During my trip to the Tetons last spring I was, needless to say, pretty excited about future ski mountaineering trips to the Jackson area. We were able to ski the classic Skillet Glacier route on Mount Moran as well as the Middle Teton, but obviously that only scratches the surface of what is available.

So when we were in Jackson, I hunted down and found a copy of Thomas Turiano’s Teton Skiing: A History & Guide To The Teton Range. Once home, I devoured the book with thoughts of skiing many of the lines within the book. The major landmark lines tend to have a thorough recounting of the first descent, while minor lines often have no more than a sentence or two. Rather than proclaim descents as “first descents”, this book simply calls them “Early Descents”, which is an easy way of avoiding any controversies as to who really skied what first. The amount of information packed into this book is simply astounding, with every conceivable peak and subpeak mentioned to some degree.

As a guidebook, very little information is actually given for the routes. While skiers accustomed to step-by-step climbing instructions may be dismayed, this book’s format leaves skiers to discover the routes for themselves. Trailhead directions could be more clear, however.

At times the book can bog down in a ___peak skied by ___skier in ___year on the ___face format. A new edition of the book would be a huge improvement from the current 1995 edition, and countless descents have been made since that time. What would really improve the book more than anything, however, would be more pictures with the routes labeled. While this would probably increase the price of the book considerably, a picture can sometimes be worth a thousand words, as the saying goes.

All in all, the staggering amount of information within this book is what truly sets it apart. The Tetons may be the only range in North America to receive such a worthwhile history book. While this book may not have the same “eye candy photos” appeal to light a fire within the heart of a ski mountaineer, the history alone makes up for it. Two thumbs up from this ski mountaineer, and a must-have for any ski-mountaineering library.

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After some local research (remember, this was pretty much before the internet went big), we headed up to a trailhead that we were told would offer a number of choices. We awoke the next morning at South Lake at the same time that the occupants of a nearby truck were also stirring. Since they also had Colorado plates and were clearly going skiing as well, we started chatting as we all made our coffee and breakfast. As it turned out, the skiers on the other side of the parking lot were skiers from the other side of the Elks- Aspen. That was the first time I met Brad Smith, who now owns the Red Onion in Aspen, and Ted Mahon, who would finish his 14er skiing project right before me.

We started talking about backcountry skiing and Brad and Ted mentioned that someone had just skied a big line in the Aspen area- the line adjacent to the Landry line on Pyramid now known as Frank’s Angst. As it turned out, those skiers were actually Jay and I. It was pretty cool to know that a line that I had had my eyes on for years, and took several attempts to complete, had been noticed by the local crowd. Anyway, after talking the four of us decided we might as well ski together on the nearby and highly aesthetic Hurd Peak. Two weeks later, we ran into Brad and Ted again, this time at Bunny Flats on Mount Shasta. Jay and I had just skied Shasta, while Brad and Ted were gearing up to do so. Brad and Ted finished their season with a successful ski of Denali, while Jay and I got weathered out on Rainier.

Fast forward to 2016. Along with our friends Jordan White and Anton Sponar, Brad would be joining us to ski Greg Mace peak. This was the first time we would ski together since skiing Hurd Peak back in 2000. I told Brad that we should probably ski together again in another 15 years- preferably someplace really cool like the Alps, and preferably randomly. Anyway, on to Greg Mace.

We made our way up Castle Creek and then found ourselves in the Alpine. Jordan:

We had a great view of the east face of Castle. Skiing this is as close to a “first date” as Brittany and I have. Which is awesome.

The West face of Taylor. This zone can be accessed from Crested Butte, and I remember looking down this line thinking it looked like a good one.

We gained the summit ridge of Greg Mace and were treated to an aerial show by a group of Eagles that appear to live near the summit.

