My last post of 2010 ended at Christmas and, at that point, I had already been spending a nice chunk of my weekends up high in the Teton backcountry. I had taken Friday, the last day of the year off from work which allowed for a perfect opportunity to close out the year with a day up in the mountains. This day, it was a jaunt up the West Mail Cabin drainage to get to what ended up being three incredibly fluffy 1,200ft laps on a beautiful easterly ridge. Although temps for the day were somewhere near zero lower in the valley, it warmed nicely up towards the 9,000-ish ft ridgetop we topped out on. A great day skiing powder.
The next morning, we were up at 5am and arrived at the top of Teton Pass for what most likely ended up being the first lap on Glory for 2011. There were no cars up there. No tracks. Just bitter cold darkness and a biting wind. Can't say the skiing was amazing, but it was never intended to be. The purpose was to get up there early and get it in before the rest of the day's events took over.
The following day, we were up again at an early hour and headed over to Bradley-Taggart for what we were hoping would be an attempt up the Middle Teton. The forecast looked pretty good and the morning was calm and mostly clear when we left the car at 6:30. All systems go. At the Meadows in Garnet Canyon, we stopped to refuel and got our first whiff of the icy wind blowing down off the high saddles between the peaks. Another 1,000ft up and we were enveloped in a cloud, visibility down to not much, traversing a hard, wind-packed sloped which provided a precarious perch for the edges of our skin-covered ski bases to hold purchase. That, and the wind had picked up against us substantially to a strong, steady force. A bit tense. But we kept going. Up another 500 ft and the ground had been wind-scoured and became mostly rock connected with an interlacing patchwork of snow. We walked over it all with our skis on until we finally made the agreement to turn back. Going up further in these conditions would provide us very little benefit and, although comfortable physically, it was evident this would not be our day. We turned back and arrived back at the car with a great day of time up high in the mountains, surviving the elements, and just a tad bit of frostnip on the bridge of my nose.
Later that week, I had a chance to hike Glory in late afternoon. A truly fantastic way to end a day.
A sign of things to come? What could this mis-matched array of items be doing together? What does it all mean?
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