Exum Backcountry Ski Week

Two of my goals for this 60th orbit were to get to know the Teton backcountry better and ski Jackson Hole Resort’s side country. A few months ago I found out that Exum Mountain Guides offered a perfect opportunity to do this. They offer a backcountry ski week. It consists of three days of exploring the Teton backcountry, a day in the side country at Jackson Hole, and a day with an Exum guide at Snow King. This sounded great so I signed up. It was exactly what I wanted and I met some great skiing companions I hope to ski with again in the near future.

We worked with three guides, Mike Poborsky, Brenton Reagan, and Jeff Witt.

Day one found us hiking up Maverick Buttress just east of Buck Mountain.

Day two we headed up Wimpy’s Knob just south of Maverick. It’s not Wimpy though—about 3,500 ft of vertical and over ten mile round trip. Great skiing on top though.

The next day Brenton and Jeff gave us a lesson in skiing the steeps at Snow King. The following day was our last day in the backcountry. We headed up 25-Short for a look at the Turkey Chute. A gully that descends into Avalanche Canyon from the top of 25-Short. I wasn’t optimistic about the prospect. It was raining in Jackson as we headed for the Park, but by the time we reached the parking-lot the rain had turned to snow. We slogged to the top of 25-Short in about three hours. Brenton and Mike went to look at the Chute.

After a few minutes Brenton came back and said something like “If we skied it, we would die.” The avi danger was too extreme so we went powder skiing instead. Not a bad day.

The final day of the week was a day in the Jackson Hole side country. One advantage was loading via the express line to the tram at 8:30 AM. First tracks for sure.

Mike posted some photos he took on Flickr. He made everyone look good. I posted a bunch of photos on our gallery too. Thanks to Mark, Kim, Björn, Mike, Brent, Jon, and Denny for contributing photos.