The south face was looking good so we decided to start with it. It was perfect corn, a type of snow that seems like a rarity lately, either because of dust storms or spring storms, both of which seem common in CO these days. Brad:

Anton:

Frank:

The corn was great, but there was still powder to ski on the north side, along with some nice aesthetic lines. Brittany:

Jordan:

Brad, figure 8-ing:

This line was so much fun, the twists and turns of the couloir were perfectly spaced for GS-style turns:

Anton, with Castle behind:

Looking back up at Greg Mace Peak, while Brittany finishes up her line:

One of the great things about backcountry skiing is how small of a world it is. How cool was it that a car at a random trailhead in the Sierra had a couple of skiers that lived just on the other side of the Elks? It was good to ski with Brad again, and Greg Mace served up the goods, with both perfect corn and springtime pow.

Jordan and I argued about the merits of Dynafit bindings on top of Greg Mace. The correct answer is #dynajunk.
Vipecs are so much better:

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My initial investigations didn’t turn up a whole lot of information, so I started asking around and eventually I tracked down lead guide Craig Hall, who still lives in Crested Butte and was gracious enough to meet with me and provide these photos.

The photo above was, I believe, taken from the Marble area. When the operation was running out of Crested Butte, the helicopters would take off and land in the vicinity of what is now the Elevation Hotel. When Colorado First Tracks began, there weren’t very many backcountry skiers, but Craig Hall was one of them and was therefore asked to be a guide. In the beginning, Craig explained that the guides mostly flew around trying to find good ski terrain for clients.

Some of the areas which the guides explored included Doubletop, Cement Mountain, Whetstone, the Oh-Be-Joyful valley, Redwell Basin, Baxter Basin, Brush Creek, and the upper Slate River valley.

Many of the names still in use by Crested Butte backcountry skiers were coined by Colorado First Tracks and their guides. I never did understand how Right and Wrong chutes on the Emmons massif got their names, until speaking with Craig Hall. It turns out the guides pointed to the top of Right chute and said “Land on top of that one.” They landed and skied to the bottom, thinking the entire time that they weren’t in the right place. They took off again, looked at their tracks and said, “That’s the wrong one!”, which is of course now known as Wrong chute.

The preferred helicopter was the Llama, still a high-altitude workhorse, capable of carrying 4 skiers plus the pilot. As most heli operations still do, Colorado First Tracks did bomb the runs that they intended to ski, though of course the Colorado snowpack didn’t always cooperate. Lunches were catered by The Bakery Cafe, an icon of Crested Butte which can still be seen on the occasional coffee mug.

Then as now, Crested Butte was overshadowed by its rich neighbor to the north, Aspen. With many of the best runs closer to Marble than Crested Butte, and a more affluent client base in Aspen, the operation moved to Marble. Clients would ride a shuttle from the Aspen area to the base in Marble, though in at least one case, a Saudi sheik, a heli pickup was arranged right at the front door.

One of the most used runs in the Marble area was Bear Basin, the gigantic north-facing basin under the 13,535′ summit of Treasure Mountain. The perfect run was long (at least 2,000′), north-facing, and large- all things that describe Bear Basin.

Craig let me borrow an old VHS tape that he still has, and luckily I still have a VCR. It’s from a show on a Breckenridge TV station and features Andy Mill skiing Bear Basin with CO First Tracks. (For those who don’t know, Andy Mills was the perfect-haired Olympic skier that was married to tennis star Chris Evert).

One more from Bear Basin:

One of the more frequent clients was Steven Grabow of Aspen, and he paid in cash. After being arrested in Aspen on suspicion of drug trafficking, he was killed by a car bomb– a case which has never been solved. His widow later married James Caan, the Hollywood actor who played Sonny Corleone in The Godfather. Aspen will always outdo Crested Butte when it comes to stories like this.

