Grand Teton Couloir Skiing

Jan 17th - Turkey Chute to Buck Crack Couloir

Dropping into Turkey Chute

I headed out early morning with Meredith Edwards, Mark and Janelle Smiley to ski Turkey Chute with ropes and harnesses just in case things lined up to ski the Buck Crack Couloir, or Chuter Buck, a skinny couloir at the base of Buck Mountain with two rappels in the middle of the couloir. As we reached the top of Turkey Chute, about 3,400 ft of skiining we reached the summit with two others just dropping into the couloir. The snow was deep and plenty of good turns for everyone. We skied the 2,000 feet to the valley floor on the back and transitioned to skin up 1,500 vertical towards Buck Crack.

Owen Leeper Mid way down

After ski cutting the upper section on belay, i found the snow to be stable and called down the rest of our group. They skied to the first anchor and we all met there. Below is on top of the first rappel, 

Checking things out before committing to the rappel.

After the second rappel we were met with a couloir full of 16 inches of fresh snow, we skied it to the bottom of the couloir and made our way out the canyon and back to the car. Buck Crack Couloir was on my list for awhile and to ski it was a great feeling, especially to link it up with another fun ski in Grand Teton National Park.

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