Into March...

The last weekend in February presented us with one of the few glorious bluebird days we'd had all winter and we made it back up to Maverick with only one other group of four with which to share the entire mountain with.

Glorious

Monkey tree


Looking north toward the Grand

The next weekend, March 5th, we headed into Garnet Canyon with the West Hourglass Coulior in our sights.

From the top of West Hourglass, we had a great shot into the upper reaches of South Garnet Canyon and the wind-scrubbed slopes leading up to the saddle between the South and Middle Teton.

Grand, Disappointment Peak, Teewinot

Looking down in West Hourglass

Middle Teton with a great view of the massive Ellingwood Couloir cutting down the SE flank.

Skiing the West Hourglass

The following week, we headed towards the Spoon Couloir and another route up Disappointment Peak, but conditions were questionable and general fatigue and exhaustion made it an easy decision to bail and find a sweet little couloir tucked away into the north side of the ridge that led down into Glacier Gulch. I would have no idea this route even existed, but oh what a little gem it is. And surely rarely skiied.

It's tight!

After scrubbing the slope and hopping over the pinch, it was Liz's turn.

What a beauty of a chute! At the bottom, Liz politely directed my attention to the fact that my fly was open (from my last nature break a half hour earlier), so we discreetly dubbed it Open-Fly Couloir. I'm sure it already has a name, but this gives it special meaning to us.