Finding the Middle ground.
Posted April 26th, 2009 by AJ Linnell
After a season of turning back from objectives, it felt really good to complete a descent of the Grand Teton, so Jake MacArthur and I decided to carry that momentum up the Middle a couple of days later. It almost felt like I had slept in when the alarm went off at 3:30 and we both commented on feeling well-rested after 6 hours of sleep. Skinning away from the truck at 5:15, it also felt really good knowing that dawn would break in an hour.

Crossing the lake with the Grand and Nez Perce in the background.
These long approaches into the Tetons have made me super impressed by and thankful for my new approach skis from Wagner, and skins from Climbing Skins Direct. For this year, the guys at Wagner Custom made my skis a bit wider and shorter, with a flat tail and more camber. They’re also lighter due to an all-aspen core. Snappy, with kick for the flats, and really light underfoot. The skins from CSD are light and supple, and I’ve been shocked at how well they glide–it’s really unbelievable being able to kick-and-glide with skins on.
With these thoughts running through my head, the trip across Bradley Lake and up Garnet Canyon flew by.

Skinning up Garnet Canyon.
Before I knew it the sun had risen and we were staring up the Ellingwood Couloir–1500′ of 50-degree snow that tops out at the Dike Col.

AJ climbs the Ellingwood Couloir.
The climbing was fantastic–really firm frontpointing, with some short stretches of ice mixed in. We hit the Col by mid-morning, stopping briefly to re-fuel as we looked over at our tracks on the Grand, just receiving the morning sun.
The upper East Face of the Middle Teton loomed above us in the sun as well, the last 600′ before the summit. I had turned back from the East Face a few times in the past, so I was definitely chomping to finish it up on this day. We traversed across a 50-degree powder slope to get to the gut of the climb and found soft, boot-top powder conditions.

Jake climbs through the steeps.
With the sun full on the Face it felt like climbing in a solar broiler–fortunately we cruised up it quickly and surmounted the 60+-degree pitch at the crest. The East Face route culminates in a notch ~50′ below the summit; the final pitch to the top might be skiable in some years, but we found dry, slabby rock so we decided to call the notch our high point.
Sitting in the notch on a sunny, windless morning, looking down into Wyoming on the east and Idaho on the west, I felt supremely satisfied with our adventure. Sure, it’s a ton of effort to get here and there are risks involved, but the reward is so sweet.

Soaking it all in at the summit notch.
And without calculating and managing risk would it be a worthwhile pursuit? We let our sweat dry in the sun and chuckled about the enormous group that was rumored to be over on the Grand while we were the only party on the Middle. Sometimes it all just works out.
When it felt like time to go, I put my boots back on and we rigged up for the descent. The initial entrance onto the East Face was actually pretty sporty–no wider than the length of my board, really steep, with thousands of feet of relief below. Whew. I side-slipped and hopped my way down onto the crest of the Face and then made controlled turns down to the gut, where things eased off a bit.

Tiptoeing through the entrance to the East Face.
Jake side-stepped through the entrance–his skis were definitely longer than the space allowed–and joined me. The trip down to the Dike Col was fun and brief–really just a few turns and a traverse, but in pretty great, moist powder.
And then we leapfrogged down sweet springtime corn in the Ellingwood, taking pictures, whooping it up.

Going heelside in the Ellingwood.
We had a variety of theories about how to handle the sluff that we brought down, but it seemed to work best for me to just ride faster than the sluff was traveling, making high-speed GS turns, laying it over hard. Jake’s skis weren’t quite as fast, so he chose to vary his fall-line to stay out of his sluff.

Jake skis sweet corn in the Ellingwood Couloir.
Once we exited the bottom of the couloir a hard left brought us to the top of the Cave Couloir for another 1000′ of mellow turns down to the Meadows in Garnet Canyon.
The trip out was quick and uneventful and we cruised the trip across the lake and over the moraines, back to the truck. Compared to the day on the Grand, I felt remarkably energetic after more than 7000′ of climbing and riding. I wish I could have another month of Teton adventures like this, but I’m headed to Alaska next week for a month of guiding. I’m stoked to have ridden these lines at the end of this season–maybe I can squeak in one or two more before I leave…




























