Eight years ago this weekend, Joel Hiebert and I set out on an early-winter mission to climb and ski the Middle Teton. We left Bozeman after classes at MSU, his mid-’90s Camry stuffed with gear and optimism. The roads were slick, the night long. We slid lounge-style down Teton Pass on bald tires, half-braced for impact, somehow making it to Jackson alive. A midnight Albertsons feast served as our celebration before pushing onto the empty trailhead, where we curled into the front seats and tried to sleep.
By dawn, we were stiff and frozen but eager to move. Skins on, packs heavy, we set out toward Garnet Canyon. With Bradley Lake still unfrozen, we had to detour miles up toward Amphitheater Lake before cutting in. When we finally reached the canyon, granite walls rose around us like a cathedral, and the black streak of the Dike Route carved across the Middle’s snowy face. We weren’t anxious or even excited, just in awe.
We pitched camp in a small island of safety at the base of the peak as alpenglow washed the Grand Teton pink. The forecast had promised clear skies, but by nightfall, snow was falling, and it didn’t stop. The wind screamed. Snow piled up. At one point, a boulder ripped loose high on the Middle, crashing down like a blast of dynamite. We barely slept but still hoped for a summit come morning.
Instead, when I unzipped the tent before first light, the world was gone. A foot of snow. No visibility. Completely socked in. We could only wait. Then came the deep, rolling thunder every ski mountaineer knows too well. Avalanches ripping off the Grand, one after another. We weren’t going anywhere but down.
So we waited. Joel played Landslide on his phone as the snowpack on the mountains above released. By 3 p.m. the clouds finally lifted. We broke camp, shouldered our packs, and skied out.
Those photos became some of my first Instagram posts. Eight years later, the Middle Teton has turned Joel and me away once since, and I still haven’t skied from its summit. But that’s how mountains go. Sometimes, you get the summit. Sometimes, you get the story
@itsyaboi_jeebs
#skimountaineering #adventure #middleteton
