Paige Brady

Posts Tagged ‘backcountry.com’

Mount Drum photo: Paige Brady

We headed North from Anchorage to attempt to ski the North Face of Mount Drum (12,010 ft).  We pulled over a few miles after the Tok cut-off on the Glen Highway and started skinning from our cars.

the trip begins

After about an hour of bushwhacking we dropped into the Copper River where we quickly turned off and started skinning up the Sanford River.

Skinning along the Sanford River

It was nice and sunny during the day, but dropped to around -30° at night while camping on the river.

Danielle and I

waking up to falling death crystals

We heading up an unnamed drainage about 4 miles after the bend in the Sanford River toward Mt. Drum.

going up unnamed drainage off the Sanford River

Sean, Ben, Stormy, and Danielle

Mount Drum's North Face

Mt. Drum

Our camp that we cashed our sleds at.

Mt. Drum

Mt. Drum's North Face

This was the basin our high camp was in.

getting roped up

climbing Mt. Drum

our high point

our high point

The lack of snow made for minimal snow bridges and blue ice which made us have to abandon our summit attempt.

the final uphill bushwhack fun

It was still a amazing trip with many funny moments!

Here are a few images I just received from Re Wikstrom from our trip to the Icefall Lodge last January.  Wish I was there right now!

photo: Re Wikstrom

photo: Re Wikstrom

photo: Re Wikstrom

photo: Re Wikstrom

photo: Re Wikstrom

photo: Re Wikstrom

Skinny up Garnet Canyon, starring at the Middle Teton

The morning began with waking up at 3:50am.  After meeting friends, we were skinning from the trailhead in Teton National Park by 5:20am.  It was completely clear out which made for lots of stars and really cold temperatures.  We followed the light of our headlamps through a nicely set skin track amongst the dense forest.  We then crossed frozen Bradley Lake and started gaining elevation.  It was around 7:30 and we were high in Garnet Canyon starring at the Middle Teton when the sun finally hit!

Corky

Sun finally hits the top of the Middle Teton

We continued to skin up and around the south side of the Middle as we were headed towards the Southwest Couloir.   When our group arrived at the saddle between the South and the Middle Tetons we bumped into two guys getting out of their tent after a long, cold night.  They skied it the day before and said it was good and the snow was really stable.  We were even more psyched, said goodbye, and headed to the base of the couloir.

Corky, Evan, and Dana

Paige

We were luckily able to poach the bootpack the guys set the day before for parts of the way up.  This made the ascent much easier, as they said they’d had chest deep post holing.  When we reached the top of the couloir there was a short scramble to the top.  The summit was tiny, but the views were amazing as we were starring right at the Grand.

The Grand through Dana's eye's

The Grand

Me, Dana, and Evan

We hiked back down the short distance to the top of the couloir where we could put our skis on and start the decent.

getting ready to ski!

Just a few turns in we had to negotiate a narrow rock section at one of the chokes.

Me, Dana, and Evan

There was one other tight sections that was a little thin, but after that we could open it up and let’em rip!  It was perfect pow that was just starting to get a little heavy from the sun, but super fun!!

Dana

Paige

Corky

We continued our decent passing a couple wet slides lower down in Garnet Canyon wear the sun was really starting to heat things up and affect the snow.  The last rolling section before the parking lot was now full of groups of people nordic skiing, walking, going on short ski tours.  A little different than when we left eight and a half hours ago.

Dana and I

All and all it was an amazing trip and we couldn’t have asked for any better weather!