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