stop and curl up into a ball.  Hammer gel was the only thing I could stomach and I focused sipping on it and water.  Meanwhile Nick was on fire and flying up the mountain well ahead of me.  After some time I joined Nick on the top of Highlands Bowl and my stomach was feeling better.

On top of Highlands Bowl with a bunch of tourists.  We raged down the thigh burning bowl.  It is really hard to charge down steep technical terrain when your legs are cooked from almost 10,000 feet of climbing.  Sometimes it was easier to just point it and hang on.  Turns take way too much energy!  Nick did not seem to notice as he threw a 360 out the bottom of the bowl.  At the bottom of the bowl we skinned up for a short fifteen minute hike which lead us to the Congo trail.

Hurting…  Next up the Congo trail.  The Congo trail is a single track mountain bike trail that switchbacks through the low elevation trees to the base of Midnight Mine road.  We scared a couple of fellow racers to death as we passed them going full speed down what had become a bobsled run.  Sorry!  We crossed the road and started up the Midnight Mine Road, a six mile annoying flat climb to the top of Aspen Mountain.  I made a rookie mistake and used synthetic skins instead of pure mohair.  Since most of the climbing had been steep up to this point, I had not really noticed the lack of glide that I was getting from my skins.  On the mellow Midnight Mine road I really noticed.  I felt like I was on snowshoes.  I had plenty time to promise myself never to do another race with synthetic skins.  I got passed by a team who glided by like they just started the race.  I let them go there was no way I could keep their pace.   A while later another team passed me.  This time I decided to just try to stay with them.  I climbed deep inside the pain cave,  put my head down and never let them get away.  The three of us silently made our way up the Midnight Mine road.  No one said a word.  We were all digging deep and as I settled into their pace I realized that they were hurting every bit as bad as me.  Battling silently to the top of this last climb with two complete strangers was an experience I will not soon forget.  Meeting Nick on top we headed down the final descent.  Some traversing and some deep moguls led us to the finish.

Dorks!  Well at least me.  Nick’s sporty party pants are quite stylish. We ended up in 14th place with a time of 8 hours and 23 minutes.  Not too bad for our first rando race.  Top ten next year!  Thanks Nick for shooting all the pics and doing the race with me and thanks to Chris Clark at Scarpa for getting us light skis and boots for the the race.  Can’t wait for next year!

I have been skiing in Scarpa boots for more than a decade.  They have always been of great craftsmanship and quality.  In over ten years of skiing and hiking in Scarpa boots I have never had so much as a  single blister!  Which is why I am extremely psyched to have them as a sponsor.  It is not hard to represent companies and products you believe in . Here is a look at the two main boots I will be skiing in this season.

T-Race: Performance has never even been a question.  The Scarpa T-race has been the highest performance telemark boot in the world since it’s creation.  I have skied hundreds of days in the T-race.  At this point they feel like a part of my body.

The T-race is on sale now at Backcountry.com for $619!

This year for the first time in 15 years I have an alpine setup.  I got this setup for really big ski mountaineering objectives and really long ski traverses.  By combining the Scarpa Maestrale (lightest 4-buckle boots on the market) with the Dynafit binding system I was able to shed well over a pound per foot from my tele setup! My very first day on Alpine gear in well over a decade and my first day ever on the Scarpa Maestrale I did the Kessler Low Speed Quad and hiked and skied over 14,000 vertical feet.  I could not believe it but my feet were perfectly comfortable at the end of the day.  How could a new pair of boots be so comfortable out of the box? My mind was blown!

On sale now at Backcountry.com for $509!

Big thanks to Chris Clark at Scarpa for getting me boots and being psyched about what I am doing!

Spent the day with Noah on Kessler peak skiing the four major lines off the summit: East Couloir, God’s Lawnmower,  Argenta and West Couloir in a day.  No shortcuts we skied each line to the bottom for a total vertical gain of 14,340′ according to my watch.  Long day,  we got an early start.

Reached the summit on the first lap just before sunrise. Perfect timing.

East couloir.  My first turns with a fixed heel in 10 or more years.  It felt really weird!

Noah skinning back up Argenta after a a quick car shuttle down from the bottom of Cardiff.  We parked at the base of Argenta and stashed fuel and water in the car.  After each lap we would take a break at the car and reload.

Next we skied God’s Lawnmower.  Which was severely wind affected at the very top but creamy and luscious the rest of the way down.  Some low elevation tight tree skiing brought us to this…

Our one and only river crossing.  Noah shows me how to walk on water.  Then it was back to the car at the base of Argenta,  refuel and up we go again.

The Kessler Low Speed Quad is a burner!  We are getting there though.  Noah is not too fatigued to signal that we are nearly on top of lap three.  Next up we skied Argenta and found the best snow of the day on the glorious upper headwall.

P-POW.  The snow was even better than it looks but all good things come to an end and eventually we were at the bottom and had one last lap ahead of us.  The fourth lap was easier for me than the third.  Possibly just the mental edge of knowing you are close to the end,  possibly I was becoming delirious and had lost a hold of reality.  I’m not really sure which, probably both.

Topping out on lap 4!

Noah and I on top,  psyched not to be skiing the West Couloir in the dark.

Perfect ending to a perfect day.  Noah rips pow down the West Couloir!

