35 in a Row

I don't know why Tanner keeps letting me talk him into going on these adventures... September is by far the hardest month to make turns in. It's the end of the water year, so any remaining snow is minimal. There is always that balance of waiting and hoping for a freak snowstorm in Utah or hitting the road in search of a sure thing. The last two years, we got lucky with dumps on the 23rd at Alta. It doesn't seem as if we will be so lucky this year (which isn't a bad thing as far as future snow stability is concerned). With warm temps in the extended forecast, I texted Tanner and convinced him going to the Tetons to go snowboarding was a good idea. "Dude, what are we doing?!" First thing I hear when Tanner pulls into my driveway. To which I respond, "we're going snowboarding dude...duh!" We were both semi sure that we would find snow to ride on one of the glaciers in Grand Teton National Park. Browsing photos on Instagram was both building confidence and making us feel uncertain at the same time. We figured Tepee Glacier was going to be our best bet. And if that wouldn't work, we'd just rally and drive to Beartooth Pass (assuming there was still a patch or two up there). The benefit of riding the Tetons in August was we pretty much knew what we were getting ourselves into. The hike was probably going to take all day, so we brought a shit ton of food and water and our headlamps, just in case. The snow was probably going to just be ice and it was also probably going to be steep, so we weren't going to leave our ice axes in the car. I'm usually the one that comes up with these stupid-ass adventures. I'm also the one that usually ends up needing to be motivated to follow through with them. Saturday was no exception. I was the one having second and probably 3rd and 4th thoughts about the day ahead. Tanner is good at re-motivating me, though. So off we went. The first 3 miles were by far the easiest part of the day. Getting to Delta lake wasn't too bad either. It was steep, but we still moved pretty quick. Then the adventure meter got turned to 11. The trail ends at the lake. Our line was well beyond said lake. It took a bit of scrambling, but we eventually got to the far side of Delta Lake. After stopping for lunch, it was time to bushwhack our way through the forest and push into the alpine onto the scree field from hell. At this point in the story I just want to take a minute to say I fucking hate hiking on scree. I get paranoid and either think I'm gonna break my ankles with each step or get James Francoed by the larger boulders. (Watch 127 Hours if you don't get that reference). Making our way up the scree took forever. Movement had to be slow to avoid getting James Francoed. Also our packs aren't exactly light, so that helps slow us down too. Again, shout out to Tanner for motivating me to push through. I was 100% overthinking some of the scrambling we had to do. We finally reached the toe of the glacier at 3pm. Now, at this point, I was doing some mental calculations on ow long it would take us to get back to the lake. There was no way in hell we would get back to the car before dark. It would be a push to get back to the main trail down by nightfall. We both agreed we at least needed to get to that point before dark to prevent getting lost. We were stoked to finally be on snow. Tepee Glacier branches off in two directions. The right side was lower angle but looked like shit. The left side was steep but looked like it would be fun to ride down. So we went left. And it got really steep... and really icy. I'm glad we brought our ice axes. The glacier was a lot steeper than we thought. I ended up calling it just below a small crevasse halfway up. I think because it's summer I don't think we will ride anything gnarly. The line we were on was well within my ability. I think it just boils down to not being 100% mentally prepared for a bigger line. My objective in the summer months is to just get turns to keep the streak alive and not get hurt doing so. August and September in the Tetons were incredibly humbling. Both months we ended up on a heavier line than I was mentally prepared for. Both times I chose to not top out. Tanner pushed on. Then we both freaked out. We heard this loud, almost thunder like sound, and immediately thought there was a massive rockfall heading in our direction. Turns out it was only the wind ripping through the high peaks of the Tetons. A powerful reminder of how big those mountains are. Tanner stopped about three quarters of the way up. The snow was pretty much white ice and the slope angle wasn't getting any mellower. After a super cautious strap in, he carefully picked his way down back to me. This part of the line was probably the steepest. Tanner lost his edge on a heelside turn and took off down the slope on his ass. He was able to self-arrest before going too far. He would have been fine if he slid to the bottom, just really beat up. I still had to strap in. I used my crampons to help kick out a ledge to stand on the best I could. After a few minutes, I finally had both feet attached to my splitboard. I eased my way to the right, away from the hole along the wall, then made one critical jump turn onto my toe edge then proceeded to side slip the next 100 feet or so, using my ice axe to avoid falling. We were both ready to be off the snow. The bottom part of the glacier was okay at best. We made some pretty good turns. It was the worst snow I've rode since Mexico. But hey, another month down! It was fucking heinous. The scramble down took just as long as the way up. I was just trying to keep pressing on despite being tired. It was 7pm by the time we got back around the lake. We hung out for a bit, took some pictures, and enjoyed one of the best views in Grand Teton National Park. Last light was upon us when we arrived at the main trail. The rest of the hike down were spent trying to make noise so bears wouldn't eat our faces off in the dark. According to Tanner, I'm really good at having a conversation with myself. Eventually I just resorted to quoting Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Our faces remained uneaten, so thank you to whatever bears were around for leaving us alone. We got back to the car at 930pm, exactly 12 hours after we started. September was done. 35 months in a row. I'm over riding sun cupped, shitty, icy snow for a while. Hopefully we're riding pow again at some point in October. It was a fun day though. Type 2 fun, but still fun. Also I think this one takes the place of my 2nd most heinous day in the backcountry. Sorry Mt. Nebo but you're number 3 now hahaha! Thanks for reading!