A few weeks ago, I started playing with the idea of making some sort of ski trip to shoot and ride some places I’ve never ridden before. Jackson Hole has been on my list to ski for a while now so that was going to be the main objective of the trip. I forget how it came about, but I through the idea out to Zach Heath, a fellow photographer and phenomenal skier. Things worked out pretty perfectly with his schedule where he had a full two weeks available at the end of January. Thanks to his extensive network of other adventure buddies, he quickly had spots for us to stay and between Salt Lake and Jackson. Skiing a few weeks before, I presented the idea to Bjoern, another phenomenal skier, and asked if he would be interested in coming along. Having a third, I thought would be a great option for Zach and I to mix up our photos of another skier and so Zach could get some shots of someone other than a mediocre skier, aka me.
We departed from Sacramento at 5 am and started the trek across Nevada to make it to Salt Lake. Our first objective on the list was Terminal Cancer Couloir in the Ruby Mountains. We made our departure early enough figuring that we’d make it to the couloir when most of the crowd had already skied. Little did we know there would be ZERO crowd. The road was shut down about a mile from the “trailhead” that we skinned to in about 25 minutes. A quick creek crossing, a steep icy sketchy section, and we were at the base of the couloir. We strapped our skis to our packs and got started boot packing our way up the narrow couloir. Hugging the right wall going up, we were blown away by the fresh 8-12 inches of snow that had deposited the night before that was still untouched. We tried to save as much of the couloir to be ready for us to ski until we made it to the very top where the snow became icy and very narrow. The top is claimed to be 14’ wide open which made for some tight jump turns when we descended.
After transitioning our skis at the top, Bjoern took the first few jump turns in the narrow couloir and made it to a section down below for myself, Zach, and Maisey (Zach’s dog) to make our way down. The snow was deep in lots of places and continued to sluff with every turn. These were conditions I had never skied before, especially having to make turns in such a narrow space.
I took the second section down and got some photos of the rest of the crew coming down. To be honest it was a bit difficult to shoot in the couloir with the lighting and the massive walls that made it hard to the depict how steep and long the couloir was. Never the less, this photo of Bjoern, is a favorite from the day.
We made it back to the car, changed, had a beer, and were back on the road to finish our drive to Salt Lake.
Next objective, Wolverine Cirque.