What follows is the resulting chronicle of a winter in the Tetons.
Opening day was rough.
I was out of shape, and the snow was terrible.
Early season touring was weird and sketchy and thin, pretty typical.
I owned a minivan this winter, and I used every excuse to include it.
Sometimes I miss that Sienna.
This day could have been shitty, but wasn’t.
Also, watching Dan (a very competent snowboarder) learn how to ski pow was great.
And now he’s a great skier too.
When I tour solo my inner nerd really shows through.
This one is dorky.
I still haven’t skied any of the lines I got eyes on this day.
This was one of my favorite days in the mountains ever.
Good snow, great company, and a super pretty line.
We drank a lot of Naturdays that winter, I get a little ill just thinking about them now.
This line is weird.
It’s not that long, or interesting, but it has two rappels that are fun and interesting.
It’s a good place to get reacquainted with skiing with ropes.
Lord, this day was silly good.
Perfect snow top to bottom, we skied the whole continuous 3000' shot continuously, one by one.
When it was my turn to drop my partners radioed back up and warned me about a mandatory air.
Turns out they’d gotten a little off line and dropped an extra cliff.
What a great day.
Finally, our last big line of the season.
I usually start the drawing process by just putting down some notes.
But I never finished it, or even really started.
We skied the Black Hole on a Saturday.
COVID shut down the ski resorts, and any desire to backcountry ski.
I just left it there as a reminder of how the season ended.
So there you have it, a winter in 14 pages.
That year we felt like we were getting after it.
We skied a bunch of fun lines, in new-to-us areas.
I don’t think I’ve had that “productive” of a winter skiing wise since.
But I also think I cut it a little closer safety-wise more that winter than I’m comfortable with.
What are your winter highlights so far?