For you geeks out there here are our stats:

Total vertical: 14.340′

Highpoint: 10,403′

Lowpoint: 6,750′

Average speed of ascent:  33 ft/minute

Total Time: 11 hours 17 minutes

The Wasatch is getting pounded.  Yesterday I got out with the PW crew and spent most of the day taking photos, skiing a bit as well.  I am starting to get more comfortable with the new camera,   still have a lot to learn.  Practice makes perfect.  Here are a few shots.

Jason West picking his way through the aspens.

Jason getting deeper.

Noah is like a Ninja master of getting faceshots.

Noah once again displays his Ninja mastery.

This April I returned to Haines, Alaska with the PW crew.  Last year in Haines we all knew that we had only scratched the surface of immense potential surrounding Haines.  We could see many mountains far away that looked like the most amazing, yet rippable mountains I had ever seen.  With the help of the talented ski plane pilot, Drake, we knew we could access just about any area as far as we could see.  The potential was was awesome, yet completely overwhelming.  It would take a lifetime to explore these mountains on foot or a small fortune to pay Drake to fly us around to see it all.  Enter Jeremy Jones…the man.  My personal big mountain riding inspiration. The style in which Jeremy tears apart very serious lines has always been a huge source of inspiration in for me.   Jeremy being a huge snowboard athlete  probably has ten times the budget of our whole six person crew. That is a good thing because last year while we were in Hanies, Jeremy was flying endlessly around with Drake and putting that budget to good use exploring the amazing mountains surrounding Haines. This year conditions were prime and Drake suggested that we go to the zone Jeremy was in last year partly because he was comfortable and familiar with the landing zone.  We all knew that if it was good enough for Jeremy is probably a little too good for us, and by good I mean gnarly.

Will is pretty excited.  It is blue and we are about to fly onto the glacier.

Home.

We set up camp and threw on our skis for a quick evening tour to get look around.  We ended up skiing some nice little  lines in the evening light just behind camp.

Nick ready to shred some pow back to camp this nice evening.

Back home. Little did we know but we had five blue days ahead of us…

First objective

Nick getting steep and deep on the hike up as Mt. Fairweather watches from the distance

Nice warm up

The next day we headed about a mile down glacier to one of the burliest zones I have ever seen.  We headed there just to check it out, do a bit of recon.  Once we were there we could not help but go ski something.  So Erickson and I headed up a large rib feature, which was one of the more reasonable lines, while Nick and Will explored something a bit more gnarly.

Chris is booting up the nice rib feature we are about to ski.  We wanted to get to the summit but the rock band above forced us to the left and onto an open face that we were not quite comfortable committing to.  So we skied a nice big 60 degree rib for about 1300 vert.   

Nick and Will trying to put the  pieces of their blown mind back together after they climbed and skied the lines of their life.

Wow!  Did that really just happen?    Nick and will skied some amazing spines from the far looker’s right peak,  still with a bit of evening light on them. A few days later Nick and I ended up in the same spine zone and I skied this…

The wavy spine of my dreams. Definitely one of the craziest lines of my life.  A few days later I found myself in a similar situation.

Hiking or climbing?  Why are my arms tired? Climbing up these lines is often the crux.  There were many lines that we chose not ski because they lacked a safe route up.  This line was right on the border.  Nick and I rested at the last safe spot before racing up this runnel to the top of the line.  We took turns breaking trail to be as fast as possible.  Choosing to be close together to increase the speed of group and limit time spent in the danger zone.  This was a clean line, if there were any cornices above us or cliffs below it would have been a no go.

Things were going too well..

Eventually it just snowed for eight straight days and the highlight of day was…

packing out a landing strip for Drake to land his plane on when it finally clears.

After the storm

Drake comes to pick us up

Hard to leave. Amazing place,  great friends,  unbelievable experience.

Adam Barker is the organizer of the shootout and an incredible photographer in his own right.  On the last day of the shootout he followed our group around and “documented” us shooting.  He took the photo above of me throwing a 50 foot front flip.  Definitely one of my favorite photos of the season.

For the last two days of the shootout I was assigned to my home resort of Alta.  The first day at Alta I skied with Suzanne Graham and photographer Kevin Winzler. It was cloudy and dumping all day so we skied pow in the trees all day.  Kevin busted out the flashes and strobes for most of the day.  Trying to light his shots on the this cloudy day.

Kevin and his assistant Little Greg. LG is holding a strobe.

Good times in the pow! Suzanne going up for some more.

For the last day of the shootout I was at Alta with my good friend and photographer Liam Doran and Weston Deutschlander. We had an amazing day at Alta.  We started with an early lift ride up Supreme.  We skied some deep pow lines in nice early morning light.  Next we headed out to Rocky Point and hit some of the classic cliffs.  First I lined up A-frame and hit it pretty big with a front flip.  Weston followed me with a nice straight air stomp.

Liam, far right, shoots Weston hitting A-frame. Things are about to get stompalicious.

Next I hit the tree air…

and Adam Barker killed the second angle. Liam shot this from below and got a really nice shot as well. Kind of nice shooting with two photogs!

Next we headed out towards Sunset Peak and skied some nice pow lines in the long afternoon light.

There is a person in that cloud of snow somewhere. Liam shoots Weston as he gets explosive.

Liam in front of my tracks. Little did we know it then but this last shot was going to be the Winner of the Powder category.

So Liam won the Powder category of the Salt Lake Shootout with this shot of me.  It was fun to win but I am super psyched to do it with a friend like Liam.  Nice work Liam! You can see more from the Salt Lake Shootout HERE.

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