Exum Guides First Grand Teton Winter Descent

Exum guides Nat Patridge and Bill Liberatore have led the first guided winter ski descent of Wyoming's 13,770-foot Grand Teton—often called America's Matterhorn. In late February, after nearly two months of tumultuous weather and over 400 inches of snowfall, Jackson-based attorney David DeFazio went up with veteran guides Partridge and Liberatore and enjoyed an epic run down the Ford Couloir. Although private parties have skied the Grand Teton during the winter season in recent years, most skiers attempting the mountain wait until May or June when weather and snow conditions are more predictable. Check out Defazio’s blog for pics and a write-up about the experience and some of Outside's past coverage here.
--Damon Tabor

Photo courtesy of Jay McLaurin

Comments

[David]

As far as its publication on thesnaz.com, David's piece was just a nice first person recounting of his adventure. And the photos are cool.

As far as its significance, this only serves to show that skiing the Grand continues to come closer and closer to the realm of the mere mortal. It wasn't that long ago that the Grand was skied for the very first time in winter, when Hans Johnstone and Mark Newcomb skied the Hossack McGowan Couloir in the 90s. And a first guided ski descent of the Grand happened in 2004.

It's an accomplishment because skiing the Grand safely is all about timing. And any time you involve a client in a mountaineering adventure, you risk losing lots of time. It shows how comfortable the Exum and Jackson HOle Mountain Guides have become with the process, that they're willing to bring people along who could really gum up the works, so to speak.

And then there are the issues that such exploits bring up about whether or not the Grand is an appropriate place for a paid ski trip. But I'll let somebody else argue that one.

David Gonzales
thesnaz.com

[jesse]

not sure why this is worthy of mention or a blog post. people ski the grand in the winter all the time. last year we skied it unguided in mid-january due to high and dry conditions. what's the big deal here? some guy was guided up the grand in the winter...so what?