Grand Teton Speed Project

Smiling at the thought of giving the iconic Grand a good go.Well, I guess it's game on now. Nate Brown from Jackson set the "official" time standard on the Ford-Stettner route on the Grand Teton going 7:15:33 car to car this weekend. Nate did this after not really skiing for a month and spending the last two weeks as a tourist in Turkey. Not exactly all guns blazing for him. Still, the local cognoscenti have declared Nate's effort as a starting point for the "game".

My friends and I have been talking about the record all year. Jared Inouye gave it a good go a few weeks ago without even trying, finishing in 7:20 or so, car to car. The big difference is that he did it with a group of 4 and took lots of pictures along the way. He also got lost getting back to the car, being unfamiliar with the summer approach to Garnet Canyon. 

Steve Romeo at TetonAT.com brings up a point about the nature of a "clean" record, implying that one should ski the whole way. My feeling is that if there is no snow down low and you have to boot it then more power to you. If you set a record while covering some of the ground sans skis, especially on the descent, then you really have the record since going on foot is much slower. But doing it all on skis is certainly more elegant.

I, personally, thought I was done with the Grand this year having skied it twice recently. My first trip documented in these pages involved traversing other peaks after the Grand. My second trip 7 days later was complicated by a detour over to the Otterbody chimneys to have a look and then a side trip down the Dike Couloir on the way out. No record attempts on either trip.

But now that Nate has thrown down a bit, my palms are sweating at the thought of another go. Tactics are rolling around in my head. Conditions look like they are going to hold for a while. I have to decide if I want to put off other projects just to have a stab at my best effort with the fat conditions being the case right now.

My other thought is that the true record will be set next winter when it is possible to ski all the way to and from the car. I have no doubt this will be faster but the conditions up high will be a lesser known quantity.

I guess we'll see what this week brings. Stay tuned. There are others plotting and gearing up as we speak. Enjoy the show. - Brian