Paige Brady

Posts Tagged ‘backcountry skiing’

We skinned right from Zach’s house up into Ram Valley to ski the South Coulior on Raina Peak in Eagle River. It was a beautiful day and so nice to be in the sun up there!

booting up the coulior. photo: Erik Pallister

finally in the sun! photo: Zach Shlosar

photo: Zach Shlosar

photo: Erik Pallister

Brooke and I

I drove through the night from Jackson to Tahoe with Corky and Brooke and arrived in the hot Tahoe sun Monday morning.  Extremely tried from the long drive, all we wanted to do was buy some flip-flops and hang out by the lake.  But I guess it isn’t the season yet, no one had them.  So we unpacked the car and realized Brooke’s boots were nowhere to be found.  Luckily a friend had an extra pair she could barrow for the week.

skinning up

On Tuesday, a few days before the comp, we decided to go on a backcountry ski out of Emerald Bay.

Corky and Matt looking at lines

We climbed a peak behind Tallac, it was sweet.

Me, Brooke, and Lizet on the top

Corky "not so" Still killing it on the way down

Six hours later we arrived back at the car, I mean our limo was there to pick us up!

Lizet, me, and Brooke

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!