Friday, May 20, 2016

Skiing the Grand Teton, Middle and South Teton

The Grand, Middle South Trifecta Attempt

On May 2nd we attempted to ski the Grand Teton, Middle and South all in one day. The weather in Grand Teton National Park looked good, snow was decent and we went for it. We started early, at 2 am we skinned up to the base of the Grand. We summited the Grand in just about 6 hours. We took a few photos and then started our descent. Here's the view from the summit.

A photo posted by Owen Leeper (@o_leeps) on

After successfully skiing the Grand, we made our way down to the meadows and headed up South Garnet canyon towards the Middle Teton. The sun had been out all morning and was really starting to heat up. We monitored the conditions as we made it about halfway up the Middle teton, we realized it was too warm and we had to bail. Sort of disappointed, we had to remind ourselves that we just skied the Grand Teton and climbed over 9,100 vert.

It was a 20,000 foot week for me, I skied 5 days in a row, 4 of them skinning, one on a snowmobile. I calculated the vert I climbed and skied in the four days at just under 20,000! I skied Shadow Peak, diagonal couloir on Togwotee Pass, Rockchuck peak and this attempt on the grand. It was a great week, here is a little video from it.

A video posted by Owen Leeper (@o_leeps) on


I wanted to go back and get the Middle and South Teton. On May 12th, Meredith and I headed back up. With a solid freeze and a cold day expected, we were able to sleep in til 6:30!

Owen Leeper booting up Middle Teton











Owen Leeper and Meredith Edwards on Middle Teton
We made it to the top of the Middle Teton in just over 4 hours. Here is our summit photo. The snow on the way down was everything from bulletproof at the summit to powder in the Southwest Couloir.
Owen Leeper skiing Middle Teton

Merejune heading up South Teton

Top of the South Teton




















We we lucky enough to ski powder off both peaks, here I am getting some fun turns in off the South Teton.








Here's a 25 second short video from that day, the Middle and South Teton. We made it round trip in just over 8 hours, including 3.5 miles of dirt on the approach and descent. Don't forget to follow me on instagram @o_leeps for more great skiing content this season.

A video posted by Owen Leeper (@o_leeps) on

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Skiing Mt. Owen NE Snowfields

Ticked off a big one in Grand Teton National Park.

Mt. Owen - PC: Tim Swartz
One of the gnarliest lines in the Tetons is the northeast snowfields of Mt. Owen. On April 21st, 2015 we set out to ski it. Together (Owen Leeper), Meredith Edwards, my sister Janelle and her husband Mark Smiley left the parking lot at 3am.


PC: Owen Leeper




Making it to the base of Mt. Owen just as the sun is rising.












Mt. Owen East Ridge PC: Owen Leeper










Meredith and Janelle just above the Koven Couloir headed up the east ridge.




















Skinning up the east ridge.















Janelle headed up the first scrambling pitch below the summit.






6 hours from the car we made it to the summit. Posing for a different camera on the summit of Mt. Owen 12,928 feet.



We started  the downclimb back to our skis to start the decent.
Meredith Edwards heads down from the summit. PC: Owen Leeper

We grabbed our skis and headed down the south facing slope and wrapped around to our objective on the Northeast face.

@merejune dropping into the south side of Mt. Owen
@o_leeps dropping into the NE Face Mt. Owen PC: Mark Smiley

My view heading down to the unknown rappel station.


Luckily Mark located the anchor and set up the rappel.


Rapelling of the cliff in the middle of Mt. Owen

Owen Leeper mid rappel on Mt. Owen. PC: Mark Smiley
After a few wet slides running through the exit, we made our move and all successfully skied down and out of the Northeast snowfields of Mt. Owen. One of the bigger lines i've wanted to ski since i moved here. It was a great feeling to be out of harms way, but we still had 5 miles of flat skinning back to where we parked our bikes.


By the time we made it near our bikes, we were over it, so skins on we crossed the river.

PC: Mark Smiley