Village to Pass Slideshow: http://www.kizoa.com/slideshow/d2206112k5566425o2/9hrtour
The idea is always simple, but the follow through is the proof in the pudding. My friend “LiveTheDream” came up with the idea of touring from Jackson Hole Mountain Resort’s historic Tram to Teton Pass. Watching the weather for days, waiting for an unsafe snowpack to run its course, and my friends countless hours on google earth we found a break.
Friday the 13th proved to be our day to attempt this tour. LiveTheDream ran into a local woman who gave him beta that it took her group 15 hours to complete the same tour, but in the reverse direction. They had traveled on the high ridge lines having to use ropes, harnesses, and more of a mountaineering approach. We were very grateful of this beta, as we were not inclined to get that rad.
We loaded first tram and headed straight for Cody Peak. Winds gusts were in the mid 40s, sunshine was abundant, and the wind chill was holy guacamole cold! Once we started down climbing the back of Cody Peak we were quite protected from the sandblaster ice pellets to the face. By 11am skins were on and we were headed for the North Shore. It looked so majestic as no ski tracks were on this glorious hunk of rock. We decided to lay some tracks down and were pleased by our choice. By dropping our water at the top skinning back up the North Shore flew by.
Dropping the West side of the North Shore was more of a side stepping process over scree looking for deeper snow. After a short down climb through an unskiable couloir, ski turns were back to the Teton light powder we all love.
After much skinning we were up high on another ridge starring at Mt. Taylor. Another South facing slope provided us with 1200′ or so of untouched powder with zero sun crust. I made as many wiggle turns as I could as LiveTheDream ripped the fresh pow with bigger turns.
Watching the sun fall closer to the horizon we both knew we needed to get closer to Coal Creek. Skinning across a massive meadow that looked easy proved to take quite a lot of time. With each progressive step dragging our skis we were closer to our objective. The Great White Hump was within view and as we got closer the views to the East were beautifully sunlit especially the Sleeping Indian and Jackson Peak.
Alas, we arrived at the great white hump with an enormous vibrant orange sunset starting to fall quickly. Puffy on, fresh warm gloves, and frozen Swedish Fish in cheek we dropped into more untouched snow. At the foot of Mt. Taylor it became harder to ski not because of the low light, but because of ski tracks. We made it back to Coal Creek parking lot at roughly 6pm.
Headlamp on I hitched a ride from a fellow Targhee friend back to the Stilson Lot and definitely overstoked him for the entire ride up and down the 10% grade. We guessed the tour to be 12-15 miles in length.
livethedreamcafe
