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As is usual before a ski day--any ski day
anywhere--I woke up before the alarm went off. It's been that
way for many years and after yesterday's epic flight across the
the far western U.S. in the Turbo Commander I was still amped,
so I was not surprised that this morning was no exception. As
I also expected, Len was up first. He always is. If it's snowing
he is usually pacing around the room waiting for the sun to come
up. It wasn't snowing but he was pacing a bit already anyway.
Hey, we're in Jackson Hole, it's 5:30 AM and we've got a big
day ahead of us, everybody is stoked.
Getting up early on road trips is a good thing,
a really good thing when the group is large. I remember once
reading a road veteran's comments that for each member of a party
after the first two, 20 extra minutes should be allowed when
trying to get ready for the day. We were five here in this condo:
Big Ed Veith, a petroleum engineer who has been known to host
Sierra Club meetings at his house (how's that for balance?) and
the guy who I shared my very first telemark turns with, back
in the day, on an overnight cross country ski trip in our home
mountains. Way back when our oldest kids were little boys, there
was no gray in our hair and we could still jump while playing
basketball... well sort of anyway.
Another of the Mt. Pinos boys was along too.
The powder morning pacer Len Alberti, a contractor, the first
guy I ever saw ski really, really well in the backcountry and
the closest I've ever had to a ski mentor (even though he's a
few years younger than me, damn it) was getting ready ahead of
everyone else. Gosh it was great to be on this trip with Len
along.
Mark Mitchell was quietly getting his gear
together. Mark owns an industrial rubber company and it was one
of his firm's aircraft that was our ride out to Jackson, and
hopefully, if he could put up with us for a few days, our ride
back. He was the unknown quantity on this trip. I had never skied
with him before and I knew his freeheel experience was pretty
limited, but I also knew that he'd been skiing for a long time
and had even done the Haute Route a few years back. We all expected
that with the latest high performance tele gear he'd be okay.
Who knows if it was our prognosticating that was so right on
or if Mark was sandbagging a bit prior to the trip, but he was
rock solid all week and a real pleasure to ski with.
Rounding out the group was of course Big Tim
Connolly, who manages a supermarket back home and is a familiar
face to Tt.com video viewers. So far Tim had been fulfilling
his role as the Ed McMahon of Tt.com perfectly, laughing at all
our jokes and making sure the traveling bar stayed well stocked.
And there was me, your erstwhile web publisher.
So all these guys got ready pretty quickly
and we were only a few minutes late hooking up with Tom Turiano,
Scott McGee, Russell Rainey and Eric O. for breakfast in a restaurant
at the base of the Jackson Hole Resort. What a breakfast it was:
a full buffet with custom made omelets, silver trays full of
every kind of breakfast food you could think of and tables piled
high with everything from smoked salmon to fresh fruit. For a
Tt.com crew that is more accustomed to the fine dining and grindage
provided by Carl's Jr., Taco Bell, etc., this was like being
in another world. Actually it was another world.
We enjoyed all the good food and headed over
to catch the early, 8:15 "guide tram" to the top. While
we waited to board, BT showed our hosts a pair of our skis with
Dan's SkegEdge invention mounted on the tail. This was a diverse
group, with gear all the way across the spectrum, from my Jaks
and Ed's Pocket Rockets to Tom's Special Ks and old comfy leather
boots. Not that we really paid much attention to such matters.
Heck, we were heading into the Jackson backcountry on a bluebird
day. Nobody was thinking much about gear at all.
We loaded into the tram with lots of early
morning chatter and laughter. Even our local guides seemed stoked
by the day's prospects. Once up top, Tom gave us an overview
of what he had in mind for the day, and a little safety lecture.
As we skied off, he stood at the side of the traverse trail and
listened to make sure that our beacons were all sending a clear
signal as we went by him.
Heading out towards the western boundary of
the Jackson Hole Resort, it was clear that we would have a mixed
bag of conditions this day, if we were lucky that is. The snow
on the exposed ridges was windblown and firm. We were hoping
our guides would be able to find us a stash or two. I knew if
anybody would be able to do that, it would be these guys.
Cody Peak's Main Chute (center). Photo: Ed Veith..
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After a bit of hiking, traversing, and a couple
of short warmed-over powder pitches we came around a corner and
into the bowl below the famous Cody Peak. Tom, who probably knows
more about the history of JH backcountry riding than anyone on
earth, and who actually wrote the book on the subject ("Teton
Skiing : A History and Guide to the Teton Range," Homestead
, 1995), pointed out a number of chutes and cliff drops and told
us who rode what first, as well as a few amusing anecdotes about
descents that had gone a little haywire. It was hard to imagine
anybody actually skiing or boarding some of the lines we were
looking at. Even the main chute had a pretty serious mandatory
air at the bottom. |
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It was easy to see why, as Russell had told
us, that Cody Peak was the prime destination for the region's
extreme skiers looking to make a name for themselves a few years
ago.
