We have finally started to explore some of the off resort skiing that this area has to offer. The first week here we were simply trying to figure the resort out, the second week was powder week and there really was no need to go anywhere that wasn't lift accessed, so week three became 'explore the backcountry and sidecountry week'. And wow, there is a lot of terrain very easily accessible. So far, we've done three exploratory trips - one over to four pines (just south of the resort boundary), one off of teton pass, and one off the backside of the mountain into granite canyon and teton national park.
Trip 1: Four Pines
4 Pines Sidecountry Route. Blue is skiing, red is hiking.
The first excursion was pretty simple - from the top of the tram, we went south to the ski area boundary, through the exit gate, along the ridge towards Cody, then dropped into the upper part of the rock springs drainage. We hiked over a first ridge, skied down into the next valley, and hiked up a longer ridge to the top of 4 pines. From there, we skied out to the nose, and picked one of the north facing lines to find good snow. The route took us through a fun chute before opening up into a beautiful low angle powder field near the bottom. A mogul-filled traverse through the trees brought us back onto the resort at the lower hobacks, and from there it was a hop, skip, and a jump back to our front door. There is a lot more terrain to explore over on that side of the mountain - many lines off of four pines, not to mention going further out towards Cody peak and skiing any of the many lines in cody bowl. In terms of ease of access, it seems hard to beat.
Trip 2: South Side of Teton Pass (KB Ridge / Avalanche Bowl)
Teton Pass (KB Ridge / Avalanche Bowl). Blue is skiing, red is hiking and skinning.
Teton Pass is renown for easy access backcountry with a parking lot at the top, and tons of skiable lines coming off both the east and west sides of the ridge, draining back out to the road where you can either park another car, or easily hitch a ride back to the top. For our first foray into the pass area, we decided to do one of the lines off of Pass Ridge on the south side of the road. An easy skin along the ridge brought us past a number of very fun looking bowls to KB Ridge and Avalanche Bowl. Despite the ominous name, the snowpack was very stable. We left for our excursion around 2pm, so didn't have a ton of time to linger and take in the scenery along our route -- next time we will definitely do this with more time. The ski down avalanche bowl yielded some great turns, though the snow in the lower part of the bowl was on the heavy side. Once out of the bowl, there was a long runout through the trees (with a decent bit of sidestepping involved), and then down a gently sloping section of old hwy 22, and finally back out to the main road. I easily hitched a ride back up to the trusty CRV at the top of the pass, and came back to pick up Ben and Carrie who were biding their time by watching a moose amble through the woods across the street.
Trip 3: Granite Canyon
Looking up Granite Canyon. The ski resort is to the left, with the boundary running along the ridge.
Looking directly at the canyon wall, we came down Cute C (which at the time we thought was Mile Long)
Granite Canyon forms the western boundary of the resort, and is made up of a series of long, steep, semi-north facing chutes. The skiing is amazing, but conditions have to be right as slides are relatively common back there. And as we found out, the hike out is also a beast. Nearly a week since the last storm, and with relatively warm weather, the snowpack was stable, and we decided it was time to explore the canyon. Carrie, being wiser than Ben and I, opted to let us explore it and tell her how it was. We did the 15 minute hike up the headwall on the front side of the mountain, and then gingerly made our way through the woods and towards the canyon - heading to what we thought was the Mile Long chute. The weather, while abnormally warm, was classic Jackson - warm up top, with a low layer of clouds near the base of the mountain. This provided perfect visibility for the ski down, but ensured that we would be making our way out of the canyon right in the middle of thick clouds.
Looking down towards the canyon floor from the top of Chute C
We made our way through a small series of cliffs and found the top of the chutes. A series of amazing lines unfolded before us -- three side by side perfect, steep couloirs ran all the way to the valley floor. The turns were great, and the line just seemed to go on forever - probably around 1500 feet of straight fall line turns.
We skied into the clouds just as the chute eased into a meadow at the base of the canyon. Crossing over the creek on the valley floor, we started in on what would be an hour-plus traverse / sidestep / hike / slog back around to the front side of the mountain (Carrie was very happy to miss this part of the trip). The lighting through the clouds and lack of any other people made it feel like we were making our way through some kind of never ending moonscape or purgatory. Looming cliffs would disappear into the fog, and we never got a good view back up at the canyon wall. (Ben has promised to draw an artistic rendition of the traverse through purgatory).
The slog out was longer than expected, but the skiable lines into the canyon are pretty incredible, making it definitely worth the while when conditions are right.
Back on the front side of the mountain, the clouds filled the lower valley
Photos from our trusty guide book, the Jackson Hole Ski Atlas: http://64.33.34.101/skiatlas/jhsa.html
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