What did Colorado First tracks in? Lots of things, to be sure, but the fickle CO snowpack certainly didn’t help. Finding the perfect slopes, long enough and safe enough to ski, combined with the difficulties of high altitude flying, were other reasons. And while the Colorado alpine can ski great, winds can often destroy an otherwise perfect snow surface. Just recently, we had a great storm cycle in our area, but strong North winds left a variable surface in their wake- a scenario that Craig said happened often. It must have been a fun time in CO ski history, exploring new terrain with the help of a helicopter. I’d be amazed if we ever saw anything like it in this area again, but I guess you never know.

Thanks again, Craig Hall, for spending the time with me so I could write this article.

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After skiing Shastorama, Kim and I packed our car and headed south to drop her off in the airport in Redding. It was here we would part. As we stood roasting in the 105-degree temperatures while Kim sorted through her piles of things in the airport parking lot and stuffing them into her already full backpack, I knew I would miss her. Kim has to head to San Francisco for a microbiology conference, while I was to head north to Oregon, meeting my friend Matt Kamper – off for more volcano adventures.

Another view of Shasta from near I-5.

As I returned back north, I stopped to see Lake Shasta along the way and continued past the City of Shasta and on to the town of Weed. Contrary to the meaning that is implied by this city’s name (and most likely why this area is full of hippies- genuine hippies of the type I have not seen in years, complete with dreadlocks, stench and all), Weed was actually named after a pioneer and founder of the local lumber mill, Abner Weed. It was here that I camped for the night.

The next morning I awoke early and continued north on I-5, stopping to say my farewells to one of the best ski mountains in the country.

Matt’s flight arrived in Portland in the early afternoon on Sunday. The weather was not looking promising for Monday, so we decided to stay in Portland instead of immediately whisking away to Hood River. We spent the afternoon downtown, scoping out different mountaineering shops and THE Powell’s Bookstore, looking for a book called Backcountry Ski & Snowboard Routes (by Van Tilburg) that was to be our bible for the remainder of the trip. After searching for hours, we finally scored the last copy of it at US Outdoor before heading to spend the night with Matt’s friends in southern Portland.

The next morning we awoke to a lazy Monday. The weather delivered rain, as promised by the forecasters. But it looked like a weather window was opening for the next few days. So, we decided to make our way to Hood River, stopping to see Mount Hood, our intended goal for the next day, along the way. Mount Hood was socked in a blizzard, with wet snow blowing from seemingly every direction. We took shelter in the historic Timberline Lodge.

The Timberline Lodge was built during the Great Depression as part of FDR’s Works Progress Administration. It was dedicated by Roosevelt himself in 1938 and in the following year, a ski area opened just above the lodge. This ski area continues to provide year-round skiing to snow lovers from all over the country.

The Timberline Lodge has taken it’s history to heart, and hosts many displays describing the evolution of skiing and mountaineering on Mount Hood within it’s lobbies and halls.

Picture of mid-century mountaineers climbing Mount Hood.

My favorite story was that of the Skiway, a literal tram-bus which operated in the early 50’s from Government Camp to Timberline Lodge.

Notoriously unreliable and more expensive than the traditional bus, this unique tram unfortunately only lasted a couple of years.

Image courtesy of curbsideclassic.com

After enjoying our time at Timberline and gathering information for our hopeful climb the next day, we continued on down to Government Camp where we enjoyed a cup of coffee and another historic mountaineering/skiing museum.

This little story gave me a good chuckle.

For more Mount Hood history, check out PDXHistory.com.

We continued on to Hood River, where the weather was sunny and warm. As we sat on the Columbia River, we suddenly had urges to take kite-boarding lessons.

But we refrained, as we knew we had volcanoes to ski over the next few days

Links to Other Reports from this Trip:
Volcano-Bound!
From SLC to Shasta
Shasta Ski (14 June 2012)
Shastarama Ski (16 June 2012)
Lassen Peak – Closing a Volcano
Oregon Days Off
Mount Hood (19 June 2012)
Mount Adams (20 June 2012)
Mt. St. Helens (21 June 2012)
From the Gorge to Craters

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