A quick conference and it was decided that
we would skin or bootpack up the south east facing flank off
of Cody, where it looked like a fair amount of powder might be
lying in wait. Up we went and as we crested the ridge we spotted
a skier approaching a cliff band across the next valley over.
Photo: Ed Veith..
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It looked like he was going to launch but
just before he got to the edge the skier stopped. Looking tiny
against the awesome mountains behind him, you could just barely
see that he was taking his backpack off. At that point I spotted
another skier waiting above him.
The photographer in me figured it out
pretty quick--they were setting up a shot. Sure enough, in a
few minutes the upper skier took off and headed for a launching
spot not far from the shooter. The guy dropped a sweet air, nailing
the landing and pointing 'em straight down the fall line and
maching to the bottom. I was pretty far away without much lens
power but I snagged a quick bit of video footy anyway. Even from
way across the valley, it was impressive. |
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We soon found out that there may have been
more of a reason for the guy to figure eleven his way down the
slope after his big huck then just his need for speed. It may
have been his only choice. Several of us dropped onto the slope
off of Cody Peak that we had climbed for and it was tough going.
There was decent heavy powder mixed in among a serious dose of
wind packed, breakable crust. One by one we fell prey to that
devilish stuff. Even our Nordic Demo Teamer Scott McGee got intimately
acquainted with this especially challenging form of marginally
skiable snow. I have to say, Scott skied it better than any of
us but Tom's parallel turns on skinny skis and ancient leather
boots impressed everybody.
I asked Scott for a tip on how to ski crust
like that and he said, "Don't break through." I laughed,
and he laughed, but later on we discussed it some more and he
said he was serious. The number one tip for skiing breakable
crust that he would offer was simply to "ski with as light
a touch as possible. Don't try to muscle your way through it."
And you know, watching him descending in the first ski scenes
from our Day 1 video, you can see exactly what he means!
Anyway, we all had about enough of this particular
slope so we climbed back up, rejoined our friends who had declined
to make the run, discretion sometimes being better the better
part of valor, and off we went in search of another stash. An
hour or so later we found what we were looking for.
It was a sweet open ridge top that fell off
into an excellent run through the trees. Tom gave us the standard
reminder to ski the open area one at a time and then he said
he'd go first. Being a noble kind of guide, he headed over to
skiers right, and left the best part of the run to the rest of
us.
I went next in order to set up a video shot,
staying over to skier's right as well. I found that sweet powder
rhythm two or three turns in and was totally stoked by the sheer
pleasure of the moment. The soft billowing snow boiled up around
me as I made nearly effortless turns down the ridge, under the
bluest sky imaginable.
It took tremendous willpower to force myself
to stop and get ready to shoot BT and Scott. I came as close
to blowing it off as I have all year. With a huge grin on my
face I pulled up and got out the camera. Scott started down,
as he went by me I could see his grin was as big as mine had
been. It was incredibly sweet for all of us.
We continued down the drainage or off in the
trees on each side, at this point we were all choosing our own
most favored route, and we regrouped down in a wide open valley
where the terrain flattened out. Everybody was grinning and laughing
as we took a break, sat in the sun, refueled a bit and rehydrated.
After our break we began a long traverse back
toward the resort with the beautiful Teton Valley spreading out
below us to our right. Stopping at one point, a few of us yo-yo-ed
a slope above. We discussed possibly skiing down into the valley,
the snow here was sweet, but it was decided that a long flat
slog back was not really what we wanted to do. We stayed high
and enjoyed a really fun descending traverse through the woods,
eventually coming back into the ski area. As is usually the case
on these kinds of all day, outside the boundary treks, the culture
shock of being back in a ski area was a little jolting. There
was a tiny part of me that wanted to say to everyone I saw, "do
y'all have any idea what's out there just beyond the gates?"
I'm sure many of them knew better than me, but the feeling was
there just the same.
Soon we were back to where our day had started,
the bottom of the Jackson Hole Tram. Some of the group wanted
to go catch the last tram for a first and final run for the day
inside the area. For my part I was looking forward to grabbing
an adult beverage and kicking back on the deck in the late afternoon
sun.
We had a full schedule ahead of us that evening
and tomorrow we would hit the Teton Pass backcountry, but for
now I was happy to have a little time to bask in the special
satisfaction of a magnificent day, spent with old and new friends,
feeling good as I got a bit of a glow on before heading back
to the condo.
It had been an unforgettable 36 hours from
the time the Turbo Commander had lifted off from sunny Southern
California to this moment, on the deck at beautiful Jackson Hole,
Wyoming. |