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Day 2 of Backcountry Awesomeness | Grand Teton National Park, WY United States | 06/25/08, by powderjunky

After a fun first day skiing in Grand Teton National Park, we got up a little earlier and darted up towards the West Hourlglass Couloir on Nez Perce. Between my night sweats and the soft snow, it was quite evident the temperature did not freeze the night before and we knew our window for good skiing was short.


As we climbed to the base of the couloir, we decided it was too steep and too mushy and headed to its neighbor the East Hourglass Couloir. I’ve never skied this line before but it is beautiful with immense rock walls that jut towards the sky on both sides and give you the feeling of really being in a deep passage way through the mountain.


The nice thing about this couloir is that it doesn’t get sun until the latter part of the day, so the snow was holding up pretty nicely. As I arrived at the top I began digging out a ledge for my partner and I to transition to skis.


Just then the sun hit a nearby frozen patch of ice hanging on the nearby looker’s right wall. Small fragments exploded off the wall and I watched from what I thought was a safe spot. The ice slab no bigger than a piece of paper and maybe an inch thick, took an unfortunate bounce and then collided with my rib and my partners shoulder.




With record setting time we were on our skis and out of there in no time flat. The skiing was great and once out of the couloir we enjoyed some nicely angled skiing down to camp with the Middle and Grand Teton providing us with some amazing backdrops.
Sun burnt, psyched, and slowly, we packed up camp and headed toward the car, and eventually Dornans for a mandatory beer to celebrate a great weekend!